The Escapists

 PC
User Score
6.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 125 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 67 out of 125
  2. Mixed: 31 out of 125
  3. Negative: 27 out of 125

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  1. OliverAfton
    Nov 20, 2021
    7
    It's ok, but it's more fun to see a gameplay than to play the game itself.;
  2. Koperjanek
    Feb 15, 2015
    7
    So the game is good but for me it was false advertising. Why can`t I play as Yahtzee or Critical Miss, bu the replay value is grate and the game is different every time. I would recommend it to almost everyone.
  3. WhiteNoisetrash
    Mar 13, 2015
    6
    This game is great, it had the potential to be so much more.
    The art style and the simple, yet challenging, gameplay is a little annoying at times.

    I would rather want to see this in a different kind of sandbox and with proper controls. Different art style.
  4. dohgeh
    Mar 12, 2015
    6
    The Escapists isn't a horrible game, but it's far from perfect. It being so repetitive, sometimes flat out boring, and difficult mechanics, it falls short.

    Yes, when you first start this game you will most likely say: "Woah! This is awesome!", but you will realize that this is the absolute same thing over and over again. You dig holes to escape, craw through vents, and thats about it..    The Escapists isn't a horrible game, but it's far from perfect. It being so repetitive, sometimes flat out boring, and difficult mechanics, it falls short.

    Yes, when you first start this game you will most likely say: "Woah! This is awesome!", but you will realize that this is the absolute same thing over and over again. You dig holes to escape, craw through vents, and thats about it..

    The idea of this game is awesome, but it doesn't pull it off very well. It's worth to pick up at 5 or 10 dollars max. Fun for the first time, but then it's repetitive and boring.    … Expand
  5. hassall
    Dec 22, 2016
    7
    This game is good i played a solid 23 hours on this game it was fun and intense. The problem with this game is if you make one mistake you will be sent back to the beginning, it is really annoying i have only made it to the third map.
  6. JimmyJams
    Apr 26, 2018
    5
    A word to summarize my experience with this game? "Meh". Concept sounds interesting, Prison Architect from the prisoner's point of view more than the Architect's, but man does it get boring fast. Having just finished the 3rd level, I feel like each level prior was the same. Follow routine, build stats (int + strength), loot cells, do job, repeat until abot day 6-8 when you make yourA word to summarize my experience with this game? "Meh". Concept sounds interesting, Prison Architect from the prisoner's point of view more than the Architect's, but man does it get boring fast. Having just finished the 3rd level, I feel like each level prior was the same. Follow routine, build stats (int + strength), loot cells, do job, repeat until abot day 6-8 when you make your breakout attempt, and you're done. It's not much of a simulation either, other prisoners are just there to sell you items and give out random simple quests.

    Each day feels a bit grindy and each breakout attempt is pretty much the same with the harder levels being more narrow in what you can do. You can only break out at night and the guard routines are more or less a crapshoot. There's nothing more annoying than having to replay an entire day because some guard that was never there before suddenly decides to explore some remote corner of the map that you were tunneling out of.

    Everyone moves at lightspeed which is semi-bothersome and the game mechanics don't have much depth or complexity. It also weirdly withholds crafting recipies from you as if part of the fun of the game was just randomly guessing combinations of items until you make something of some unknown function and value. Basically you're forced to wiki everything which is a design flaw. Unless your idea of fun is running around for 20 game days collecting important recipes which are given out at complete random and in a random order. You might get something useful you might not, more likely not.

    When you get down to the experience, it's not bad and it's not good. Wouldn't really recommend it.    … Expand
  7. md5fungi
    Apr 28, 2020
    5
    The Escapists is a prison-break game with a lot of potential.

    The idea is simple: escape from prison. Achieving this is not-so-simple: you’ll need to perform tasks for the other inmates to earn $$$, craft items that will help you plot and execute your escape, and dupe the guards using stealth, tactics, and some RNG. At first, the game seemed like a playground. It begged me to try    The Escapists is a prison-break game with a lot of potential.

    The idea is simple: escape from prison. Achieving this is not-so-simple: you’ll need to perform tasks for the other inmates to earn $$$, craft items that will help you plot and execute your escape, and dupe the guards using stealth, tactics, and some RNG.

    At first, the game seemed like a playground. It begged me to try different things in an effort to escape. Unfortunately, most of them didn’t really work the way I expected. The game uses trial-and-error to teach the player what works and what doesn’t, and approaches should intuitively work sometimes don’t work. For example, putting a guard uniform on that you swipe from the laundry quite rapidly increases their suspicion of you, when I would expect it realistically to increase a little slower. The guards in general are pretty trigger-haired, so making mistakes is punished quickly.

    You’ll often end up in the infirmary or even solitary confinement, the latter which will result in you losing all of your hard-earned items. I’m a fan of brutally challenging games, but no matter how challenging a game is, good game design rewards the player at a regular cadence. The Escapists instead opts to require you to slowly plot a plan of escape over a number of days, and it then dispirits you when you fail.

    An easy way to fix this problem would be to make the first prison a poorly designed facility with ignorant guards, resulting in a trivial escape. The next would be a bit harder and require you to be more clever. This is how games generally teach players how to succeed. Another option would be for the game to allow the player to reload and try another approach without having to start the next day with literally nothing.

    Unfortunately, The Escapists seems content to be a slog. While I don’t doubt that the game will eventually teach you what is useful and what isn’t, the trial-and-error approach of the game was not fun enough to get me there. The humor and flavor of the game grows old remarkably quickly, and I kept awaiting the first real dopamine rush the game had to offer: escape.    … Expand
  8. GamePlayer77
    Sep 19, 2020
    7
    An experience that wouldn't have been as bad if it weren't for the mass amount of bugs, the few official prisons, and much more. It has one small saving factor, however. The prison editor. With this PC-exclusive feature, you can create and play countless prisons. This turns the not-too-good version of a game to something alright.
  9. MetaKain
    Sep 20, 2020
    5
    Resulta difícil escapar hasta de la cárcel mas fácil. Cosa que me gusta, ya que te entretiene para que puedas conseguir dinero o caerle bien a tus compañeros, los chistes de éstos también son una de las mejores cosas del juego.
    Un defecto que le encuentro es que te cansa al toque. A veces ni ganas de jugarlo tenía y sentía que desperdicié dinero comprándolo y pedí un reembolso. Luego    Resulta difícil escapar hasta de la cárcel mas fácil. Cosa que me gusta, ya que te entretiene para que puedas conseguir dinero o caerle bien a tus compañeros, los chistes de éstos también son una de las mejores cosas del juego.
    Un defecto que le encuentro es que te cansa al toque. A veces ni ganas de jugarlo tenía y sentía que desperdicié dinero comprándolo y pedí un reembolso. Luego volví a darle otra oportunidad y me paso lo mismo, entretiene unas horas, después es aburridísimo.    … Expand
  10. Animus_V0x
    Jul 25, 2022
    5
    Funny game but became quite frustrating and boring with the time. The fact that you can sometime just get caught without really understand the reason is also a part of that, I guess.
  11. Pizi
    Feb 9, 2023
    7
    A gmae about being a prisoner which is tring to escape. All prisones are build unique with a little plot added to each of them. In all prisones u have a few ways to escpae.

Awards & Rankings

67
#67 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 24
  3. Negative: 1 out of 24
  1. Riot Pixels
    Jun 15, 2015
    40
    By removing all the appealing elements of prison stories (colorful characters, daring escape plans as well as dangers and hardships of incarceration), the developers turned this virtual prison into its real-life equivalent — a punishment.
    Read full review
  2. Gamer.nl
    Jun 13, 2015
    75
    Ironically enough this prison game convinces with its freedom. Every element is present for a satisfying escape. It does take some patience though.
    Read full review
  3. Games Master UK
    Apr 11, 2015
    82
    Fiendish and dependent on your own crafting legwork, this is time you'll never regret doing. [Apr 2015, p.76]
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