Written by Litton Raysoul
Title: The Escapists 2
Developer: Mouldy Toof Studios
Publisher: Team17 Digital Ltd
Price: $19.99
Genre: Role-Playing, Simulation, Strategy
Also Available On: Steam, PS4, Xbox One
I would like to start this review with a quick note: I liked the game, but it broke halfway. Even if the game is good, it sucks that a crashing issues is preventing me to further enjoy the game. I will be noting first what I experienced on the game, and I’ll explain the bug later.
The Escapists 2 is a Sandbox action-strategy game where your main goal is to escape the prison. The game features pixel art graphics and funky chiptune music, reminiscent of SNES and GBA games. You can customize your own character, your inmates, and the guards. There are several prisons available, each with their own themes and layout. While inside, you need to attend daily routines like roll calls, meal time, or do jobs. There are also free times where you can explore the prison except for locked areas. Guards roam most of the time, so you need to avoid doing any suspicious activities in front of them.
Following the prison rules would be fairly easy, however planning your escape might get a little complicated especially when it is your first time playing the game. You can craft items like tools (shovel, pickaxe), weapons (Whip, nunchucks), or key moulds, which you can use depending on how you want to approach your escape. Some items can only be crafted with a higher Intelligence stat, which you can increase by reading books. Inmates will sometimes ask favors which would earn you money to buy contrabands. You can also increase your Strength and Fitness stats by exercising in the gym to fight inmates or the guards if needed.
With several systems and items to craft, my first escape was very challenging. The game only has a basic tutorial level, showing you how to escape by using the common tools like shovels or cutters. On the real game, some rules were not explained. One example is when doing suspicious activities outside during broad daylight, watchtower guards will shoot you. Another one is after the last roll call, you will need to go back to your room before the lights goes out. The cell will be locked, and you may need to cut a vent to get out. If they managed to see you outside during this time, there will be a prison lockdown, and you will be thrown into the solitary once caught. Some prisons has contraband detectors and it will automatically result in an alarm, with several guards chasing you to confiscate your items. With these different scenarios, I spent a huge amount of time trying to experiment what works and what doesn’t, which often result with me being beat up and being sent either to the medical facility or the solitary. My first escape took about 30 in-game days, which is already a long time. The next escapes however took me about 5-10 in-game days. While I found some basic escape strategies that are effective, there are in-game achievements which encourages you to do other escape routes, like doing a disguise, or making a makeshift zipline. The game also has transport type prisons, wherein you need to quickly escape within the time limit.
While I can sing all the praise for this game, I still find some things that are quite problematic. First is the lack of active online players. While this game features an online mode, I had tried several times to find available games, but it seems the community for this game is dead (at least for Switch). However, the biggest annoying thing that I experienced are the crashing bugs. On the latter prisons, 10 seconds upon starting the level, I am shown a system level error, without any codes. It then forces the system to close the game. I have tried several solutions like restarting the console and re-installing the game, but the issue still persists. Now, I know that this might be an isolated case, but I have found several people on Reddit and Nintendo tech forums with similar problems. I also can’t find any acknowledgement from Team 17 regarding this issue. This is quite frustrating as I loved what I have I played before I encountered the bug.
All in all, this game is very hard to recommend because of the crashing issue. It’s a real shame, as the game seems to be well received by people playing on other consoles and on PC. Even with the positive points, a crash bug is a serious issue, especially when it prevents you from playing more than half of the game. I would just recommend this game if the devs puts out a patch that would fix all the crashing issues above.
The Good:
- Charming graphics
- Solid gameplay
- Local coop is fun
The Bad:
- Inactive Online community
- Cannot proceed through half of the game due crashing bugs
Score: 3/10
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