If there’s one thing countless movies and shows have shown, it’ s that breaking out of prison is hard. Like, really hard. Few have tried to express this sentiment in video game form, however, and even fewer have managed to do it well. Enter The Escapists, the prison break simulator from Mouldy Toof Studios and Team 17.
At first glance, The Escapists looks like the more stylish and less nihilistic cousin of Introversion Software’s Prison Architect. As you dig deeper into it, though, you’ll find an impossibly complex network of systems at play that you’re going to have to learn to understand and manipulate with minimal instruction from the game itself, and while it won’t take you years of scraping rock and dirt with a spoon, or several seasons of a television show to get to the outside, freedom will come at no small expense.
The brief tutorial lays out the daily schedule and routine, but not much else. Things like guard patterns, crafting recipes, how and where to stash contraband items and item durability are all left up to the player to discover. It’s an interesting approach in theory, but in practice I found it to be more frustrating than rewarding and had to start frequenting an Escapist-centric wiki to figure out the game’s mechanics.
In one specific instance I kept getting caught trying to steal a guard uniform from my job in the prison laundry. It wasn’t until I googled the problem that I learned that there was an alarm on the door triggered by contraband, and it’s necessary to craft a special item to smuggle said contraband (like the uniform) through. It just becomes brutally difficult at the expense of fun very, very early on.
Difficulty isn’t something you’ll see me complain about often, but when it hinders your progress and enjoyment of a game, it becomes a problem. The game only allows you to save your progress at the start of each day, and it’s incredibly easy to lose all of the items and progress you’ve made by making a single mistake, or by having another inmate or guard decide they don’t like the look of your face that day. Pair that with the game’s poor job and laying out how to actually escape a prison, which can take a long, long series of days to do as you analyze patterns and assemble the necessary items, and it’s a recipe for unnecessary frustration and rage-quits, as the game has a set time progression, which often feels painfully slow and is in desperate need of a SimCity-style speed option, as you spend a lot of time waiting for the next event to trigger.
It’s worth noting that the game features nine prisons to bust out of, with each one offering a different challenge and overall feel as the difficulty ramps up. For example, the minimum security facility will have a conveniently placed service corridor right next to your cell, to the infuriatingly difficult maximum security facilities that tested my patience more than any other game in recent memory. That being said, while the setting may change, the mechanics remain the same.
All in all it’s a game that definitely isn’t for everyone, and your enjoyment will vary almost entirely on how you take to the game’s tedium and repetitive nature. If you’re the type of person who enjoys going over and over something, finding the cracks in the system to exploit as you methodically plan your escape, it’ll be right in your wheelhouse. However, if you’re the type that prefers a more linear and well-explained progression, you’ll be sorely disappointed.
This review is based on a code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher
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