Review: Escape
Score:
71%
Zen-like puzzles? Chill out? Casual and fun? Yes, the flavour text for Escape certainly appeals to me. The game itself does deliver, but with a few quirks and one gotcha in the game design. I wouldn't say it's zen, but it's certainly a relaxing and slow paced little number that I'm enjoying.
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The goal in each level is simple, you need to remove all the little circles on the ground... by stepping on them. Do that, jump to the next one, and that disappears. Plan your route to hit all the circles, one clear screen, and birds will suddenly appear, and the next level will be near. Okay you only have the four cardinal directions (up, down, left and right), and it's more about careful planning than zen-like 'just go with the flow', but there's no time limit, no enemy creatures, no pressure, just the puzzle.
So the moment before you start moving, when you start to plan the level, and work out how to connect all the dots with a single line of movement (after turning the corners, you understand) is the Zen moment before the action starts.
There is one quirk here that has caught me out a few times and I don't understand the rationale. You can't do a 180 degree turn. So if you press "up" to get to a circle, you have to leave that space with an "up, left or right", you can't backtrack with a "down". Why, I don't know, but if there are three circles in a line left on a level, and you've landed on the middle one, you're out of luck. There's no jump forward and then a chance to shimmy back to get the last one.
The other thing that upsets me is the rhythm of the game. Because your character moves at a constant speed, but the distance between circles is variable, I can't build up a constant move - beat - move - beat - move pattern while playing. Given the idea of everything being mapped out first, it feels strange to have to stop and look to the screen to check when you can move again. It just upsets the calm nature of Escape.
Beyond that, I can live with the on screen controls that seem to be lifted from an early nineties "how to program a touch screen PDA" book (although it would have been nice if the E7 cursor keys had worked as well). Really, we're resorting to huge buttons on the bottom of the screen instead of invisible on screen areas, tilt sensors, or even a sliding finger to identify a direction? There are a lot of options that AMA could have gone with, and I fear they've gone with an option that kills any aesthetic.
However. while a second pass over the code to make it look more like a Symbian application with a consistent UI is almost demanded, it's not enough to stop me enjoying this game. Long and deep, but in short bursts, there are more than enough levels here to keep you playing for as long as you want (welcome to a world of endless levels and multiple levels of complexity), it's smart and makes you think, and while it can take you out of the mood, it does go some way to the Zen it promises. It's far away from perfection, but the rough edges don't hide the charm.
-- Ewan Spence, Sept 2011.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at