Escape Academy Reviews
Even though Escape Academy lacks a strong story, it more than makes up for it by giving you a good number of puzzles to solve.
As it is, Escape Academy is still one of the best cooperative gaming experiences I've had this year and a great start for both Coin Crew Games and new publisher iam8bit.
With any luck, Escape Academy will be successful enough to warrant a sequel, as its uniquely quirky academic world and its cast deserve to be fleshed out even further with even more meticulously-crafted escape rooms to solve. As is, though, Escape Academy is a fun jolt of great puzzle designs guaranteed to fire up your cortex, topped off with impressive aesthetics that make for some memorable escapes. It may not be complicated breakout one might hope for, but it's still worth checking out.
Escape Academy takes design inspiration from real-world escape rooms, for better and for worse.
Puzzle games have to manage a delicate balancing act: If solutions are too simple, players lose interest; too difficult, and they feel cheated, like the answer was never decipherable to begin with. “Escape Academy” was opaque at times, but the answer always felt like it was within my grasp, if I just tried out this one idea, or thought about the puzzle from this other angle. Giving players that sense of empowerment is hard, and games don’t always get it right. But “Escape Academy” walks that tightrope with finesse, joining the pantheon of frantic-but-fun co-op greats.
Despite its empty halls and predictable plot, it's a charming escape room sim that's filled with clever puzzles that reward and rarely frustrate. The entire thing can be played with a bud too, making this a brilliant co-op jaunt.
Escape Academy is a fun, addictive puzzler that captures the escape room magic with plenty of detail and variety, you'll just wish it lasted a little longer.
Escape Academy captures the spirit of escape rooms in excellent fashion, wrapping up a string of thoroughly enjoyable puzzle-filled levels in a light and quirky story. Puzzle aficionados might find it a little easy, but it's a commendable first effort that left me wanting more.
Escape Academy is an exceptionally well designed puzzle game, if not a flawlessly executed one. Developer Coin Crew Games has replicated the creativity and fine-tuned challenge of the best real-world escape rooms while amping up the fantasy and stakes in a way only video games can. But the studio's inexperience rears its head when it comes to polish, with stiff console controls being the most obvious knock on an otherwise great experience.
Coin Crew Games delivered something special with Escape Academy. A true-to-its-roots escape room experience (and in our opinion, one of the most successful attempts to recreate this digitally). A compelling world. Puzzles that are just difficult enough that you are constantly surprising yourself with your own brain's ability. It's all quality. While their focus has primarily been on the arcade space, we hope this establishes Coin Crew's foothold in the at-home gaming world. As long as their next few games don't feature pipe puzzles. Please.
For those missing the good old fashioned escape rooms of the pre-covid era, Escape Academy delivers a top notch set of puzzles in an interesting setting, which unfortunately isn't explored any deeper.
Escape Academy delivers lovingly crafted puzzles that shine in co-op play, but it can't fully replicate the thrills of a real-life escape room.
Escape Academy is filled with smart puzzles and unique mechanics that highlight the personalities of each character and the world they live in.
Ever wanted to try escape rooms but never got around to it? Well, Escape Academy is a real treat to tease your brain, especially in co-op. It's approachable with a great hint system, whilst providing a decent challenge for more seasoned puzzlers.
Escape Academy is a family-friendly puzzle game that will give you hours of fun at a very reasonable price point.
Escape Academy is a worthy escape room game with a lot of strong puzzles. It's on the short side, but there's a lot of quality on display.
Escape Academy offers a truly unique experience that provides the player with a sense of discovery that’s difficult to compare to any other game. I have a new itch to scratch, and now no other game can satisfy that. I’ll have to go book an escape room.
Escape Academy may be a fairly brief experience for some, then, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that the puzzles here are thought-provoking and masterfully crafted. They test your ability to spot patterns and problem solve without ever being too obtuse. Throw in a surprisingly engaging story and co-op, and you have one of the most enjoyable experiences of the year so far. It might even make you want to do some real-life escape rooms – imagine that.
Escape Academy is an exciting puzzle game that invites the player to experience around a dozen unique escape rooms. While the world doesn’t evolve into much beyond that, it’s still a lot of fun to progress through the different challenges. Add in that players can experience these puzzles with friends and Escape Academy becomes a proper re-creation of real-life escape rooms.
My gaming chum and I had a blast working through the intricate puzzle-filled stages of Escape Academy and I'm sure you will, too.