Escape Plan

Introduction

Designed by the producers and creative team that were behind the comic medieval adventure game Fat Princess on the PlayStation 3, Escape Plan puts the player into control of two unlikely heroes named Lil and Larg looking to escape from a depressing, industrial factory. Aptly named, Lil is a little wisp of person and incredibly skinny while Larg is extremely obese, but can throw weight around when needed. The duo team up to get away from an evil genius named Bakuki that’s designed tons of deathly traps throughout the entire factory. While the game is generally light on the narrative and doesn’t dive into the motivation behind Bakuki’s madness, the story is lighthearted and provides entertainment between different portions of the factory.

The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take

Structured as a typical puzzle game, the developer introduces the player to all the actions available on the touchscreen through pop-up notifications during the early levels. For instance, Lil can drink a cup of coffee in a level to gain energy for quick bursts. This energy is released by “squeezing” Lil with finger taps on the front and back touchscreens at the same time. Movement of the two characters is contolled by swiping a finger across the character in the direction that they need to move and tapping that character will stop them in their tracks. Larg also includes the ability to bust through wooden sections of the floor.

Another interesting use of the Vita’s functionality includes the ability to alter the direction of Lil after the character consumes helium. Once Lil becomes a floating object, the player uses the accelerometer to control the angle at which Lil ascends. Tapping on Lil releases the helium in a comical moment of flatulence and allows the character to descend in the same manner. Since Bakuki leaves plenty of nasty, sharp blades mounted to the walls to deter Lil, it makes for some tense situations when navigating the character around the level. Since only the initial actions are explained, the developer often relies on trial and error for the player to continue. Death is a necessity, but not an annoying one. Each level is typically around 30 seconds to one minute long when performed correctly and the game reloads the level almost immediately after a death.

The biggest fault of the developers is forcing the player to perform a series of relatively precise taps and swipes over a period of a few seconds. The Vita definitely feels awkward in your hands while attempting to swipe on the front screen to start character movement, then tap on the back several times to push open a timed platform as they walk across the screen. This only gets worse when the player also has to hold down a finger on the screen to block a steam pipe or spin a fan in the room with a circular motion in order to clear out the poisonous smoke. Add in attempting to zoom in and out of the screen with the analog stick and your fingers are ultimately playing a freaky game of Twister.

However, the developer allows the player to skip any level that’s too tough to complete. It’s useful after becoming too frustrated with a puzzle; however the developer does a good job of interspersing easy levels among the extremely difficult ones. The game’s scoring system counts the number of interactions with either touchscreen during each level and assigns the player a star rating based on the number. The goal is to traverse the level with the fewest number of interactions, a difficult goal until the player understands the layout of the entire level.