To talk about the crafting system, we first have to touch on the stats system because they’re tied together. Of course, your skill level will determine how well you can pull off an elaborate escape. I’m not going to give anything about the game away, but The Escapists 2 allows you to get pretty creative in your escape methods. You can pay for hints from a pay phone that will help you see things that you may not have noticed. The normal method of escape is to dig to the outer perimeter or break through a perimeter wall, but those are far from the only methods. These prisons don’t include a time-limit so you can do things as slowly as you’d like.
You also have free time where you can perform favours for other inmates for cash, find objects to help you escape, and power-up your stats. Admittedly, it does get a little bit repetitive and after you do this the first 5 or 6 times, you’ll probably be dreading it. That means you need to exercise, shower, go to meals, do work, and make roll call. You have to follow normal prison routines to avoid suspicion from the guards. Speaking of the regular prisons, they play much like a real prison would. Police dogs can send you to the infirmary. I liked the addition of these different levels, I feel like it gives that game much more variety than just having the standard prisons. I will say that the guards are much harder to avoid because the spaces are much more condensed. I did find these types of prisons much easier to escape because there aren’t so many moving parts. The time limit requires you to use every moment wisely and to devise a concrete plan of escape. These transport prisons are quite different from regular prisons. These require you to escape before the time limit is up. The last one is a transport prison which is a new type of prison in The Escapists 2. These prisons are Centre Perks 2.0, Rattlesnake Springs, and Cougar Creek Railroad. You can choose between 3 prisons to start out. I do wish that the tutorial was a bit more in-depth because I still felt like I had a lot more to learn once I was finished with it. This quickly shows you some of the fundamental elements that will aid you in making your escape. When you start up The Escapists 2, you’re encouraged to play through the tutorial prison to understand the basics of the game. The speech bubbles in The Escapists 2 can be quite comical. Luckily for me, Mouldy Toof Studios have made sure that The Escapists 2 improves on the first game in some monumental ways. This game looked really cool to me and it made me regret not looking into the first game more. That wasn’t the case for The Escapists 2. It never really peaked my interest and it quickly became a forgotten title for me. I never got the chance to play The Escapists when it came out a few years ago.
*A copy of this game was provided to FYIG by Team 17 for review purposes* Is breaking out of a prison with up to three other friends really as fun as it sounds? Find out right here in our The Escapists 2 Review.