No prison is safe enough to hold us in… or so we must prove in The Escapists 2! The remarkable action and strategy video game from Moldy Toof Studios and Team 17 that, after passing through multiple platforms, now comes to Nintendo Switch ready to win the hearts of new players. He has it easy as we reflected in the analysis of The Escapists 2.
Orchestrate an escape plan worthy of the best of criminal minds and escape from maximum security prisons. Who can resist something like that? The success of The Escapists a few years ago shows that many fans were delighted with this idea and, to the approval of the public, Team 17 and Moldy Toof Studios have not doubted it for an instant. A sequel was needed with more options and more challenges to face. Said and done. The sequel to this particular prison life simulator proposes us to escape from ten very different scenarios, with all the freedom in the world!, Without putting excessive barriers to our creativity, which is something that is greatly appreciated in a production of these characteristics.
After the tutorial, which basically guides your steps so that you escape from prison without too many complications, The Escapists 2 gives you free rein to plan as you like; so that you can manage to distract the guards, get the necessary tools for the escape plan and, of course, carry it out! It is not easy at all considering that you must respect the jail hours; that you have to eat, rest and interact with the rest of the prisoners before even thinking about the paradisiacal beach where you hope to spend the rest of your days. Place from which you can perfectly enjoy this video game in the newly released version of Nintendo Switch and its fantastic Portable Mode. Tempting? Much!
The Escapists 2: Launch Trailer
I think, then … I escapeThe Escapists 2 encourages us to be creative; to find alternative plans that will leave anyone impressedAlthough there is usually a conventional plan to escape from prison, The Escapists 2 encourages us to be creative; to look for alternative plans that will leave anyone impressed. As if it were an infiltration or stealth title, a genre with which this video game bears the odd similarity, its thing is to go unnoticed and without raising suspicions, trying to ensure that both the guards and the inmates (except those that interest us of course) do not realize what we are up to. For this, it is highly advisable to respect the general rules, that is, to introduce ourselves when they call to order, stop by the dining room when it is time to eat, etc. But every action has its consequences, no matter how small.
It is possible to carry out a multitude of actions and create objects of all kinds to break a wall, cut a fence, etc.
If we do not eat, for example, our health and resistance will be reduced, which can harm us when we want to carry out some physical activity such as chopping a wall. But there is more. If we go through the library we can improve our intelligence by reading books, if we “cheat” it is possible to acquire money and if we mix with the relevant inmates it is possible to obtain certain objects that we probably need … even as a base. The craft is very much in the title and you can create a wide variety of devices that may seem “amateurish” start, but may end up being fundamental to our escape plan.
It is also essential to interact both with what surrounds us (cabinets, countertops, shelves, ventilation channels …) and with the rest of the “tenants”, guards included. Cajoling some, knocking out others, distracting certain characters at specific moments or trying to get something from them is common in the day-to-day life of our stay in the different prisons that meet in the game. This roleplaying touch suits the title phenomenal, and we already warned you that it is possible to take love or a tremendous disgust for certain characters.
The gameplay is, therefore, more varied than it might seem and although at the beginning it seemed too slow, later it is almost impossible to stop playing. And that from my point of view the control interface , very similar to the one registered in the first installment, still seems too old and not especially intuitive, being one of the small defects that the game presents in my opinion.
News behind barsThe adventure allows us to enjoy cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes, as well as online and offline. A very striking novelty.
Despite the fact that it is a fairly continuous production in much of what it offers us, the truth is that The Escapists 2 also has certain notable innovations, one of them being the character editor . Without being anything that we have not seen a thousand times before, it is possible to choose the appearance of the protagonists and recreate them to our liking, something that is always appreciated. And we are not only talking about the appearance of the protagonist, but of what the guards and the rest of the inmates present. More important is the design of various prisons, three specifically: Cougar Creek Railroad, HMS Orca and Air Force Con. The reason is that each of them are mobile (a train, a ship and an airplane respectively), modifying the course of the action considerably for obvious reasons, including the time factor, much more pressing.
However, the most outstanding novelty of all has to do with the inclusion of both local and online multiplayer modes , as well as cooperative and competitive plans. And since it is drop in / drop out options, it does not condition the development of the adventure too much to this multiplayer aspect, which I thought was a great success. It is a perfectly enjoyable title both alone and with friends (or rivals), keep that in mind. A quality detail that is always very appreciated.
To finish with the news, it is also fair to point out the technical evolution experienced by this continuation. Without losing the retro essence that characterized the original, in this second part everything looks cleaner, more detailed and more “condensed”. It’s as if it had gone from 8 to 16 bits (it’s an example, don’t take it at face value), which I personally liked a lot. The sound, on the other hand, has remained more or less as it was, with functional melodies and merely environmental effects that comply without detracting from the whole.
“Okay”
The Escapists 2
The most pixelated escape plans return with a continuation that presents a fairly continuous gameplay formula but that knows how to introduce key playable elements to refresh said proposal, such as the addition of local and online multiplayer. But the best thing about The Escapists 2 is still its careful game mechanics, which gives us a kind of simulator with touches of adventure, stealth and role-playing that will delight users who are always looking for different titles.
- The approach is still very interesting
- Many possibilities for action and to overcome each level
- Multiplayer modes add more chicha
- The first hours can be a bit heavy
- Control interface could be more intuitive
