The Escapists Reviews

The Escapists is ranked in the 56th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Justin Celani
Top Critic
6 / 10.0
Feb 9, 2015

Perhaps a bigger emphasis on characters or story could even go a long way to give players the incentive to continue or get more involved. It's very possible the game simply isn't for me, and this will become a niche title. But in my eyes, this is one prison I will simply not be returning to.

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Don't Buy
Feb 11, 2015

If you're going to buy The Escapists, do your research first and make sure you know what you're getting into.

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4 / 5.0
Nov 6, 2014

 The Escapists has brought in hundreds of positive reviews, receives consistent updates, and can be downloaded and installed within minutes on Steam. With pixel art graphics and a fantastic soundtrack, it emulates the atmosphere of prison life while encouraging exploration and innovation from the players. If you have ever wondered how you would escape from a high security prison, this is your chance to see how strong your plot really is.

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Feb 9, 2015

How can you go wrong with a game like The Escapists, a most wonderful and unique prison escape adventure title? Answer: you can't.

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Unscored
Feb 20, 2015

. The concept behind The Escapists is strong, and the strategy is there. But I move at my own pace and care more about the atmosphere of a game than its underlying machinery, and I wish I had a shallow end to wade in for awhile instead of getting hurtled off the high dive.

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7 / 10.0
Feb 9, 2015

The Escapists certainly has its times where it felt like Shawshank's river-crawl through crap, but each escape felt hard-earned and true enough to the point where we felt clean on the other side of its prison walls.

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9 / 10.0
Feb 12, 2015

The Escapists is a break out success for Mouldy Toof studios. A must-play for indie gaming fans with a little patience.

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Feb 9, 2015

The Escapists may look cute and lightweight, but it's a surprisingly deep sandbox RPG that punishes sloppiness and where players have a multitude of options in how they go about crafting their escape. Its learning curve is steep and hints are few and far between, but hey, that's life on the inside for you.

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5.5 / 10.0
May 31, 2015

The Escapists holds the methodical tedium of a prison life simulator with some escape mechanics built in, rather than a thrilling game in which you plan your escape. More focus on teaching the intricacies of the mechanics in-game would have done wonders for The Escapists and actually hatching and carrying out a master plan for escaping confinement, because at its core The Escapists is a thrilling concept. Instead we get stuck going through the motions like it's The Sims: Prison Life as we realize we're two months into our sentence and no closer to being on the other side of those bars than the day we got thrown into the joint. Time to hit the showers, boys!

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6 / 10
Sep 29, 2018

The Escapists is a cute, challenging, and potentially rewarding sandbox game that refuses to hold your hand. Releasing it after the much more refined sequel doesn't prove flattering, however. If you've played The Escapists 2, the original will feel like a notable step back. If you haven't played The Escapists 2, that's the game you should go for.

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60%
Feb 8, 2015

What looks like a bright and breezy game turns out to be an incredibly stiff challenge that can occasionally be hugely rewarding. More often than not, however, The Escapists is about as pleasurable as a swift kick in the bollocks.

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8 / 10.0
Jun 11, 2015

Does The Escapists explore or expose anything the average person doesn't already know about prisons? I don't think so. It is a puzzle game, and if you enjoy puzzles and you have an extreme amount of patience, I would encourage you to check out The Escapists. If you're looking for a hard, or systemic, view on prisons, I would suggest looking elsewhere.

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6.8 / 10.0
Jun 4, 2015

The concept of The Escapists—make friends, make enemies, make crazy tools, and escape from prison through any applicable deviancy—is easy to fall in love with. Reality, positioning The Escapists as a beautiful machine undermined by the gears assigned to power it, is more cruel.

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8 / 10
Feb 17, 2015

You're enjoyment while planning the big escape in The Escapists depends on how much you enjoy building out your own fun in a sandbox prison environment. Watching a plan unfold is undoubtedly satisfying, but putting the plan in motion can be tedious. According to the developers, the game will eventually allow gamers to create and share their own prisons, given you a reason to keep the game installed long after you've escaped the included eight prisons.

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8 / 10
Feb 18, 2015

The Escapists is an interesting concept and one that works well as a game. The visual style’s colourful and cute nature juxtaposed with the violent and gritty subject matter gives the game a dark comedy vibe not unlike games like Worms and Flockers.

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7.5 / 10.0
Mar 3, 2015

The Escapists is an interesting game with very solid mechanics and enjoyable visuals. It can feel repetitive after a while and frustrating in certain moments.

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5 / 10.0
Feb 15, 2015

The Escapists is a game for a very niche audience, as it doesn't provide much in the way of variety to deliver enough entertainment for long periods of time.

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8 / 10.0
Jun 9, 2015

This is a game you will play over and over again if you like strategy games. Any frustration and getting caught is far outweighed by the joy at succeeding in breaking out. Each play through allows you to find another way of escaping, and the leader boards give you something to strive for..

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7.5 / 10.0
Jun 10, 2015

If you're looking for a very different, very open ended, very "freeing" game about jail breaks, The Escapists will appeal to the experimenter and escape artist in you. It's not going to hold your hand when it comes to enacting a brilliant escape from jail, but if you're willing to watch, plan and be patient it's a very rewarding—if demanding—game.

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3.8 / 5.0
Feb 10, 2015

"That's all it takes, really, pressure, and time. That and a big goddamn poster."

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