Escape Academy’s base sport was one of many sudden gems I initially discovered within the Steam Subsequent Fest earlier this 12 months, and I went on to completely love the complete sport 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 fundamental 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 nicely carried out in the primary sport. Sadly, the aircraft 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 primary sport, and the DLC additionally focuses far 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 fantastic 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 pretty much as good. A number of puzzles contained leaps of logic that weren’t fairly apparent, resembling once I was enjoying 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 truly on the board. Like in Escape Academy, the puzzles are various and unpredictable, which makes for lots of enjoyable after they’re executed nicely. 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 right down to the wire. In Escape from Anti-Escape Island, closing dates appeared stretched too tightly, and I discovered myself caught and utilizing hints extra usually than within the base sport. On the one hand, the DLC takes place after the primary 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 sport if you’re making an attempt to flee from the aircraft. There are letters written on window shades and a cipher that you should put them by means of, however it’s the order that you just untangle them in in addition to what, precisely, you place by means of the cipher that is unclear. Whereas the puzzle itself is simple as soon as you determine what to do, there’s loads of time that is wasted in getting there and making an attempt to use the cipher to varied 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 grasp 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. A number of the puzzles are enjoyable and the story definitely is. Nevertheless, the logical holes in some puzzles and the poor design of others be sure that the DLC falls far wanting the primary sport. If you happen to’re an enormous fan of the unique, you will most likely 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 Collection 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.