RATING: 6 Keys          RESULT: Win          REMAINING: 27:00

Grandma died, but perhaps the much bigger surprise is finding out about her secret life as a master criminal!

Now we’ll make her proud by carrying out a hit on the one bank she never robbed.

The story begins when your Granny suddenly disappears without notice. No one has a clue where she is and once she returned, she refused to talk about it.

Now Grandma is dead, but one day you come across a letter in which she reveals a secret about the inheritance she left you. All you have to do is to go into her house and find it — simple, right? We’ll see about that.

Grandma the master criminal. I mean, I guess we always sort of had a hunch. After all, she did give us WAY more money than any other relative on our birthdays each year. Surely she wasn’t doing that well at her bridge club.

Now that she’s dead, we return to her home to get her affairs in order. Upon doing so, we find a note. She admits everything, but hey – we’re willing to forgive her since she plans to leave every penny she stole over the years to us. There’s just one catch – a final stipulation; her dying wish.

Grandma wants us to rob the one bank she never managed to knock off. In fact, no one’s ever managed to break into this place; it’s basically Fort Knox. But don’t sweat it – we won’t be walking in blind. Grandma left us plans she’s drawn up to get the job done – which is ironic when you think about it, because Grandma basically was blind.

It’s risky, and if we screw this up we could end up in jail for a long time. But on the other hand, if we succeed at this senior stick-up, we honor Grandma’s memory and are stinking rich. Alright, let’s do this. For Grandma! She always did bake the best chocolate chip cookies.

Grandma’s Masterplan embraces its absurdity with some scenic moments that will without a doubt make you laugh out loud. Beginning in Grandma’s home, we explore the parlor and cramped kitchen.

Through one cool secret passage, we enter a hidden room in her home where Grandma and her geriatric gang planned all of their prior heists before, you know, kicking the bucket.  Newspaper clippings and photographs from their old lady looting spree line the wall, displayed as proudly as one of our family photo albums.

As luck would have it, Grandma’s home shares a common wall with the bank, but it will take some of her blue-haired brilliance to get us inside. From their, the bank vault and its safe deposit boxes are all that stands between us and the one crime Grandma never managed to complete!

Grandma’s Masterplan involves some wacky, brilliant puzzles. Everything, and I mean everything connects logically and organically within the storyworld. There’s not a single moment in this game that doesn’t flow intuitively from one puzzle to the next.

And then there’s the puzzles themselves – some of which quite literally made us laugh out loud. Hard. Not that it should as a surprise for an attraction named Grandma’s Masterplan, but this is a game that knows to not take itself too seriously. It’s gloriously goofy in all the right ways, leaving a satisfying flow that builds the narrative from puzzle to puzzle until it reaches its climax.

And as it turns out, not only is Grandma a master criminal, but she’s also incredibly tech savvy for an old woman who could never seem to figure out how to take a picture with her cell phone. This game is absolutely full of delightful tech-based puzzles, including one absolutely unforgettable moment where players literally must construct a contraption to her specifications and then actually use it to break into the bank – resulting in what may be the most epic secret passage reveal we’ve ever seen.

It’s no secret that I’m a major fan of unique themes, and I dare you to find one more unique than this. Grandma’s Masterplan, of all the games I looked forward to on my recent California trip was very high near the top of the list. And even with walking in with very lofty expectations – something that can at times be very dangerous – Grandma’s Masterplan completely surpassed them.

This. Game. Is. So. Much. Fun.

Grandma’s Masterplan played out like the wacky plot of a movie, and casts us as its unknown and ill-prepared main characters. Our reactions as each layer unveiled itself to us will never be forgotten.

I just cannot speak highly enough about 60out. They started with a solid product, and then just all out exploded with a quality that far surpassed anything they’d done before. Great games like Senator Payne came to us so highly regarded, but they’re nothing compared to this newest batch of offerings – and of them, Grandma’s Masterplan and Titanic sit high atop 60out’s new rightful throne.

60out is no longer a venue to watch – they’re a venue to literally book travel to see. They’re evolved from creating great games to producing destination attractions the likes of which we will compare everything else we see moving forward. Do yourself a favor and make it a priority to check out these games.

Grandma would have wanted it that way.

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Venue:  60out

Location: Los Angeles, California

Number of Games: 3

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 75 minutes

Capacity: 6 people

Group Type: Private  / You will not be paired with strangers.

Cost: $38 per person (a minimum of three people are required for booking, then prices vary for each additional player.)

We thank 60out for inviting us to play this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.