It’s not often that a game makes me reflect on my life outside of the virtual realm. Sure, I have had a few RPGs make me reflect on who I am as a person in real life based on the choices I made, but How 2 Escape really hammered in the realization that I don’t have many friends in my life. It’s something I don’t usually take time to dwell on and am generally pretty comfortable enough in my own skin that I don’t need to fall back on other people, but being required to actually communicate to work through the many puzzles thrown at me was a change of pace.
This is easily one of the most innovative games of the year, as it almost requires two players to complete. I say almost because it is possible to complete the game solo, but I wouldn’t recommend it as it becomes even more stressful as a single-player experience, and if you fail, you have no one else to blame. This is due to the big ask of having one player explore the world in a first-person perspective like they would any other puzzle game out there while the other communicates verbally while using an app via their smartphone. Connectiom is entirely up to you, whether you’re in the same room, over the phone, using Zoom, Skype, or any of the other options out there. This easily would’ve been a sleeper hit had it been released during the pandemic for obvious reasons and is a bit of a missed opportunity. Connecting with the other player is actually the easiest part since the app is pretty basic and just starts with a menu allowing them to select the area the other player is working through on their console or PC, asking for a numeric code that the main player would have to locate and then move on to the puzzles.
The title is almost entirely puzzle-based, as it places the main player in the shoes of Emmy, who is trapped on a train and must reach the front car to pull the brake and escape, while her brother Johann is helping her solve the puzzles via his phone, placing the other player at the other end of the phone. It was a smart move that added to the immersion and made it so that literally anyone who owns a smartphone could play with you. Or so it seems.
My first attempt at this game was with my wife being in the same room. We quickly got the mechanics down and worked our way through the initial room, tasking her with clicking off a few things on her end as I described what I could see, eventually giving her the answer to what I needed to move forward. It was honestly some of our best teamwork outside of raising our child and seemed like we were going to be naturals at this and breeze our way through the game. If Morgan Freeman is narrating my life somewhere, this is where he would’ve chimed in to let everyone know, I couldn’t have been any more wrong if I tried.
What followed in the next room tested both our patience and revealed some things about ourselves, as well as this game that we clearly were not prepared for. First off, while I consider my wife to be an intelligent woman, she doesn’t do well with logic, nor does she have some prerequisite knowledge that the game really hinged on, namely the Roman cipher. Making matters worse, neither of us are musically inclined, nor do we know much about Morse Code. This led to us struggling through the second car, with only one of the three major puzzles that needed to be completed by the time the timer on the door ticked away. Around the mid-way point, we sat in silence since we had already wasted all of our hint tokens, which offer single words on a slip of paper that don’t explain much outside of what basic logic would, while I clicked around on random things hoping for something to magically unlock out of pure luck. This never came and resulted in my wife throwing in the towel and hoping I never brought up playing this game again, something she later admitted once I mentioned trying to complete the puzzles again after finding a handy video someone else had placed on YouTube.
Normally, my go-to co-operative partners are my wife and kid, and after checking my wife off the list on this one and figuring that the 10-year-old boy’s brain has not evolved far enough to be much help, I reached out to some of my not-so-local friends for assistance. However, time zones and life got in the way, leaving me with the only option of proceeding for this review as going in solo, which I did. This became somewhat problematic for me, as I was left juggling my phone along with the controller at a somewhat rapid pace as I fought the timer. I wish this had been enough for me to find my way to the front of the train, save Emmy, and watch the credits roll, but sadly, that is not the case as the puzzles found within have broken me, as well as the rest of the internet because as of this writing, I have yet to find a complete guide for the game that would assist me in making my way to the climax.
My review may not be the best guide to assess whether this is an experience for you or not, but from what I did experience, I can see the appeal for those who share the escape room style mindset with at least one friend. I really enjoyed the first-person visuals that use a comic book-like style of animation that almost felt like I was in a less sinister version of Saw, and I got decent dopamine hits when I was able to figure out some of the more taxing puzzles found within.
On the downside, I really didn’t care for some of the tasks that focused on knowledge that wouldn’t be found within the game, such as reading music or deciphering Morse Code. I feel like unless you’re going to give me a rapid-fire crash course on the topic, it should be left at the door. I also found the hint system to be mostly useless since the words found on them are generally so basic my usual reply to them was “well, no shit Sherlock.”
How 2 Escape is a game that I would only recommend to those who have a love for escape rooms and share that affinity with someone in their life. It will test your IQ, your patience, and your relationship in ways you may never have experienced elsewhere. May the odds be in your favor.
7 out of 10
Pros
- Great Cel-Shaded Visuals
- It Encourages Communication and Teamwork
- Some Legitimately Fun Puzzles
- A Unique Co-Operative Mechanic
Cons
- Some Puzzles Are Overly Reliant On Outside Knowledge
- It Generally Requires Two Players to Proceed
- The Hints Offered are Garbage
How 2 Escape was developed by Breakfirst Games and published by Just For Games. It launched on NS, PC, PS4, PS5, X1 and XSX. The game was provided to us for review on XSX. If you’d like to see more of How 2 Escape, check out the publisher’s site.
Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.
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