Escape Academy Review

Developer: Coin Crew Games

Platforms: PC (Reviewed), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X |S

Genre: Adventure

Publishers: iam8bit, Skybound Games

Escape Academy is a puzzle game. The game is merely focused on different escape rooms. The game is developed by Coin Crew Games. Escape Academy is different; in its own sense but has a similar premise to the Escape Simulator game, which also is an escape room game.

The game can be played either by yourself, locally with a friend or online. We played this game on PC; locally. It brought up a menu where you can select one player to be on the keyboard and another on a controller. To make sure that the game registers both players first, start on the keyboard, then press start on the controller. It seems that if; you press the controller first, the game does not let player one sign in. This game can be heavily focused on teamwork to help successfully escape the rooms before the rooms flood, get filled with poisonous gas and loads more.

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The main focus of this game is that you, as the player, are an amateur escapist, and you are going through various types of escape rooms which capture the immersive experiences of how it feels to be put, under a time-pressure, just like when you are; put in one in real life. You start off in a room and right away try to find your escape. The game introduces other characters who play out dialogue to explain what is happening at the academy. Alongside your escaping, there is a; bit of a story which guides you through the academy. There are three chapters, and you are training to become the ultimate escape room master.

The controls for both the; controller and keyboard/mouse are very easy to work with. Controls also show up on the bottom left-hand side of the screen. A very important; control feature in this game would have to be the hint feature. The hint presents you with pictures of certain areas in the specific room to indicate where something may link with. The cooldown on the hint feature is also reasonable, making it so that the player does not constantly spam for the hints, which would ruin the experience.

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We really like how the characters are drawn out; for this game. The art style is; very unique and can be said to look cartoonish though with a realistic factor to it. It is also very interesting; how there are different styles for each character, from when you see them in-game to their design for the speech box. Each room; also has a different theme and the lighting effect creates the academy ambience. It gives off very harry potter, mistress, and academy vibes. The map also has various places which you can unlock to further go into. The map also looks great for a game, giving an overview of the academy as well as looking clean and bright.

In addition to the art style, the audio of the game; is also done well. The voice acting for the characters makes the game more atmospheric compared to there only being text to read. The audio can also be clues making that an essential part of the game too. The game developers using the voice acting to be a clue for certain areas of the escape room is creative. The sound effects for the game, the footsteps of your character, the little bleep noises when pushing buttons, and the success key noises, all work well together to make things feel more realistic.

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Compared to other escape room games, which act as simulators, this game does a much better job to captivate the immersive experience and rush of how an escape room truly is. We personally; have gone to escape rooms in real life, and the game does a good job at honing in on your skills to be alert, collaborative, and become a better puzzle solver. With the difficulty increasing as you progress through the game, things start to get more intense, and you feel more in a hurry to solve the room. We personally liked the Tea n Tea room. I thought the radio was an amazing place to leave a clue. Throughout the rooms, we found many creative ways clues were left and how the escaping was repeated as much, thus giving new ways to solve locks and doors to get out.

If you are looking for a mind-challenging game which you can either play by yourself or with a friend, then this is the game for you. The game challenges your teamwork skills as well as puts you under pressure to escape within a given time. You make your way through many different levels and difficulties.

Overall: 6/10