First Takes: Heist Pinball by Multimorphic

Reviewer 37

Heist is a return to fun, non-licensed themes that are very easy for a casual or a seasoned pinball player to enjoy.

The playfield module contains lots of whimsical artwork -everywhere-, from the standup targets to the ramps. Molded plastic building fascades cover mechanisms and provide a great 3D effect. The building signs also contain their own LEDs.

The lightshow is fantastic, as it is integrated with each of the buildings, and the sweeps remain as impressive as ever in a Multimorphic title.

With multiple diverters, magnets, and the imposing and versatile crane, Heist delivers a wonderful variety of gameplay.

The code requires players to hit a shot three times to enable the mode of one of the criminal anti-heroes. Completing their varied modes (my favorite is the safecracker), will add those characters to a Heist mini-wizard mode, collected via the mastermind shot once you have completed at least two character modes.

If you fail a character mode, you can requalify them by breaking them out of jail (via the jail door bash toy [similar to Medieval Madness]). This central shot also allows for "side jobs" to be started for each of the characters, quick mini-modes that are varied and (mostly) require great skill to complete.

While on the topic of toys, Heist's crane never fails to impress. It can pick up and lift a ball above the playfield action, drop down allowing you to knock it off and have a multiball, and even functions as a bash toy (to qualify side jobs). It's very impressive in crane multiball to see the crane fling a ball into play by accelerating it from the magnet on the bottom of the crane into the side target module and back down to the flippers.

With beautiful and whimsical artwork, unique and refreshing toys, family-friendly theme, compelling lightshow, and seemingly endless and ways to approach the machine, Heist is an instant classic, and a game that we come back to over and over again.

Reviewer 158

Theme wise is pretty good, something fresh, something new and unlicensed. The animations, voice work, sound effects all go well together. The main issue that continues to go along with this manufacture is you can only do so much with your real estate since 2/3 of the playfield is an LCD screen that’s the downfall as far as I’m concerned, so every game seems very similar. I do like the new fresh take on the crane and other toys added to this game I look forward to playing one in the wild but $10 K or more is just not viable as an owner.

Reviewer 55

Certainly seems to be the best Multimorphic/P3 game yet. Unfortunately, that's not saying much, since I was not too impressed by previous P3 games. Heist seems to be a well designed game, but it's hard to award it a 5-figure price tag when comparing to other manufacturers' products at 60% of the price. Here lies the problem for Multimorphic/P3: offering SEVERAL games that blow people away, so they want to buy a bunch of modules to justify the very high base price of the platform. This is also the problem that plagued Pin2000 and Heighway Pinball: you pay a bunch of money but can only access one game at a time. And unless I missed something, the ball tracking technology on the lower two thirds of the playfield is only used to collect floating dollar bills, which is fun but underwhelming. Overall: good job to the Heist team for advancing the Multimorphic/P3 platform, but I still want to see much more before I consider the platform to be real competition for other pinball companies.

Reviewer 131

A better effort from MM than previously. Nothing really stands out and blows me away other than the crane which is admittedly cool. Everything else is really just pleasantly 7ish to me. Seems to be a LOT of failing of objectives going on. As a result, seems like it would be a disaster on location. For casuals, things really need to happen sooner than having to make a shot 3 times; they just can't do it. Of course, this thing probably isn't getting any traction outside of hardcore pinheads, so that may not matter very much. Callouts, while generally well-acted, seem like they need more variety. Feel like I heard most of what the game had to say in stream watching.

Reviewer 65

This is the module that P3 has needed! The other modules are good, but Heist really takes it to the next level! The crane is the best crane used in a pinball machine. I think for people who want to say P3 isn't really pinball, Heist is the best answer to that criticism!

Reviewer 88

I enjoy the ways that the playfield screen is used here. The upper-right flipper being operated with a different flipper button than the lower right flipper will be tough for me to get used to remembering that it is there. Playfield screen animations help with this. I really like the police car red/blue light show as it passes across the screen to try to capture the ball. Character goals are clear and well defined. Subtractive multiball is innovative. I'm confident that I will have more fun with this game than with Lexy Lightspeed.

Reviewer 200

Heist just made buying a Multimorphic machine worth it. I deep full blown game that adds even more innovations was just what Multimorphic needed. I really hope and believe that Multimorphic eventually will add the internet connectivity to this game as well. That will make it a blast to be able to play with friends. My interest is piqued! There are still some downfalls to their full package. The theme doesn't draw me in like other recent manufacturers' games, but at the same time I don't mind it.

Reviewer 12

Arguably Multimorphic's most complete and immersive game. The modes and multiball objectives are pretty straightforward and easy enough to grasp due to pretty clear indicators in the playfield animations. The comic book animation style is at times rudimentary, but are good enough to tell the story and allow the player to comprehend their progress in the game. The visualization of the bird's eye view over the city gives a very convincing impression of a 3D world, however I wish there were more contextual animations which showed your progress, or related to whichever mode you were in instead of being on a constant loop. The crane is one of the most sophisticated and well-engineered mechanical features to be incorporated into a pinball in the past 10 years and allows for physical interaction with the game beyond the back one third boundary which has hampered previous P3 games. The series of loops and lanes which make up the back third have a remarkable amount of variation in how the ball returns to the flipper due to the fact that every shot has a diverter mech. Overall Heist will be a must-have addition for current P3 owners and could be the tipping point for those who are considering buying into the P3 system.