Escape Academy: Escape from Anti-Escape Island Review

Escape Academy‘s base recreation was one of many surprising gems I initially discovered within the Steam Subsequent Fest earlier this yr, and I went on to totally love the total 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 shocked when Escape Academy‘s first DLC was introduced: Escape from Anti-Escape Island.

Going down after the sport’s predominant 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 performed in the principle 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 aim? To flee, in fact. The extent of the story is about on par with that of the principle recreation, and the DLC additionally focuses rather more on puzzles and advancing the plot by transferring from place to put greater than any precise plot growth or characters.

Sadly, Escape from Anti-Escape Island simply would not maintain as much as the great requirements set by Escape Academy. Positive, it is a enjoyable story and there are many puzzles, however the high quality of the puzzles is not pretty much as good. A number of puzzles contained leaps of logic that weren’t fairly apparent, resembling once I was enjoying via 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 truly on the board. Like in Escape Academy, the puzzles are various and unpredictable, which makes for lots of enjoyable after they’re executed properly. Nevertheless, that did not happen as persistently.

Virtually all the puzzles have been additionally on a time crunch, and whereas the timer side 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 all the way down to the wire. In Escape from Anti-Escape Island, deadlines 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 principle story and is meant to be harder, however alternatively, there is a tremendous line between troublesome and irritating.

One significantly 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 worthwhile to put them via, but it surely’s the order that you simply untangle them in in addition to what, precisely, you set via the cipher that is unclear. Whereas the puzzle itself is simple as soon as you determine what to do, there’s numerous time that is wasted in getting there and attempting to use the cipher to numerous combos 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 features equally, the place it is easy to know as soon as you determine the place the reply is, however the path to get there’s unintuitive at greatest.

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. Nevertheless, the logical holes in some puzzles and the poor design of others make sure that the DLC falls far in need of the principle recreation. Should you’re an enormous fan of the unique, you may in all probability have enjoyable with the DLC, however do not anticipate the identical degree of puzzles and gameplay.

TechRaptor reviewed Escape Academy: Escape from Anti-Escape Island on Xbox Sequence S with a replica [provided by the publisher/provided by the developer.] It’s also accessible on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox One.