Spontaneous Sunday - The Escapists

Welcome to another Spontaneous Sunday. It's been a couple of weeks since the last instalment because I've had a couple of very busy weekends, but now I'm back in the game - so to speak! After attending the Manchester Unreal Engine Meetup this week (which had some very interesting talks about independent game development) I have been inspired to look into Indie games and play one for Spontaneous Sunday (you can read about my thoughts on the Unreal Meetup here).

I therefore had a look at the Steam Summer sale and picked up a bunch of new games, including this week's game: The Escapists (2015, Mouldy Toof Studios, OS X). This will be only the second PC game that I have played for Spontaneous Sunday (the other being Breach & Clear).

"The Escapists is a strategy game played from a top-down perspective. The game was developed by Mouldy Toof Studios and following a Steam Early Access release in 2014, was released in 2015 for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Players assume the role of an inmate and must escape from prisons of increasing difficulty."

- Wikipedia on The Escapists.

What do I expect from the game?

I am not sure what to expect from The Escapists because, while I was aware of it's existence before playing it, I hadn't heard or seen much about it. I did a bit of research and discovered that it was created by the one-man Indie company, Mouldy Toof Studios, with additional contributions by Team17 who also published the game. Team17's involvement gives me confidence in the game as they are well known as developers and publishers of quality content (The Team17-published couch co-op game Overcooked is a great game).

I think that The Escapists will be a fun, casual strategy game with a charming aesthetic and visuals. I think that the game will not be excessively challenging, and that the gameplay will focus on problem solving and lateral thinking. Originally released on Windows, the game has since also been released on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, Mac, Linux and mobile platforms. This suggests to me that it is a good game, if it has managed to be released to such a wide variety of platforms. The fact that it can run on Android and iOS also suggests to me that the game will not be demanding to run, and may have simple graphics and audio.

As a relatively small-scale and simple indie game, The Escapists is not much like the other games that I have reviewed thus far, which have mostly been big-name console titles. I imagine that The Escapists is closer to the scale of games that I might find myself making in the future if I was ever to pursue an Indie career, so I am hoping to take some inspiration from it and gain a better idea what makes indie games tick.

First Impressions - What do I think of the game in its first few minutes?

The Escapists's charming style is apparent as soon as the front end loads up. The game's 16-bit pixel art style and make for attractive and somewhat nostalgic visuals. Not only that, but the 16-bit visuals no doubt make the game much less demanding to run, which allows it to perform on all the platforms it has released on, as well as low-end computers.

The music is equally retro and charming. The menu music is a quasi-serious synth-y piece with industrial vibes and punchy percussion. It seats itself nicely between the game's serious prison escape themes and it's overall light-hearted, retro presentation. I played the tutorial level, which gently guides the player through how to move around, interact with objects, trade with NPCs and engage in combat. The tutorial level involves finding a screwdriver then using it to break into the prison's air vents. The player then purchases materials to craft a weapon from a fellow in-mate, and uses the weapon knock out a guard and disguise as him in order to escape. It's a short and simple but effective introduction to the game's core mechanics.

The first proper level is in the minimum security prison, "Center Perks". Before beginning the level, the player can choose from a number of varied characters. The characters can either have their default names, or the player can rename them. The prisons also contain a number of other named inmates and guards. Again, the NPC's names can be generated by the game, or the player can name them themselves to add a more personal touch.

The level begins by explaining that a day in the prison consists of a structure timetable of events that include morning roll call, breakfast, gym time and so on. During the day, the player has to take steps towards breaking out of the prison. The player can engage in actions such as working a job, working out in the gym to increase their strength and speed stats (which make them better at fighting), finding items and completing tasks for other inmates to earn money, amongst other activities. Each activity contributes in some way towards creating and executing an escape plan.

The way in which you can complete tasks to work towards achieving goals that can eventually help you to escape is a pretty good gameplay system. It motivates the player to set both short and long term goals for themselves and create a plan of how they will achieve certain things. However, as a new player, I found it hard to actually envisage what sort of methods one could use to escape from the prison, which made it difficult to know what I should really be aiming to work towards.

Screenshot from the tutorial level.

I spent about 3 hours on the first level, trying out different methods and pursuing various paths that I thought might lead me to freedom. This included such things as completing tasks for a fellow in-mate so that he would help me to knock out a guard, I then stole the guards key and made a desperate bid for the exit, but was caught and taken back. I also used a screwdriver to enter the air vents but was caught again.

What do I like about the game?

The Escapists biggest strengths lie in its overall aesthetic and visual style, its unique concept, and the creativity of the actions that you can do in trying to escape the prisons. Other strengths include the music and the game's charm and the small touches that give it its unique character.

I chose to play as "Old Timer" - I liked his style!

The visual style is unique and interesting. Having a 16-bit style works on many different levels: it gives a sense of nostalgic charm, it gives the game a light-hearted vibe, it makes it easy the game easy to run and gives it a small file size which maximises the number of potential platforms and players - this is a good move for an indie developer because accessibility is often pivotal to an indie game's success.

Each NPC has their own stats and equipment.

The overarching concept and how the game plays out is an interesting and unique idea. You have to use a variety of different means to try and escape a prison, but at the same time you are required to learn patterns, increase skills, complete tasks and think creatively in order to stand a chance at achieving the main goal. It quickly became apparent that there was more depth to the gameplay than I had anticipated!

The prison quickly begins to look like a proper working little eco-system, and you come to know the different named inmate and guard NPC's, their schedules, their stats and so on, and you begin to think about how the different characters can be interacted with and used to further your ends. The game's simplistic visuals and simple premise are actually underpinned by a lot of things going on under the surface. NPC's wander around, and items, stats and tasks become available and tick away autonomously.

The player can boost their strength in the gym.

The game is undeniably charming. It's a simplistic, innocent sort of charm, even though the game's prison setting and sometimes-violent themes should convey the opposite! The NPC's have a many lines of dialogue that manifest as lines of text above their heads. They will ramble about all sorts of things and this adds more character both to individual NPCs and the game as a whole.

Finally, the game's music is another positive point. The music is quirky and simple and it suits the 16-bit visuals very well. Though it is simple, it is very high quality and well-composed. It is also repetitive, but not in a jarring way. Judging by reviews and opinions from players that I have read online, the music seems to be one of the most memorable and well-received elements of the game.

You can complete favours for NPCs, including the glitched favour in which
an inmate requested that I beat him up, then paid me for it...!

What do I not like?

While The Escapists surely has its strengths, it is not without its downsides. The most prominent issue that I found with the game is the its pacing and its repetitive nature, that can lead to some frustrating gameplay. While the idea of completing various actions and taking different routes to try and escape is fun and interest, and does call for some creative thinking, the process is too drawn out and slow paced for my liking, and the consequences for failure are often too harsh. If you are caught trying to escape, you are stripped of all your items that you may have worked hard to try and procure, and your attempts at escape are completely reset. Having your progress reset in this way can be disheartening and frustrating - especially if your escape attempt failed because you made a silly mistake.

The Escapists definitely demands patience more patience from the player than I had expected, and success is very much based in trial and error. I am in two minds about the level of difficulty. Moments of victorious feeling and reward are few and far between. Any game that so infrequently rewards the player runs the risk of fatiguing the player and causing them to lose interest. One the one hand, I did begin to lose my patience and willingness to keep trying after multiple failed attempts. However, I was also somehow drawn in by the unexpectedly high level of challenge that the game presented. I think that my expectation of a quick fire casual game were unmet, which caught me off guard. Once I had gotten settled into the idea that this was a game that could not be rushed, I began to appreciate the challenge more.

The game throws the player into the deep end. While there is a tutorial level, it is very minimal and doesn't teach you much besides how to do very basic interactions. The tutorial level is very short and it's simplicity lulled me into a false sense of security in regards to the game's difficulty. On starting the first proper level, I felt very ill-equipped to play the game, and had to spend a good amount of time reading about all the different systems and mechanics (most of which were not mentioned at all in the tutorial) in the game's help menu. A more fleshed out tutorial section would have made the game more easy to adapt to.

Final Thoughts

The Escapists is a very different game from any other that I have played for Spontaneous Sunday, so it has been quite an experience to play it today. I was very impressed by such things as the visual style, music, concept and the game's charm. However, I was also taken aback somewhat by the game's difficulty level, repetitive gameplay and the insufficient tutorial section. I felt a bit defeated after my 3-4 hour Escapists play session due to my initial lack of direction and the game's punishing attitude to failure.

Nevertheless, a big part of my reasoning in playing The Escapists was to gain more experience and knowledge of playing indie games, in the hopes of getting an idea of their scale and scope and what indie developers can achieve. I think that The Escapists was a good starting point for this endeavour, and I plan to play it some more in the future, in a less rushed context when I can focus all my efforts into finally escaping from that first prison! I will also be playing many more indie games in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for that!