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The escapists review5/1/2023 This game doesn’t give me that same feeling and, usually, if I get caught by the guards it’s because I did something stupid. I got lost very easily in The Escapists and felt as though I didn’t really know what I was doing, often getting blasted by the guards when I didn’t even realise I was doing anything wrong. The interface is slightly more complicated than the first game, but also more user friendly. And oh, what a lovely minimap, expandable to full screen and scrollable. And then each of the 10 included prisons provides you with a scripted camera pan across important points in the prison as the warden shows you around your new home. There’s an in-game menu help section with screenshots and plenty of information, as well as a short tutorial level - Precinct 17 - set with a funny story told from the perspective of its protagonist, in order to introduce you to the game’s basics. This sense of refinement continues into the game itself. Where The Escapists seemed like it had grown from a prototype that had never been abandoned for the real thing, The Escapists 2 oozes high production values everywhere: fancy intro, nice menu interface, well-implemented Steam integration, mostly excellent grammar, and an overall game structure that, while being somewhat traditional in its reward-based progression, is familiar and well thought out. When I first loaded up the game I was impressed by the presentation and structure. So you have to be clever, ensuring the guards see you at each location designated by the schedule, while you plot your escape, collect the items you need, and craft your jail-breaking tools! You can ignore the schedule entirely, but that’s a sure-fire way to getting caught and placed in solitary confinement. You’re dropped in a prison as a new inmate, told to stick to the rigid time-based schedule each day, and then left to your own devices, dreaming of escape. The basic gameplay is extremely similar to The Escapists, though it has been refined and expanded significantly. Nothing stands out as being exceptional here, but I also have no complaints about any of the sound. They are volume-normalised properly and well produced. Sound effects are appropriate to the action. It’s not the sort of thing I’d choose to listen to normally, but it suits the game well and has a consistent overall sound. In-game there are a few different background tracks that play depending on the situation. The soundtrack to the game sounds to me like a 90s midi festival, with tracks in many different styles: the title music is a sort of sneaky heist number, while the credits are a western theme. I haven’t had any graphical glitches or performance issues. Graphics options are limited to vsync, resolution, windowed / full screen, blur, and a detail level for shadows. The detail is good, given the graphical style. Most floors and walls are destructible, and there’s a huge array of crafting components, weapons, crafted objects, and other general scenery objects lying around, some of which are movable. The core game includes 10 different prisons, which vary vastly in appearance as well as setting and escape methods. Animations are good, too, though there isn’t a huge amount of variation in them. These don’t make any difference to the gameplay, but they’re still a nice reward. When you start a level you can customise (or randomise) the appearance of the cons and guards in the prison, and as you play you unlock further customisation options as well. Whereas The Escapists made use of reasonably well-made pixel graphics, this sequel improves upon them immensely everything looks so much nicer in full-screen HD resolutions now! The characters appear much more cartoon-like, though, which may not appeal to fans of the blockier graphics from the first game.Ĭharacters have a lot of personality.
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