Escape Academy Review

Escape Academy Review

There isn’t going to be a philosophical approach or deeper underlying meaning, Escape Academy is simply Escape Rooms in digital format done really well.

Having done many escape rooms over the year, Escape Academy does its best to capture the same feeling to an extent. In the real world you don’t have a timer constantly in your face but also sitting on your couch isn’t the most claustrophobic experience.

Being a digital format of escape rooms is a double edged sword, on one side it allows the developers to do things that wouldn't be possible in the real world like filling a room with toxic gas or water. This would possibly kill people and would hurt repeat business in the real world. Obviously, the other side is that it allows Escape Academy to create some very interesting scenarios, which keeps the game fresh throughout.

The premise is simple, you go to an escape room, which is very low budget, you do well and this is how the Escape Academy recruits new students. Once you’ve finished the first room, you are offered a spot at the prestigious Escape Academy through a secret underground Subway. Upon arrival you become challenged with the best of the best escape rooms.

You can choose to attempt your escape solo, or in local or online co-op. Local co-op uses split screen but allows both people to work at once, however, I preferred to play in solo mode with two people on the couch with one using the controller. Escape Academy feels and looks similar to games like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes and I Expect You To Die with the main benefit of not requiring VR. The art style of Escape Academy is very blocky that feels reminiscent of games like Team Fortress.

The controls never feel just right as they are either to fast or too heavy and cumbersome even with adjustments on the look and cursor speed. Not being able to pinpoint the perfect sensitivities is a little unfortunate as the slower control setting is what I settled upon. There are a lot of smaller keypads and having the controls be too fast lead to a lot of back and forth accross the area you want.

There is a fair amount of written dialogue between the escape room with multiple people at the academy talking to you and it would have been nice to have some voice acting. There is some voiced dialogue during the levels where you overhear these same people talking to you during the escape rooms, so why didn’t they just have those people record more lines?

Even with a few minor drawbacks to Escape Academy, the one important feature that needed to be excellent was the actual escape rooms and the good news is that Escape Academy nails it. Although the replay factor might be low since you would just trying to be improving your time on puzzles that you already know how to solve, Escape Academy is a great puzzle game that is fun in solo or co-op that manages to capture much of the essence of real escape rooms.

Soft 8