I was a big fan of Escape Academy when it launched. The Xpod Tavern crew picked it for our Project Game Pass game of the month and it proved to be one of our more resoundingly popular picks among the team. Now, just shy of a year since then, Coin Crew Games have released the second and final DLC for the game, titled Escape from the Past. I’m pleased to report that , while short, that same escape room magic is there, making this essential for anyone even remotely interested in solo or co-op puzzling.
Escape from the Past features five new puzzle scenarios for players to contend with. These range from a head to head race against a co-op buddy to solving a Cluedo-style murder mystery. As before, each of the levels are graded for difficulty and also given a set time limit, with this DLC having some of the toughest challenges yet. These can be played solo or in co-op; I played strictly in co-op with BFF and fellow Tavern crewmember Graham, and we had a blast over two nights.
The genius of Escape Academy is in granting both players free range tackle the puzzles together by presenting the action in split screen by default, even during online play. A squeeze of the right trigger widens the view out so we can see the whole screen on our side, which is needed at times as the cropped split screen view occasionally hides items out of sight. But for the most part, we’re playing while able to see what the other player can see too. This is used brilliantly in sections where we need to memorise a code or pattern, but also is handy just for seeing what the other player is doing or finding. More than once one of us spotted the other find an item that was exactly what we were looking for.
Mainly though, it comes in handy when one of us was stuck on an element. I am, to put it mildly, dreadful at maths and chess-based puzzles, and so when I was trying to solve one of the many number puzzles Graham was able to glance at my screen and hep even while still doing his own thing, and visa versa when he was stuck on one of the sliding tile puzzles.
In fact, we found it funny how often we’d both be working on separate puzzles only to glance at the other players screen and instantly help them out without even realising it. We are both big fans of titles like We Were Here and its more hardcore approach to co-op puzzling, but for Escape Academy we were more than happy to have this as an option.
You can read more about the base game as a whole in my review, but know that Escape from the Past takes everything we enjoyed there and just ramps it up. The five puzzles on offer have multiple layers to them, and even the one or two that start with no time limit soon reveal extra challenge that can catch you off guard.
My favourite one was probably the level set in a restaurant, where we need to cook up the chef’s special dishes using various clues around the environment to unlock the areas to grab ingredients, before…well, things take a twist. It rarely gets more hectic than when we’re down to five minutes left and we’ve still got two course to get out of the door, or are still looking for a set of keys to unlock a boot of a car so we can launch a rocket, or… well, I won’t spoil more as part of the fun is seeing the outlandish set-ups Coin Crew have concocted.
Just know that if you enjoyed the base game – or indeed first DLC pack Anti-Escape Island – then there’s more of that goodness here. There are some real headscratchers to be found in Escape from the Past, and we definitely made use of the ability to add on 5 more minutes at the cost of a better end grade once or twice. It also feels like there are a lot more red herring items dotted around which only further agonises as we hunted for anything useful only to be delivered some Dad-joke puns or other non-sequitur as we clicked on the same items over and over again.
All in all it probably took us between four and five hours to beat, and the only real let down here is that there are only those five new levels to play. Rooms like this must take an age to design and build, and we can only hope there’s a more fully featured sequel down the line with a healthy dose more of new rooms to conquer.
Conclusion
Escape from the Past sticks true to what made Escape Academy brilliant, and expands it with five tough but fun new challenges. Well worth a look for those who’ve already had the joy of the previous work, but equally recommended to those even mildly curious.
Become a Patron!This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
