Escape Academy is a fantastic addition to the Xbox Game Pass library, offering a relaxing way to spend a few hours escaping a room without actually having to venture out of your real-world home. Here are our first impressions.
I was interested in Escape Academy from the moment I had a chance to see it during a preview event in May, so I jumped at the chance of playing it a little earlier for the purpose of this article. The developers at Coin Crew actually have experience with building real-world escape rooms, so I was eager to see if the game could mirror the fun of those real-life experiences. Below, I’ve laid out my first impressions of the game from playing through the first couple of hours, but you won’t have long to wait until you can decide for yourself — Escape Academy launches tomorrow, July 14th, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass, PS5, PS4, Microsoft Store, Epic Games Store, and Steam.
Escape Academy launch trailer
It’s no secret at this point, that games without death and destruction are generally outside of my remit. While this might be true, my time working with my colleagues at TrueAchievements has opened my eyes to the wonderful nature of puzzle games, and most notably, escape rooms, thanks to our various team-building days of fun. It’s not like Escape Academy doesn’t have any form of threatening hazards either — in my first couple of hours of playing I’ve had to escape a room filling up with water!
If you had hopes of playing this with your kids, fear not, because it’s violence-free and you’ll just wander about under the water quite comfortably until the timer runs out and you’re forced to either restart the puzzle or add extra time (for a lower score), which resets the “threat.” As I said in my introduction, Escape Acadamy is relaxing from the very start, and while the pressure does mount up as your allocated time begins to trickle down to zero, getting a lower grade doesn’t impact you negatively at all and you can just retry it as many times as you wish. It’s wrapped in a colourfully drawn art style that gives the game a stress-free vibe, and the accompanying soundtrack is just as laid-back.
In my time with the game so far, I’ve learned that the main character is rather unhappy with their current occupation, so seeks a moment of solace in a shopping mall’s escape room, which in turn sends them spiralling into the world of escape artists. From the very first moment you’re given control of the first-person sight of your character, you’re already inside the mall’s escape room. The opening puzzles are fairly straightforward and reminiscent of real-world escape rooms; locate a missing item, find hidden letters and numbers to solve puzzles, etc, the good stuff. And, if you get stuck, there are always hints to use. From the off, it just feels like an escape room instead of a puzzle game of sorts. In fact, before you take control of the character you have to sign a waiver (common in real-world escape rooms) which gives you the control inputs in a fun and friendly manner. It’s a small gesture, but one that I found to be particularly entertaining, especially for something as mundane as a game’s controls.
Each part of the story so far has been layered with an escape room, and it blends the storytelling and main gameplay aspects comfortably… well, it has so far. The rooms haven’t been overly difficult to work out, although I have run overtime on a couple of occasions (something tells me that I’m not as helpful as I think I am on our staff outings), so I ran back through them again. Each of the rooms is identical each time you run it, so once you know what you’re doing and where to look for everything, you can work through them again in a fraction of the time. I’m not sure how many achievements there are for completing them quickly because the achievements weren’t live when I wrote this, but I did unlock one for completing a room in under three minutes (yeah, I’m a boss), due to already knowing the codes to its doors. I have a feeling that Escape Academy will become another Xbox Game Pass quick completion once there are guides up, but from what I’ve played so far, it’ll be worth enjoying through natural play.
Currently, my only gripe is with the controls, which seem to have a little drift on them when looking around the room, so I’ve had to turn the look sensitivity down. It’s not exactly a big deal, though, and it can be quickly adjusted in the game’s settings menu. Within the menu, you’ll find various audio controls, subtitle and Colourblind Mode controls, look and cursor sensitivity sliders, inverted look options, and an aim assist mode, so all the basic accessibility options you’d expect to find in a modern game. It doesn’t offer you the accessibility options when first booting up the game, though, and while it’s not something I personally require, it is something I have a habit of noticing now that it’s becoming a common feature in video games.
From my short amount of time with the game so far, Escape Academy is proving to be an enjoyable experience with a varied set of puzzling rooms to explore. It’s definitely worth giving a go if you have an Xbox Game Pass subscription — or if you feel like having a real-world adventure without leaving your room.
