Granted, it’ll take more time if you refuse to use hints or if you’re prone to getting stuck a lot. Since there are only 13 levels (and one of those is so short I hesitate to even call it a level), Escape Academy only lasts about five hours.
All of the dialogue during story sections and optional conversations is silent. There is some voice acting here, but it’s mostly limited to a few sentences from supporting characters in the levels. They really benefit from all that additional smoothness. The game allows for play at high refresh rates, which I consider mandatory in first-person games. It will also run well on most hardware due to this.
The game has a cartoony art style, so it doesn’t go overboard on textures and has a small install size. However, the idea of trying to solve a puzzle with other people sounds nauseating. You can play the game in co-op, too, if you’re so inclined. Then again, there’s no reason to do that unless you just like speedrunning escape rooms you’ve already completed. Naturally, this means there isn’t anything to do outside of the available levels unless you want to play them again for a better grade. The campus is a single map screen that allows you to click individual areas. When you’re not in a level, you can click around the campus to see the occasional optional bit of dialogue from the game’s colorful cast. There are plenty of padlocks, door codes, and the like, but you’ll also be doing occasional bits of chemistry and using multiple objects to open the way forward. Much like the aforementioned game, you can pin documents to your screen to make your job easier. While you can’t open everything and pick up every item, the game does a great job of making you feel like a sleuth. You won’t find the same level of interactivity here as in, say, Escape Simulator, but that’s far from a bad thing. I suppose a lot of playtesters had the same problem I did. Thankfully, the final hint gives you enough information to kind of guess your way through it.
I did hit a wall several times, though, especially on the game’s final puzzle, which I had zero idea how to solve. A lot of the puzzles are fairly clear and self-explanatory. Overall, I didn’t get stumped that often. Even if you’re not great at solving puzzles (like me), Escape Academy‘s hint system is good enough that pretty much everything is solvable. Once the timer hits zero, you can get an extension that lowers your grade.Īs for puzzle difficulty, I’d say it’s just right. There is a timer, but you don’t automatically lose when it reaches the end. I was eager to see the next level, as the game doesn’t rest on its laurels and always has something new and interesting around the corner. One level sees you frantically search for an antidote, another has you defuse a bomb. The different types of areas are very creative and clever. These typically take about 20-30 minutes each. Each level, of which there are 13, drops you into an area filled with puzzles. The character designs and their portraits are surprisingly good, which surprised me.Įscape Academy is played from a first-person perspective. I don’t want to go into spoilers, but there are multiple characters and a fair amount of intrigue, which helps give the game even more of an identity. There’s a lot more to the plot than that, however. On passing, you’re admitted and you set out to collect all 10 of the school’s badges and finish up your first year with top honors. The room completed, you meet the headmaster of Escape Academy who wants you to take the test at her school. After solving these, we discover a secret pathway underneath the facility. After leaving the room, there are more puzzles to be found in the lobby outside. The clock being broken wouldn’t matter, but I digress. And that doesn’t make sense it’s always supposed to say the same time anyway. For instance, there’s a broken clock on the wall with a post-it note on it telling you what time it’s supposed to read. The game begins with your character visiting a low-rent escape room. All of this adds up to one of the better escape room games you’ll find.ĭespite being based around escape rooms, Escape Academy actually has a plot. The environments are interesting, the themes are varied, the gameplay and UI aren’t overly complex, and the plot moves at a steady pace. Escape Academy is a fairly short yet well-made collection of escape rooms that does a great job of scratching this particular itch. Setting things in a school is a bit of a different approach that’s ripe for fun tropes, too. Who doesn’t love a good escape room? A timer ticking down, tricky puzzles to solve, items to juggle I dig ’em all.