Escape Academy is all about mimicking the popular recreational activity of escape rooms. You take on the role of a new student starting his school life at Escape Academy, a university dedicated to the artistry of escape rooms. Developers Coin Crew Games have lovingly created an escapist-obsessed world, suitable for escape room enthusiasts and fans of the point-and-click adventure genre alike.
The game is packed with interestingly designed rooms, fun puzzles, and a handful of lovable characters – all of which can be experienced solo or with a budding escape room friend in co-op. It’s a good overall experience as it is, but there are more than a few qualities that Escape Academy could have done to unlock more potential.
8 The replayability problem
Real world escape rooms tend to fall into the trap of a one time business model. Repeating an escape room is a futile attempt, as all puzzles remain the same. Unfortunately, this caveat was also carried over to Escape Academy, and since the game meticulously replicates escape rooms, this is an issue it should have left out.
It would have been a curious addition if the rooms featured puzzles that randomized every time you tried to play them again. This would boost both replayability and speedrunning capability. Sure, you can replay the same room for a better time or a better grade, but even these are no more than self-gratification and a few achievements.
7 The world
It’s a triumph how much this world revolves around the escape room philosophy. If you are a fan of escape rooms, or have even hosted them, you will enjoy the humor surrounding this activity even more. It’s just a shame that the real academy world is a bit sparse.
You and another student seem to be the only ones attending this school, which has a massive campus. The characters, albeit beautifully drawn, are quite monotonous and don’t really warrant meaningful interaction. It’s great that puzzling was prioritized, but you’ll also want more about the world.
6 The story
The escape is connected to a general story in which the various teachers of the school react to a mystery that becomes clearer in the second half of the game. However, it is a wafer-thin story that never exceeds the quality of the puzzling.
Even the overworld map is devoid of any meaningful interaction, aside from choosing the next room and the occasional dialogue you can engage in with the characters. Had as much craftsmanship been put into the story as the puzzles, it could have made for a more balanced experience.
5 Collectable Incentives
During your escape attempts in a particular room, you can find newspaper articles that serve as little drops of knowledge for the world. Aside from these new discoveries, Escape Academy does nothing to justify finding collectibles beyond the actual stuff you need to solve the room.
Collectibles in real escape rooms rarely exist if at all. But a video game packed with escape rooms could have opened up the potential for exploration and hunting for collectibles. Sacrificing a bit of your time hunting for quirky in-game collectibles could have added an extra thrilling dynamic, as well as satisfying at least one extra playthrough of a given room.
4 Character control
Navigating an escape room in real life mainly consists of walking back and forth in the same place at lightning speed. And while you can change your motion sensitivity in Escape Academy, the motion always feels a little strange when playing on consoles.
Fortunately, the environments aren’t too cramped to make moving a complete nightmare. Tighter and smoother control over movement, however, could have avoided this bug bear and made for a smoother ride. The PC version is absolutely superior in terms of motion control.
3 Endgame Content
Once the main game is over, you can reload your save and experience the epilogue. Those who think this is the way to more rooms and more content will be disappointed to learn that neither really exists.
You can replay all escape rooms for a faster time or a better grade, but there is currently no post-game content to encourage play. And since numbers are only tied to the version of your platform’s achievements, Escape Academy could have benefited from endgame content to extend the fun experience.
2 More surprise moments
The intro to Escape Academy is probably the strongest moment. You usually complete a cheap, run-down escape room, and when you’re done, the timer stops, but you realize there’s more to your environment than you first thought. This immediately makes you think: an escape room could be anywhere.
It was a smart and surprising moment to not only get the game going, but also introduce us to this world that takes escape rooms to comically serious heights. Aside from maybe one or two more of this sort, it’s surprising that the player is outdone in solving formulas in escape rooms. The game excels in the moments when you walk through the escape room, the timer has not yet started, and suddenly the room is triggered in a surprising way. Only more moments like this would get more thumbs up.
1 More Escape Rooms!
Despite what the game lacks in potential, Escape Academy is still a great game. The puzzles and rooms are so much fun to complete that it’s a shame it has to end at some point. But added one or two extra rooms, mainly because the endgame content could have really satisfied the escapist itch.
Potential DLC releases may help alleviate some of these issues, but that shouldn’t stop you from giving Escape Academy at least a shot if you’re a fan of escape rooms in general.
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