Escape Academy: Escape from Anti-Escape Island Assessment

Escape Academy‘s base recreation was one of many sudden gems I initially discovered within the Steam Subsequent Fest earlier this yr, and I went on to completely love the complete recreation when it was launched in July. Sadly, like all video games, it did come to an finish and I used to be left wanting extra, which is why I used to be pleasantly stunned when Escape Academy‘s first DLC was introduced: Escape from Anti-Escape Island.

Happening after the sport’s important story, Escape from Anti-Escape Island follows your character, together with the Principal, Jeb, and Gillian as you head off to a tropical trip as thanks for a job properly finished in the primary recreation. Sadly, the airplane will get shot down and crashes and also you and Jeb are stranded on an oddly distant island, separated from Gillian and the Headmaster earlier than being captured by Anti-Escape Scientists. Your objective? To flee, after all. The extent of the story is about on par with that of the primary recreation, and the DLC additionally focuses rather more on puzzles and advancing the plot by shifting from place to position greater than any precise plot improvement or characters.

Sadly, Escape from Anti-Escape Island simply does not maintain as much as the great requirements set by Escape Academy. Certain, it is a enjoyable story and there are many puzzles, however the high quality of the puzzles is not nearly as good. A number of puzzles contained leaps of logic that weren’t fairly apparent, equivalent to once I was taking part in by means of and a minesweeper puzzle on the very finish was hampered by straight-up errors in what numbers have been proven on the tiles versus what was really on the board. Like in Escape Academy, the puzzles are various and unpredictable, which makes for lots of enjoyable once they’re executed properly. Nonetheless, that did not happen as persistently.

Virtually the entire puzzles have been additionally on a time crunch, and whereas the timer facet was current in Escape Academy, I by no means felt rushed for time or like what was being requested was unreasonable, even when it did come right down to the wire. In Escape from Anti-Escape Island, cut-off dates appeared stretched too tightly, and I discovered myself caught and utilizing hints extra usually than within the base recreation. On the one hand, the DLC takes place after the primary story and is meant to be tougher, however alternatively, there is a tremendous line between troublesome and irritating.

One notably annoying instance happens early on within the recreation if you’re attempting to flee from the airplane. There are letters written on window shades and a cipher that it’s good to put them by means of, nevertheless it’s the order that you just untangle them in in addition to what, precisely, you set by means of the cipher that is unclear. Whereas the puzzle itself is easy as soon as you determine what to do, there may be quite a lot of time that is wasted in getting there and attempting to use the cipher to numerous mixtures of letters. The entire thing is overcomplicated and poorly designed, in distinction to the unique puzzles that, whereas troublesome and never easy, had far fewer false begins. The bar stool puzzle within the juice bar part of the DLC capabilities equally, the place it is easy to grasp as soon as you determine the place the reply is, however the path to get there may be unintuitive at finest.

Escape Academy‘s first DLC, Escape from Anti-Escape Island, is not a complete wash. Among the puzzles are enjoyable and the story actually is. Nonetheless, the logical holes in some puzzles and the poor design of others make sure that the DLC falls far in need of the primary recreation. For those who’re an enormous fan of the unique, you may in all probability have enjoyable with the DLC, however do not count on the identical degree of puzzles and gameplay.

TechRaptor reviewed Escape Academy: Escape from Anti-Escape Island on Xbox Collection S with a duplicate [provided by the publisher/provided by the developer.] It is usually out there on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox One.