I spent a few fun evenings playing Escape Simulator in 2022. Of the cooperative escape games I’ve played, this was the best, both in terms of its relatively neutral setting (with little ponderous storytelling) and its pretty solid puzzle design. The game has since been expanded with a versus mode and several crossover DLCs, and now a sequel has arrived.
Escape Simulator 2 will explore “darker escape room themes”, look more detailed and include a modern editor for those who want to design their own escape rooms.
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Why a sequel when the original was already updated so regularly? “The sequel gives us a fresh start and allows us to continue to push the boundaries of the genre,” he says Steam page. “We were inspired by exploring the darker themes of escape rooms and experimenting with new gameplay and puzzle ideas. Separating ourselves from the original game allowed us to focus on improving key features such as rendering, networking, physics and animations.”
I’m not entirely sure what “darker” means in the context of solving silly pattern-matching puzzles with my friends, but Pine Studio also explains that while “darker and has a more mysterious feel, it’s not a horror game.” Contains “no jump scares or gore.” Good! That’s not why I play these games. I play them for the feeling of inferiority that comes from having my co-workers solve all the puzzles faster than me.
The original escape simulator came with a toolkit that community members used to create many of their own escape rooms. The sequel follows suit, but promises that Room Editor 2.0 will be “more powerful and intuitive” with fewer limitations compared to the way they create official rooms.
There is no release date yet, but some of the locations at launch include Dracula’s castle, a spaceship stranded after a collision, and a pirate ship. Until you can get away from these, you can try the original and it’s currently 50% off. on Steam – and it’s not particularly costly to start with.
