Everybody loves a good game and there's no doubt that The Escapists has potential to be a really good game. In my opinion, I think The Escapists could be one of the best new PC games to be released in a while because of how much it has to offer. I had no knowledge of this game until I saw the videos of it on YouTube, which is strange. Usually when I watch the video, its about a sequel, its in the news, or just plain talked about, and usually if there's a game video like this, I tend to either not watch the video or I end up not liking it.

This game was different, I was on JackSepticEye's channel going through week old videos when I saw the first video of his series. I think it might have been the thumbnail and the character design im it that got me just a bit curious so I decided to watch it to see what it wad like. The first couple of minutes were okay and then I was attacked with one of the coolest things that I have ever seen. Once I finished that video I had to see the other three that he had up at the time and after that, that video series became my favorite of his. I watched every one of his videos, I watched Markiplier's videos, and I watched so many other videos and I knew that this was a game that I wanted to play.

Unfortunately, it also happened to be a game that I could not afford so I knew I wouldn't be able to get it anytime soon. Eventually, the game had gone on sale on Steam and somebody was awesome and got it for me so I could test it out myself. I didn't want to get a full play through, I just wanted to be able to get my hands on the game so I could play it at some point, but I ended up playing it the moment I got it and I loved it. Most of the game is just repeating the same process over and over, and guess what happens if you mess up? Not only do you start the process over again, but you lose your valuable items. None of that bothered me though because even after playing for myself, I still thought it is a fantastic game, as a matter of fact, this happens to be one of maybe 3 or 4 games I have across all systems that I was able to play for more than 2 hours at a time, and I have more than 100 games.

Character Customization

Im going to be reviewing this game just a bit differently in order to get out a few things that I learned from the videos that could either help you, make the game a bit more challenging, or just make the game a bit more fun overall. There's a few small things you can do that could really make the experience a lot more fun. One of these things is character customization, which lets you change the names of almost every character im the game. Most games I have seen only allow you to name your own character and maybe one other, but this game goes all out. This game allows you to change the name of every inmate as well as all the officers, which I personally believe lets the game offer more to the player. Being able to name every character is a huge plus, but knowing what to name them can change your entire experience. Dont go with the default names, pick names of celebrities, people you know, or just silly names. I learned from the videos, stories, and my own play through that if something happens but its actually by someone who's based on a real person, it can lead to a lot of humor.

Graphics 6/10

Honestly, when it comes to the graphics of the game I'm kind of split, they're not exactly great, but they're not exactly bad and I don't really think that graphics are really needed to such a major extent in this game. The entire game takes place in a top down perspective of a prison, so all the graphics really do here is set up a map and a few other things. Each prison does have quite a bit of work done on them and are actually quite huge, but don't really have that much detail in the objects and designs. If I had to compare the graphics of this game to another one, then I would have to say that its closest match would be some of the older Pokemon games, like Pokemon Emerald. I could honestly see the character sprites and even the tiles for the buildings being switched between both games and not much of a difference would be spotted in my opinion.

However, I would say that comparing the graphics to a game like Pokemon would be kind of a bad thing. Sure, when Pokemon Emerald came out, the graphics were considered to be amazing, and still are, but the game came out more than a decade ago when there were less graphics to work with. Not only was the game recently released in an era where graphics are getting more and more perfect each year, but the game also happens to be out on PC and XBox which should have way more graphical capabilities than mobile games. Just because the graphics could have been better does not mean that they have a negative effect on the game because its still really just an indie game and it's made by the same people who made the Worms games, and that's proof that you don't need a good looking game for the game to be insanely popular. The graphics could use a lot of work but are still really good for this combination of game type and game play and my grade for this category is going to be a 6 out of 10.

SOUND 9/10

The sound aspect of The Escapists is another great thing that I really like about the game, though not too much for the sound itself. The regular sounds of the game are okay but the way I see it, they are either way to small or there just isn't enough in game regular sounds. You hear a small old retro style sound take place whenever you do most actions, but they are short and all of these sounds kind of resemble quick beeps. You hear a sound when you are in the exercise room, there's a sound to go along with the fights, there's the sound of the tower guards shooting you, and then of course there's that dreaded sound that you hear when you are captured for doing something and put in solitary confinement. Of course that's not the only sounds that are thrown around the game, but I feel that the sounds themselves were so short and dull that those are the only ones that I can actually remember because I literally not paying any attention at all to the other sounds.

If I were to give a grade for sound based on just the small in game noises, then there wouldn't be much to say and I would probably would end up grading it even lower than the graphics. However, there's a lot more to sound in the terms of the music, which I would have to say is really good. It just so happens that its quite rare for me to like a full soundtrack for a game, usually I like a handful of songs from one game and every now and then there comes a game that has 2 or 3 songs that I like listening to outside of the game, normally its just one. As a matter of fact, aside for the Pokemon games, Persona 4 Golden is the only other game where I like the full soundtrack outside of the game. It also just so happens that The Escapists could soon become one of those games because I personally believe that the music is wonderful.

There's the theme song which is heard at the title screen and is pretty good, a lot better than the older theme song which I actually couldn't stand listening to. There may be one small problem though, and it's that the music might not actually sound good to you while you're playing the game unless you're really paying attention and listening to it. I didn't actually notice the music while I was watching Jacks and Marks videos or even during my first few hours of playing the game but then there was a point for a few seconds where there was some really cool music and I decided to look up the music on YouTube. I was not at all disappointed with what I found, it turns out that the music itself when taken completely out of the game is actually really nice. I listened to about five songs from the start all the way to the end and the entire song was upbeat and energetic for all of them and really a lot of fun to listen to.

Aside for the new theme song, there are about three other songs that I really enjoyed listening to. The first of these is the main song for the Stalag Flucht prison which is by far my favorite of all the songs in the game. I just love the tempo of this song, when it first starts off, the music sounds a lot like the music that you hear from the game Bully, which I really liked. I liked the music of Bully because it gave off a mysterious vibe while also finding a way to sound happy and also being quite unique, and that's the same feeling that this song gives off. The rest of the song sounds even better which is why it could even be one of my favorite individual songs of all PC games I have played. If you're new, the next song is one you will hear quite often and that's the free time music for Center Perks, the first prison and this song can also be very energetic and fun to listen to. Aside from those, there's a ton of other really good songs such as the free time music played at the Fhrust Peak prison and the music that plays during a lockdown, so there's no shortage of good music for this game. Even though I feel that the music aspect is as perfect as it can be, I can't factor just music and leave out the regular sound part which is quite bad, so when you put the two of them together I would say that the sound aspect of the game deserves a 9 out of 10.

ADDICTIVENESS 10/10

On the outside, the game really looks like its simple and doesn't really have much to it, the idea is to just escape prison. On the inside however is a clever montage of various aspects that completely change what the game is about. Even though its just a game, the developers want this game to be as close to the real thing as it can get to make sure that it wows you as much as it can. First of all, I believe there has to be hundreds of different items in the game, some are totally useless, some are just for missions, some are helpful, and some you can't even use unless you find a bunch of other super rare items or go through an intense crafting procedure. First off, lets talk about the map, which there's a lot to it. The prisons themselves are perfectly crafted to have everything, there's cells, a kitchen, gym, computer lab, courtyards, and so much more so its easy to get lost doing your own things during your free time, even if it has nothing to do with escaping and is just for fun or getting achievements.

Aside for your main schedule, which consists of meals, roll call, exercise, shower, and work, there's so much for you to do in your free time. You could rummage through other inmates cells for all sorts of items, you could exercise and learn, you can take on all sorts of missions, you can fight, and of course you can plan out your wonderful escape. Exercising and learning may end up being the two things that you do the most because these are in a way the most vital to the game. When you are exercising, you can work on your strength and your speed which dont actually have anything to do with how strong you are and how fast you are. Raises your strength raises your total health bar while raising your speed raises the speed of your attacks so you can attack more in a shorter amount of time. Learning increases your intelligence which allows you to take on better jobs and craft more items. These actions themselves might sound like tedious time wasters, but the more you do of them, the more fun things you can do down the road which makes the game even more addicting.

Beyond that, just the sheer amount of ways to escape could lead to you playing the game over and over because it's so much fun and there's so much to do. Im pretty sure that one gamer could spend hundreds of in game days in just the easiest prison trying to discover all the secrets and ways to escape. When I played, it took me about three hours to escape from the first prison which happened to be the easiest escape route for that prison, which I also knew all the steps beforehand from watching YouTube videos. That only further proves my point that you can find yourself beyond addicted to this game and find yourself playing for hundreds of hours trying to accomplish every little thing. The game is super addicting, and for a grade does not deserve anything lower than a perfect 10 out of 10.

STORY 10/10

As I had mentioned in the previous category, the surface of the game seems pretty simple, but its not because as you dive into the game you quickly realize that there are various complex components all around you and you may soon FI D yourself running through many different strategies all trying to reach the same end goal. The story of the game is simple on paper, escape prison, but in practice you may find yourself failing over and over before you can actually make any significant progress. There are quite a few prisons to escape from and im pretty sure that each one has at least a dozen different ways of doing so. To further prove how much has been put into this game, I am going to go over the escape attempts of both Markiplier and Jacksepticeye.

The route that Markiplier took, which also happens to be the one I took could be the easiest escape route in the game and just needs a sheet, some pillows, forks, and knives. This strategy involves getting enough intelligence to craft a bed dummy so guards dont catch you while you're out at night. You steal some forks and knives from the kitchen and use the forks to chip away at the bottom wall during the day until its weak. At night, you place the bed dummy, chip away the rest of the wall, leave and the. Replace the wall, and then hack away at the fence with your knives while avoiding the guards until you are free. This could be the easiest course of action yet still tool me a few hours and more than a week of in game time to accomplish.

The route that Jack took was way more complex even though his took place mostly from his own cell. He had to start off with enough forks, spoons, and intelligence. He had to dig through his cell wall with the fork until the wall broke and he had to place a poster to cover the wall. Then in the area behind the wall, he had to dig down and under the wall to get to the other side and then from here its the same as what Mark did because from here he had to wait until after the prison closed and cut through the fence with a bunch of knives. This one was so much harder because in addition to all the stuff you needed from Marks journey, you also needed to do a ton of underground digging, duct tape and a magazine to make a poster, and then you always need a surplus of food to make sure you don't use up all of your energy.

The route Jack took is nowhere near being the most challenging escape as there are many more item combinations and secrets to discover, and I never even went over the vents. The first prison has an intense vent system to sneak into whatever room you want, and then you have all of the colored doors which could be the hardest way of them all. All you have to do for this escape is knock out some guards to steal their keys but you will always be caught. In order to get through this, you need to go through the process of getting a mold, molten plastic, and you need to be very careful, which is all challenging. That's not even the start of what there is when it comes to a story, the game just has one story but there are so many different ways for you to go through with it. The story is amazing and for a grade, im going to give it another perfect 10 out of 10.

DEPTH 10/10

I dont even have to say anything about the depth do I? I had already made it clear that the game is enormous and I don't think that there's anything that can change that. When it comes to the depth of the game, I would have to break it down into a few different aspects since there's so much, all of which have a lot to offer to the game. The first of these aspects would be the setting and world size. When it comes to the size of the game world, its nowhere near the size of the worlds in other games, but it still has a ton of variety and a lot to offer. A lot of work had been put into the creation of each prison, and from the inside, the place is huge with so much so much detail and with so enough things inside of it to make it look like it could be an actual place. On top of the size, there's the actual number of prisons that you are allowed to choose from once you beat each one. The game comes with 6 main prisons for you to escape from, with each one being larger and more challenging than the last.

Next up you have the number of ways to escape, which could possibly be even bigger than what the size and amount has to offer because there are so many ways to escape and so many different things that you need to do to prepare. I already mentioned a few ways to escape just from the first prison in the last category, there was breaking down the front wall and gate which is what Markiplier did, breaking out through the cell and back like Jack did, and then there's the vents and the assortment of keys. However, that can't be anywhere near all of the different ways to escape that prison, that's 4 right there in the first prison, but im sure that there has to be many more. There's still much more to the depth than just the prisons and escape options, next you have the actual means of escape as in the items and there had to be more than 100 total items that you can find, steal, buy, and craft. You can find anything from wire and magazines to comb shivs and so much more. A lot of the items are going to be useless for your course of action so it will always be important to pay attention to what you have in your inventory or desk. You don't want to be caught with a random confiscated item you don't need and lose everything. Yes, this did happen to me by walking out of the laundry room while forgetting that I had a police uniform with me. Some of the items are just filler items that are for missions that other inmates send you out on and once you get these items and bring them you get paid. Some of these items could be DVD's, pillows, you might even find a teddy bear. Then on top of that, there's the super rare and valuable items you either find randomly or craft that even I dont know about.

There is one other point about the depth that I want to bring up quickly, this is a small one and has been mentioned in detail before though. This aspect of depth is the ability to change the names of almost all of the characters in the game which is pretty cool. Overall, those 4 aspects bring so much to the game and not only does it make the game so much more fun, but it also gives you many more things to do so you could end up playing the game over and over for hours and never get bored of playing the same prison many times over because its never going to be the same experience each time that you play the game. Just doing the easiest escape in the first prison tool me about 30 minutes after I got the hang of the game, and im pretty sure that some of the more complex escape routes just for the first prison could end up taking up at least an hour, if not multiple hours, and im pretty sure that it could take dozens of hours just to finish one prison fully. I know this for a fact because it took Jack about 8 episodes of videos to finally escape for the first time. Overall, the game just has so much to offer in the depth department, and its really no surprise at all that this aspect is going to get yet another perfect 10 out of 10 as a grade.

DIFFICULTY 5

Sure, the game is going to have a lot of difficult moments but in the end its only going to be as difficult as you make it. The game has a lot of tough aspects about it, like getting caught and losing your items, and of course the actual planning and execution of your escape, though it isn't meant to be impossible, especially since there's no real time limit that I know of for completing one prison. That's really one of the most important aspects of the game when it comes to the difficulty of the game, time. Time is the most important because what you do with your time can either make the game easy or make it extremely difficult. Try not to rush things, if you put too much attention into escaping in the first couple of days, them you will more than likely fail unless you are already a master of the game. Patience is the key to the game and it will either make or break your experience, without it you may find yourself failing over and over and making the game seem impossible to play though it's not.

There is one other aspect about the game that will make the game appear hard to play and like pretty much all games, except for maybe I am Bread, all you have to do is get to learn how to overcome this difficulty and the game will seem much easier to play. What aspect am I talking about? Im talking about none other than the controls of the game which on the surface seem quite easy but underneath occasionally may be a challenge. The buttons themselves are fairly easy to learn and once you can get a hang of them, then the game will be a whole lot easier though in my own experiences, I have had quite a few troubles with the controls. The controls are easy to get used to but there are some times when there are a few places where you need to be really careful with the controls yet quick all at the same time. Have you ever ran into the problem of trying to do the laundry job while not only meeting the quota on time but running between the washers and the two bins? I know I had trouble with that, half the time I just couldn't get anything done and as a last resort I had to stand between the two washers and not move while im putting clothes im because if I do move then I could mess something up. That's another thing, lets say im trying to click something and it turns out that im too far away and I can't click it, but when I try to move closer, I end up climbing on top of the object, and I don't like that because it takes some time to re adjust. This had happened to me in the cell, laundry room, and cafeteria and im still not used to it.

Those are the set aspects that can make the game difficult, but there's really another independent aspect that I had mentioned at the start of this category, and its that the game is only ad hard as you make it. You can go out and take the easiest route of escape or you can take your time and go though one of the harder ones. The route that you take isn't forced upon you by the game, you choose how you want to play the game and in turn, how difficult the game is. For a set grade, I would have to say that in terms of difficulty, the game is right there in the middle and I am going to give this aspect of the game a 5. However, based on what I just mentioned, the way that you choose to play the game can completely change how difficult the game is so I would have to say that depending on who is playing the game, the difficulty can range anywhere from 4 to 8.

The Negatives

There's only two things about this game that some people might view as a negative or might simply not like. One of these aspects does not really bother me at all, but I have read in multiple places that some players really dont like this and feel that the overall grade of the game drops because of this. The first aspect would be the graphics, which I went over why some people might not like them. The graphics are simply just low, but as I had mentioned, I dont feel that the graphics themselves should play too much into a game of this genre. However, there are people who just really love graphics and would say that because the graphics aren't as good as they could be that the game should get a low grade. There's only really one thing that I don't really like about the graphics, and that would be the fighting animations. Now this is actually something that I feel could have been done a bit better but is very small and doesn't have any real effect on the game as a whole. The way it is now is that when you attack or are attacked, you don't really see anything at all except for the two characters moving as well as the health bar depleting, that's really all there is to fights and could have just looked a bit better.

The next "negative" isn't really much of a negative, but a couple of times has been joked about because like the graphics, its very simple, and I also think that this could have been just a bit better. This aspect happens to be the AI, specifically the AI of the officers. The AI for the inmates seems to be ok in my opinion, if you fight someone, their liking of you will drop until you get them to like you and they may even start attacking you for no reason. I like the idea behind this, but I don't really like how the AI works with the officers. With the officers, all you do is hit one and your wanted percentage skyrockets just before that officer starts chasing you around. All that you have to do is run around in a circle for a few seconds and then they just leave you alone and seem to completely forget that they ever hated you. I understand that the game is already very challenging and that raising the AI of the officers would raise the difficulty of the game even higher, but I just personally think that the officers might be a bit too easy to deal with. One idea that I have that could change this would make it so that whenever you attack a guard or one starts chasing you for some reason, every time that guard spots you for the rest of the day, your wanted percentage goes up by like 5 percent. I just think that the AI for the guards is too easy and once you get past those two possible negatives, that's really the only things that I could see negatively affecting someone's game.

OVERALL 9.5/10

As an overall game, I would really have to say that this game is a blast and that its going to be quite tough to find another game that is just as fun or as addicting as this one. Almost every single one of the main categories scored a perfect 10 out of 10 as a grade, though there are even some categories that I don't think even deserve a 10. Do you want to know why I think that? Because some of the categories were just so good in my opinion that they deserve more than a 10. It just so happens that one of the categories was so good and earned a 10, while another category in comparison was so much better than that one yet it could only score a 10 as well, though I had to put it down as a 10. If I could, I would give some of these categories a ton of extra credit because some of them really are that good and do deserve it. The developers have done a really great job with this game and in my opinion they created some sort of a masterpiece with this game. Aside for the graphics and a few pieces with the sounds of the game, I feel that they have done everything as perfect as they could.

If you have not yet tried this game out this game, then I highly suggest that you give it a shot. If you actually do like games that are like this then I would recommend this one even more because I see little reason to believe that you want fall in love with it in the end. However, if you tend to dislike games that fall under this genre, then I wouldn't really suggest that you try it right off the bat without watching a few of the videos and researching the game a bit to make sure that its the kind of game you will like, and im almost positive that you will. If you're not sure, just go and watch one of the videos for yourself and I can pretty much guarantee that once you are done with just one video, its very possible that you will find yourself entertained. If you're going to watch the videos, then I would definitely recommend watching the ones by Jack because he makes the game sound a lot more fun than it would be if you just went in and tested it out with no knowledge of the game.

This game is truly one of a kind and I absolutely love it for that. Its actually really rare for me to love a game as much as I love this one, but for some reason, I just do, I fell in love with everything about it. I would really have to say that this is easily one of the coolest games that I have ever played, and I really mean that because there's just so many good things about it. I have roughly 100 Steam games in my collection as well as a few other games that aren't on Steam and I would have to say that very few of those games come anywhere near being as good as this one. In terms of PC games, I would have to say that this is one of the five best PC and Steam games that I have ever played, up there along with Minecraft, Unturned, and a few other really good games. I would even go as far as to compare this to other console games and say that this could very much be one of the 10 best video games in general that I have ever played. As a matter of fact, most of my top ten favorite games of all time are based on nostalgia, and if I were to take that aspect out and make the list solely based on game play and fun, then this game would be ranked so much higher. With all that said, its kind of obvious that I love this game and will give it a high grade, and that's true because my overall grade for this almost perfect game is going to be an almost perfect 9.5 out of 10.

FUN FACTS

As I had briefly mentioned once or twice earlier, this game was developed by a quite popular game development team. The game was developed by Team 17 who are actually quite famous for the games in their worms series which happens to be a very long running series that's insanely popular. Team 17 has made many other games as well and The Escapists is the newest game in their rich history.

The six main prisons are not the only official prisons to play in and I think that more might actually be released in the future. I only recently acquired the game so I could only choose between those 6 prisons, though there are a few other prisons available that users were able to keep when they bought the game during its early access stage.

Dang! How did you manage to make that review so long!? Anyway, this review is fantastic because of how insanely long it is and how organized you made it. I'd be willing to try this game out myself even though you say that the game doesn't have very good graphics. Nice job with this review.

Damn, that's not a review that's a doctoral thesis!!

It's very (too?) detailed, you compare the game to others similar ones. However, I find it odd that people would isolate the negative from the positive. It's just me, but I think it's better to put everything together and integrate it in a few paragraphs