Fun game if you are 12 and have nothing to do, albeit it does get a bit stale.
The Escapists is closer to being a great game than it is to being a bad game. But it's that sort of missed potential that makes it as bad as it is. Ultimately The Escapists isn't the game that it thinks it is.
You're a little pixel dude and you need to escape from prison. That's the whole game. There are different prisons in the game with varying degrees of difficulty and conditions. The game's description and even initial tutorial pitch to you a game that is 'puzzlier' than it ever actually is. In reality, the game is quite simple. Simple in a way that it doesn't have to be.
You can interact with other inmates and do tasks for them. You can even perform tasks for the guards. There is a loose prison day schedule in which you're expected to be doing certain things at certain times of the day. You get some free time, depending on the map, to do things like lift weights or perform prison labor. The game sells you this idea that you can engage in all types of relationship building and scheme creations to develop a nice covert plan to escape the prison. That is far overselling what you're actually doing and requires substantial mental roleplay and buy-in from the player to create such a narrative.
The days are very fast. And as they tick by you spend your time pushing either a pick-up button or an action button. But sometimes the pick-up button is also an action button, just for other types of actions. And sometimes that action button doesn't work for some actions as a result. The control scheme is a god damn mess. I felt like it was absolutely made to be played on PC whereas I played it on the PS5. And I felt like my gameplay experience was significantly worse for doing so.
You can talk to other inmates and they'll give you a quest. But almost always these quests are, "Joe has a screwdriver, and I want it back." in exchange for 30 gold. 9/10 times the only way to get that screwdriver is to go beat up Joe and take it from his body. The actual number of ways you have to get that screwdriver is quite minimal. And the quests are almost never more engaging than this. Go beat somewhat up to retrieve object in exchange for money and sometimes you can keep the object. It's not as engaging as the game's description suggests.
The dialogue is always this minimal. Completing tasks raises your relationship with an inmate. Failing them, ignoring them or fighting them lowers your relationship. That's the extent of the relationship mechanic. The characters also RACE around the screen. Everything in the game moves super fast which also breaks any possible immersion you could have of bonding with Martin during yard time. Instead the only time the game slows down is during meals and shower time, and then the game is far too slow in these moments.
What becomes the key quirk of the game is figuring out how you can beat the dickens out of other inmates to steal useful items, gain money to buy other items from other inmates and then craft all of these to be useful for your escape. This does require some planning and cunning. The chief concerns are trying to beat up enough other inmates without then getting in fights because if you get caught all of your items will get confiscated. All your illegal ones anyway (which basically anything useful for escaping will be). There's no where to stash them in your cell, like taping them under your bed or anything. When inmates' opinions of you get too low, because you're constantly beating their ass, they'll immediately fight you on sight no matter the situation. Dramatically increasing the odds you'll get searched. There are also random cell and body searches at various points.
This is okay. It's an alright gameplay loop. But there are several fatal flaws. In most prisons in the game you can beeline pretty quickly to a weapon like a sock mace. If you can take out a guard then, not hard to catch them unawares with your sock mace, you can steal their clothes and weapon. Typically a baton. Then you can beat your way through all of the guards without too much trouble, a prison break occurs and you can walk out of the front door. The later maps make this harder, but as far as I've found this is the most optimal strategy.
Why is it the most optimal strategy? It is both the easiest and the fastest. Each escape is graded and a large portion of that is how quickly you managed to escape. Aside from that fact, since the only goal is to escape, it is obvious you should try and do this is as quick as possible. Once you find going sock mace hellion gets you out of the prison in the first day or three, why would you adopt any other strategy?
The worst case scenario is you get caught and the only people who hate you now are the guards. Who generally have shockingly little influence over your day to day gameplay compared to fellow inmates. Frequently I was able to simply just ignore the prison schedule and go fuckabout wherever with very little consequence. I rarely felt encouraged to actually engage with my fellow inmates because the upside was so minimal.
You could simply work your prison job every day, do nothing else, hope you get some decent RNG when you go to buy contraband from other inmates and escape that way. It worked usually very well but took a longer time and was less enjoyable than just beating the shit out of the entire prison.
The game has such obvious potential for real daring escapes and Shawshank Redemption/One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest story narratives. But they just don't come to fruition even when you look for them. And they're always less fun than going Donkey Kong on the prison staff.
If the gameplay was slower and there was a real dialogue, conversation tree option with prisoners that was tied to their relationships of you the game would be miles and miles better. More varied quests to perform. The game has great bones. The sound design is fine, the graphics are fine, the maps are fine. It's not like I'm asking them to produce a AAA product. Just make the game deeper given what is already there. Most of the actual mechanics are fine. Though the number of times I punched the shit out of somebody in the cafeteria when just trying to grab a food tray was almost enough to make me uninstall on its own.
There is a sequel to this game and I do own it. I'm not sure I'll bother giving it a go, though.
You're a little pixel dude and you need to escape from prison. That's the whole game. There are different prisons in the game with varying degrees of difficulty and conditions. The game's description and even initial tutorial pitch to you a game that is 'puzzlier' than it ever actually is. In reality, the game is quite simple. Simple in a way that it doesn't have to be.
You can interact with other inmates and do tasks for them. You can even perform tasks for the guards. There is a loose prison day schedule in which you're expected to be doing certain things at certain times of the day. You get some free time, depending on the map, to do things like lift weights or perform prison labor. The game sells you this idea that you can engage in all types of relationship building and scheme creations to develop a nice covert plan to escape the prison. That is far overselling what you're actually doing and requires substantial mental roleplay and buy-in from the player to create such a narrative.
The days are very fast. And as they tick by you spend your time pushing either a pick-up button or an action button. But sometimes the pick-up button is also an action button, just for other types of actions. And sometimes that action button doesn't work for some actions as a result. The control scheme is a god damn mess. I felt like it was absolutely made to be played on PC whereas I played it on the PS5. And I felt like my gameplay experience was significantly worse for doing so.
You can talk to other inmates and they'll give you a quest. But almost always these quests are, "Joe has a screwdriver, and I want it back." in exchange for 30 gold. 9/10 times the only way to get that screwdriver is to go beat up Joe and take it from his body. The actual number of ways you have to get that screwdriver is quite minimal. And the quests are almost never more engaging than this. Go beat somewhat up to retrieve object in exchange for money and sometimes you can keep the object. It's not as engaging as the game's description suggests.
The dialogue is always this minimal. Completing tasks raises your relationship with an inmate. Failing them, ignoring them or fighting them lowers your relationship. That's the extent of the relationship mechanic. The characters also RACE around the screen. Everything in the game moves super fast which also breaks any possible immersion you could have of bonding with Martin during yard time. Instead the only time the game slows down is during meals and shower time, and then the game is far too slow in these moments.
What becomes the key quirk of the game is figuring out how you can beat the dickens out of other inmates to steal useful items, gain money to buy other items from other inmates and then craft all of these to be useful for your escape. This does require some planning and cunning. The chief concerns are trying to beat up enough other inmates without then getting in fights because if you get caught all of your items will get confiscated. All your illegal ones anyway (which basically anything useful for escaping will be). There's no where to stash them in your cell, like taping them under your bed or anything. When inmates' opinions of you get too low, because you're constantly beating their ass, they'll immediately fight you on sight no matter the situation. Dramatically increasing the odds you'll get searched. There are also random cell and body searches at various points.
This is okay. It's an alright gameplay loop. But there are several fatal flaws. In most prisons in the game you can beeline pretty quickly to a weapon like a sock mace. If you can take out a guard then, not hard to catch them unawares with your sock mace, you can steal their clothes and weapon. Typically a baton. Then you can beat your way through all of the guards without too much trouble, a prison break occurs and you can walk out of the front door. The later maps make this harder, but as far as I've found this is the most optimal strategy.
Why is it the most optimal strategy? It is both the easiest and the fastest. Each escape is graded and a large portion of that is how quickly you managed to escape. Aside from that fact, since the only goal is to escape, it is obvious you should try and do this is as quick as possible. Once you find going sock mace hellion gets you out of the prison in the first day or three, why would you adopt any other strategy?
The worst case scenario is you get caught and the only people who hate you now are the guards. Who generally have shockingly little influence over your day to day gameplay compared to fellow inmates. Frequently I was able to simply just ignore the prison schedule and go fuckabout wherever with very little consequence. I rarely felt encouraged to actually engage with my fellow inmates because the upside was so minimal.
You could simply work your prison job every day, do nothing else, hope you get some decent RNG when you go to buy contraband from other inmates and escape that way. It worked usually very well but took a longer time and was less enjoyable than just beating the shit out of the entire prison.
The game has such obvious potential for real daring escapes and Shawshank Redemption/One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest story narratives. But they just don't come to fruition even when you look for them. And they're always less fun than going Donkey Kong on the prison staff.
If the gameplay was slower and there was a real dialogue, conversation tree option with prisoners that was tied to their relationships of you the game would be miles and miles better. More varied quests to perform. The game has great bones. The sound design is fine, the graphics are fine, the maps are fine. It's not like I'm asking them to produce a AAA product. Just make the game deeper given what is already there. Most of the actual mechanics are fine. Though the number of times I punched the shit out of somebody in the cafeteria when just trying to grab a food tray was almost enough to make me uninstall on its own.
There is a sequel to this game and I do own it. I'm not sure I'll bother giving it a go, though.