“If you disobey the rules of the prison … they send you to us”
For those who had never played the first (which could take the contours of a big spot in the conscience of you video game players), The Escapists 2 takes on the winning formula of the first chapter and reproduces it improved, lightened and streamlined in its most tedious parts crafting and resource exploration to escape. Because the purpose of the game, as easily perceived, will be to escape the prison where our avatar is locked up, and to do this we will need all of our wit and intelligence.
In the early access version we tried, the prisons were two, but from the very first moments we were faced with the improvements in this new chapter. The secret to fleeing is to create useful objects for escape, buying materials to the black market, or stealing from other detainees. To do this, we will have a series of sub-quest to follow, which can be shared between the work to be done for the penitentiary, and the Favors to embezzle the other detainees.
The variety is great and will hardly be found in the first few hours of playing two equal requests. This, married to the routine at which the prison is subjected to and which we should force to attend (group activities such as air and gymnastic time, for example) will ensure that the game acquires a major tactical and strategic component.
Eg, a mission is over and some of these items have been recovered, we should be careful of our subsequent moves (some are mandatory because of the common life of the prison). If we were searched or suspected in the guards, we could raise the alert level of the entire penitentiary by slowing down our escape plans or, in the worst case scenario, we will be beaten and beaten in isolation.
In our help, there will be better object logistics and a fully customizable crafting system: from the beginning we will not need any lists, we will already know the materials used to craft certain objects, saving us time and focusing more on gameplay, also improved in many respects.
We start from the combat system, for example, which has been rethought and up-to-date, making the clashes more fun and instant thanks to the loaded shots and target locks. It has never been so fun to take part in the jokes in the dining room!
Even our avatar has undergone important refinements and in addition to the classic features of Life and Energy, other parameters such as Strength and Intelligence have been added that will vary the outcome of quests and jobs that we will be obliged to accept.
“We did not create good citizens, but we create good prisoners”
The improvements in this new The Escapists are so many and you can see them right away. We start from graphics, which, like any vintage generation change that is respected, passes from a graceful 8-bit to a more elegant and dynamic 16-bit. The system of shadows and patterns has been completely revised, so the same avatars, which now look more alive and less puppy, customizable in so many ways and thus all different from each other.
But the great additions that detach this The Escapists from the previous one are those related to the gameplay architecture and the online component. With regard to the architecture of prison levels, it has been completely revised, adding several plans to the same penitentiary and, consequently, greatly varying approaches to fleeing and studying patterns of seconds, dogs and snipers.
We will have various modes, both locally and online, where we could play both in co-op and versus. In co-op it will be nice to agree to distract the guards: a bit like in Ali of Freedom, while a player will create a diversion, the other can wander undisturbed in search of the materials needed to escape.
Also interesting is the Versus mode, a simplified mode in which two opponent players will have to fight, during a single day, to escape: the first of the two to go alive the gates will have won.
