You’re basically a criminal and you’ve been locked away in prison. Though there is enough here to make this game feel like a worthy sequel, everything still seems to be familiar as the original, and even that nostalgic 8-bit graphic-style is still as welcoming as ever. However, new players won’t feel left out as this game is a fresh start of sorts. The developers at Team 17 made sure that when returning fans played it this time around it would be like putting on a comfortable old shoe. It really is the kind of game you’ll wonder why no one has done before.It looks like it’s back to prison in the sequel to 2015’s prison-escape hit with The Escapists 2. The fact that you feel almost solely restricted by your imagination is an even bigger advantage. It’s enjoyable trying multiple different strategies and working out what method pays off the best. While sometimes you might feel like playing the slow game of keeping your head down for a few days before making your move is a little uneventful, you’ll frequently feel like you’re working towards a bigger goal. Stick with such annoyances though, and the joy of The Escapists does shine through. Who wants to keep picking up a desk by mistake or failing to slap around another prisoner? It soon gets a little irritating. With neither option fully succeeding, it becomes an issue when you’re trying to complete a task quickly. The other option is touch controls which removes the constraints of a virtual joypad, but still feels quite awkward at times. This works reasonably well, but even with small fingers and a sizable iPhone 6S screen, I found myself mistapping. Virtual controls provide you with an A and B button, along with a virtual joystick. Where The Escapists struggles however is with its jump to mobile. You can create a shovel from some components and dig your way out, you can don a guard uniform to go unnoticed, or you can incite a prison riot. All you need to know is that your job is to escape, otherwise it’s down to you how you do so. That’s much of the beauty behind The Escapists – it’s really quite open in terms of what you can accomplish. This crafting system is reasonably complex too, offering you plenty of options for what to do. Contraband can be bought with money, while items can be used individually or combined with other things to create useful tools. By doing so, you can accept tasks from them, thereby earning money and other items. This isn’t a cruel prison though, so it’s not so hard to keep to the rules.Īs you go about your business, avoiding too much attention, you can converse with the other prisoners. Early on, at least, you want to keep the prison guards happy, so you’re best off keeping your head down and doing what’s expected of you. Each prisoner also has a job assigned to them, such as cleaning up the surrounding areas or dealing with laundry. Typically, this involves leaving your cell in the morning to grab breakfast before partaking in some form of exercise in the exercise yard. Each day in prison follows a set structure. Looking quite reminiscent of the original Grand Theft Auto, a top down perspective is how you approach action in The Escapists.
Control issues let it down a little, but it’s still a rather fine mobile adaptation. Quite cute and charming in its way, it might be lightweight in tone - but there’s plenty of depth within this prison sandbox strategy game. The Escapists has you attempting to escape prison through any means necessary.
A huge hit on pretty much any system you can think of, Team 17 has finally ported it to mobile. The Escapists is one of those simple yet glorious ideas that you’ll wonder why no one else already came up with it.