Don’t be fooled by The Escapists cutesy graphics and quirky charm. Underneath its modest exterior lies a devilishly punishing prison escape game that will have you tearing your hair out at times and punching the air in celebration at others.

 

Developed by Mouldy Toof Studios, which is predominantly one man Chris Davis, and published by Team 17 of the Worms franchise, The Escapists sees you thrown into gradually more complex and demanding prisons and tasked with, as the name suggests, escaping.

The thing is though, when was the last time you heard someone escaping from prison on the news? Turns out prisons aren’t designed to be broken out of and Mouldy Toof successfully captures the complexity and scale of the job at hand in each of its prison settings.

Things start out fairly modestly in the games opening prison, where free periods are common and for the most part you are left to your own devices. The beauty of The Escapists is in its sandbox design. There is no set way to escape from any given prison and you are free to try anything you please. Want to bulk up and beat down all the guards? Go for it. Want to steal a guards uniform and try and sneak out undected? Go for it.

 

Each prison is of course full of other inmates who you can befriend, make enemies with, or simply try to stay away from. Sooner or later though you will be forced into interacting with the NPC’s. Whether it is an inmate who decides he doesn’t like you and tries to beat you down, or whether you need to buy an item off someone or do a job for them to get their favour, interaction is one of the key elements in the game.

 

And this leads me onto my one main negative with the game. Although there is a tutorial of sorts, it doesn’t really cover a lot. Granted, there are many ways to escape each of the prisons but the tutorial leaves a lot of the key functions of the game out. It doesn’t deal with interactions with NPC’s, doesn’t teach you about your stamina or suspicion meters or the currency systems and jobs you can undertake.

 

This means that during the early hours of the game you can feel a bit like a deer caught in the headlights not really sure what you should be doing. The sheer wealth of options that aren’t highlighted in the tutorial can leave you feeling frustrated and I would certainly recommend playing with some sort of wiki open. People may prefer not to for a purer experience, but it definitely helps in those early hours knowing what you can and can’t craft and do.

When things do finally click though the game is a joy to play and will really test your wits to the fullest. With only six prisons the game on the surface seems minimal. But with over 100 items to discover and craft, and so many different ways of escaping each prison it is a game that demands to be replayed and experimented with.

 

Overall, The Escapists is a great game despite its frustrations. For anyone who has ever watched The Shawshank Redemption and fancied a try themselves this is the perfect opportunity to give it a go without actually going out and committing a crime (which we in no way condone, just FYI). Although it may appear simplistic on the surface, it is a game that will test your wits and planning capabilities. It’s certainly not for everyone though. It demands a lot of patience and people who get frustrated easily may want to give it a miss. But for people who don’t mind a bit of trial and error, The Escapists is a must play.

 

The Escapists is out now for Xbox One and PC.

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