Review: The Escapists

Have you ever found yourself watching Shawshank Redemption only to think, “I could do that”? Well, you now have a chance to try in The Escapists, a game in which you must use your wits to break out of jail. The goal is obvious; figuring out how to accomplish it is much harder.

After a very brief tutorial, you’re dropped into your first prison and told to make a break for it… and that’s it. You quickly learn that life in a prison follows a schedule alternating between free time, your job, meals and exercise. The harder prisons are much stricter with these, allowing you less free time to prepare the all-important escape. It’s not necessary to attend all activities, but if a guard catches you lurking about your heat level will be raised, increasing the likelihood of a search on your cell. Eventually you’re forced to weigh getting caught shirking duties with prepping for the breakout.

Free time is best spent either plotting your escape or working on your personal stats in the gym or library. Strength and speed increase your health and attack speed respectively, both of which have no real use outside of brawling with fellow prisoners or guards. Levelling up these skills is done through basic mini-games which get quite dull after a few days. Intellect is vitally important as it lets you apply for different jobs and craft more complicated items. To level up intellect, you either click a computer or a bookshelf. Again, that’s it.

The crafting system is where the game begins to fall down. The functionality is quite deep, featuring a lot of craftable items useful for your escape. Finding out exactly how to craft the items is more a matter of trial and error and gets frustrating quickly. I’m always up for a challenge, but when I’ve spent four in-game days trying to figure out how to craft a comb shiv to satisfy the needs of some of my fellow inmates, I get a touch irate. I struggled with the system for as long as I could before conceding defeat and hitting the Steam guides and wiki.

The Escapists is a very unforgiving game. It gives little direction past the main goal of escape, instead opting to let you decide how you’ll make your exit. This level of freedom is great in theory — and worked amazingly in other titles — but left me feeling totally overwhelmed. I was reminded of my time playing Prison Architect, a game with a similar theme but opposite intent. Both games hurl you in the deep end and expect you to figure everything out alone. Both games also left me feeling quite frustrated. Many times I found myself within a day of escaping when my cell was searched, exposing me and getting me thrown into solitary. When this happens all of your hard work is reset, leaving you back at square one wondering how it all went wrong.

In the end the depth of the game works both for and against it. You’re presented with an overwhelming breadth of options to make your escape and the crafting system is comprehensive, if illogical. The replayability factor is high with the addition of a Prison Editor to construct something to later flee from. There’s plenty of tongue-in-cheek humour to be found too, poking fun at all stereotypes of prison life. Ultimately — and despite its flaws — The Escapists will find a niche audience who’re up for the challenge, as long as they don’t mind the punishment.
 

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The Escapists was reviewed using a promotional copy of the game on PC, as provided by the developer.
 
 

• Review: The Escapists