Escape Academy Preview – A Campus Tour Of This Colorful Escape Room Simulator

The popularity of escape rooms has increased over the past decade. However, the Pandemic has hampered the actual experience. Escape Academy brings the concept home, expanding the concept into a broader adventure set in an unusual university. 

The role of a student at an escape school is to control the new student. Nearly all of the corridors, floors, and rooms in this establishment contain a puzzle. This is true even for the mysterious faculty. First-person games require you to solve escape rooms themed after academic subjects. You can either do this alone or in a group. split-screen co-op (Both online and in-person. You will graduate if you collect eight badges. Your semester is driven by a central story, however developer Coin Crew Games keeps the details of that plot under wraps. 

Coin Crew Games’ members have a love for escape rooms. They created the game to address the lack of ability to play in person during COVID lockdowns. The game also incorporates elements they love from popular destinations. Additional inspiration was provided by series like Zero Escape and The Room. The studio categorizes Escape Academy as an “escape room game” rather than a puzzle game. It is different from traditional puzzles in that they present one challenge but escape rooms have multiple challenges that connect and are parallel to one another toward a single goal, which is getting out. 

They are both unique in their aesthetics and the number of puzzles contained within them. For example, one level unfolds in the sewer-dwelling of the school’s janitor, which is rapidly filling with water. Each stage allots a limited amount of time to get out as you scour rooms for every clue you can find. You must be able to open locks or decipher codes. Coin Crew Games eliminated red herrings, a key element of real-life escape room rooms. You won’t find useless objects designed to intentionally mislead you as the studio figures players will bamboozle themselves anyway. 

If you get stuck, the hint system is a virtual escape room master that provides useful nudges. Hints have a time limit and can affect your score. Split-screen co-op is a great way to play the whole game. Escape rooms can be more enjoyable when you have a buddy who has similar ideas. Split-screen is a great way to play online while keeping your screen clear. Simple: it allows players to check on each other’s progress via screen-peeking. 

Two escape rooms were completed during the session. The first takes place in the headmaster’s office. As the clock ticked, I instantly felt a sense if urgency. The combination lock for a briefcase contained symbols that resembled objects within the room. Locked drawers require a key. I had to find the name and address of the headmaster in order to escape the room. This was done by connecting environmental dots. I won’t spoil any solutions, but every answer made sense, and puzzles naturally flowed and built upon each other. This room was easy to escape and I received high marks for how fast I solved the puzzles and how many hints I used. 

My next room, a computer lab, proved far more challenging. Gaining freedom required me to hack into a conscious – and sassy – A.I. server. The puzzles in this room proved to be a real brain buster as I needed to restore power to the room, deactivate a laser grid, hunt the class’ pet mouse, and even play a creative take on sudoku. I got stuck multiple times, forcing me to turn to the hint system that provides enough guidance to spark “aha!” moments without giving away solutions. Thanks to the cleverly-designed math-based puzzle, I was able to complete this one in no time. It required me to make physical notes and take them to pieces. This is something that the team supports. I didn’t see any repeated ideas from the previous room, something Coin Crew says is by design: no two puzzles in Escape Academy are alike. 

Escape Academy’s campus tour was a pleasant experience. My favorite puzzle game is The Room. I enjoy solving complex riddles in order to reach a greater goal. So far, Escape Academy nails the satisfaction of unraveling giant yarn balls of secrets and feeling like a genius. I’m curious to see how the other rooms fare and how its narrative ties the experience together. Thankfully, the game isn’t far off from release. Escape Academy will launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on June 28, as well as on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.