"The Escapists2" reviews the jailbreak sandbox that still needs polishing

Produced by indie game studio Team17 Digital Ltd, it is the second title in the series. The previous game was released in February 2015 and was widely praised by sandbox players, however, the lack of Chinese language support made some domestic players on steam raise a little red hand.

In the sequel, the official response to the requirements of domestic players, support simplified Chinese. After breaking down the language barrier, players can finally understand the system, research the synthesis, make plans, and stage their own jailbreak show without pressure.

The game was released on Steam on August 22 for 68 yuan.

As can be seen from player reviews, there are still some problems with the current Chinese version and game content, but the Chinese support has been praised by players.

Simple and bright picture

Escapee 2 inherits the pixel painting style of the previous game, and the cartoonish characters and concise two-dimensional scenes make the whole picture not complicated. Although the map is 2D flat form, but the contoured objects still give the scene a three-dimensional sense.

The characters in the game are limited by the pixel-style screen, and the individual characteristics cannot be said to be prominent. There are actually quite a few physical models of NPCS, but they still don't look very different.

Players can shape their own characters, and the makers have provided a number of character appearance elements.

At the beginning of each level, the player can also choose the shape of each guard. So the producers in the appearance of the characters is actually quite hard, but after all, it is a pixel style game, most players will not pay special attention to the diversity of the appearance of the characters, just like the author in the game to see a bunch of public faces do not feel against.

The scene structure of many levels in the game is still quite complex, not only has a huge area, complex facilities, many rooms, but also may have different levels in the vertical direction, such as up and down the stairs and in and out of the vent when the scene is switched. Using relatively simple 2D graphics to represent more complex scenes is actually quite wise, because it makes the whole map look orderly and organized. Otherwise, you don't know what a prison is, you don't break out.

The hard way out of prison

Escapee 2 is about jailbreaking, but it's not just about jailbreaking, it's about doing a lot of things to jailbreak.

Breaking out of prison is a very complex planning activity, first we need tools, and even a jailbreak master like Michael doesn't do it with his bare hands.

The collection and composition of items in the game is key. Items mainly come from a variety of worktables (boxes), categories are divided into weapons, components, consumables, etc., some items have a variety of categories at the same time, the corresponding has more functions.

But we are in a prison, trying to get various items is certainly not as easy as mining in the MC, the prison workbench is distributed in various areas, players need to try to avoid attracting the attention of the guards to approach and obtain items.

More troublesome is that the distribution of items in the box is generally random, before the real open the box, the player will not know what is inside, so it is not easy to get a specific item, the author has to make a cutting scissors turned over almost all the workbench.

In addition, the player's inventory space is limited, and the items taken can not be discarded at will, "so you can not see to take away, do not want to throw away" is the player will experience the entanglement.

Don't get carried away when you get something good, the guards make regular rounds, and if you don't put the items in a safe place, the hard-earned items will be confiscated.

Now that we've got the materials together, we can build it. There are quite a few items that can be synthesized in the game, from a cup of tea to a high-tech access card. Items are divided into different levels, and advanced items require higher intelligence values to synthesize, which fully reflects the importance of learning.

In addition to collecting their own materials, their own synthesis tools, and direct transactions with others is actually good, saving time and effort, but of course, it costs money.

You ask me where the money comes from? Work. You get paid to work for someone. That's what happens. But you can also make money in prison, and I have to say that the system here is very advanced.

Job search

With the tools, we're going to use real technology. Yeah, well, it was all just preparation, but you have to have the right posture to break out.

To be honest, the author does not know much about the jailbreak routine, and it was only after watching the video of the Great God that he roughly understood it. Different prison scenes in the game have different ways to escape, in general, making keys, changing clothes, digging tunnels, climbing ventilation pipes, cutting barbed wire are all necessary means.

Inlet vent

Only reasonable escape plan, careful execution, can finally complete the feat of escape.

Need polishing

The current version of Escapee 2 has a few completion deficiencies that make it a less than complete experience.

There are some bugs in the game, such as item prices not displayed when trading, quest prompts not updated sometimes, and occasional inability to talk to NPCS. These minor issues will not make the game impossible, but will affect the player's normal experience.

The items traded are "priceless.

However, the game crash is very annoying, and the pop-up window without warning is unexpected. Fortunately, I have encountered few times, but some friends are not so lucky.

The game experience in standalone mode is basically acceptable, but the online mode can not play normally.

Continuous disconnection, game crash, and caton make the online function of this game have the capital of war with Ubisoft's "potato server", and some extremely dumb bugs also make online players miserable. When the game is disconnected, the player's gold and attributes will be completely cleared, which directly leads to the player's loss of fighting spirit. If this happens to you the first time you connect to the Internet, you don't have to feel too sorry, because you may soon lose your connection again.

Escapee 2 added online mechanics, must have wanted to ride a wave. Since "My World" first opened online, "Terraria", "alien star Explorer" and so on have followed suit, the old batch of stand-alone works are also in the integration of this function after the new vitality, "Famine" and the upcoming online version of "Stardew grain language" is a typical example.

Unfortunately, the online function that should have added a lot of color to the work has become the biggest defect of Escape 2, which has not yet been improved and rushed out to let players very disappointed, and directly led to a lot of bad reviews and ridicule on steam

There is no doubt that the current online experience of the game is far from satisfying the players, the producer needs to work harder to polish the online function as soon as possible, and retain the core to the hearts of online players.

Game characteristics and player choice

This "Escape 2" is a genuine "old driver to" game, the lack of gradual direction, completely let the player in the huge content of their own exploration. But this also seems to be a common feature of many strategic sandboxes.

In short, this type of game requires a lot of information and experience for the player to accumulate, the player may be easy to get into the game (of course it may be difficult), but soon the new player will find that they know little about the game and do not know how to deal with the huge content.

The police will teach you a lesson

The author experienced this feeling in this work, because there is no accumulation of previous works, plus oneself is not good at sandbox and craft construction, the author did not find the idea of escape for a long time, or the correct posture. While the game does a good job of giving us instructional levels and teaching us the basics, unfortunately it doesn't tell us anything about how to actually "play."

How do these things work

What does this thing do? How to synthesize? How do I pick up work? Where's the man who delivered the mission? How do I break out of prison? The combination of these questions is the game player's philosophical third question: "Who am I? Where am I? What do I do?"

I believe that most of the new players who contact this game will have such questions, but if you can stick to it, whether it is independent self-study or access to information to understand the true meaning, this is itself a unique experience brought by the sandbox game, but it does require a lot of time and energy expenditure, not all players can readily accept.

In addition, sandbox games have a natural casual component, even the tense survival sandbox, because it is very time consuming, and the player who is deeply involved in it often forgets the flow of time.

In this "Escaper 2", even if the author did not grasp the correct escape routine, he still enjoyed himself in the "harmonious and orderly" prison daily life, so that the author had the illusion of playing a business simulation game. I had money to eat and drink, read and exercise to find friends, chat and trade to do tasks, and the days in prison went by, and the game time increased by a few hours, but I still couldn't get out.

Before you know it, it's been 10 days

After I had a general understanding of the method of escape, I made preparations from the first day, made good relations with my fellow guards, collected all kinds of necessities, and improved my health and intelligence. However, due to a roll call, he went to wander without listening to the message, and the prison guards took all the treasures in my workbench at once when they made their rounds at night. When I clicked to launch the game in a sad mood, I saw that the time had passed for nearly two hours.

Playing this game is really a good way to kill time. In fact, whether you can successfully escape, the length of escape is not the most important, personally think that enjoying the process of relaxing and interesting without losing the challenge is actually more meaningful. However, for players who focus on the story experience, including me, this game may not be the most suitable choice.

Overall comment

Escapee 2 is a sandbox game with unique content, and the unique prison escape gameplay makes the players who have not been exposed to the series feel fresh.

The game well integrates craft, strategy, character interaction and even action elements into the theme of "prison break", adding a sense of realism to such abstract concepts as "survival" and "management", which can be described as original ideas and design.

The abundance of elements leads to a variety of experiences, and players can feel different from level to level, from map to map, and even from game to game. A game that is both challenging and entertaining is sure to be very enjoyable for many players.

The idea and content are excellent, but the current version has some completion issues. The Chinese version of the game is not perfect enough, some bugs directly affect the player's experience, and the improvement of online functions is the top priority of the production team.

Overall, Escapee 2 is a good game that should be followed by players of previous games in the series, as well as sandbox players who want to try something different. But to be fair, now is not the best time to start this game. It is better to wait for the production team to further improve and polish the game content to be perfectly displayed before choosing to start.