To put it bluntly, it feels like I’m grinding to get to the good parts.

These excursions are more of a necessity for enabling The Escapist 2’s finest moments, slowly assembling the ingredients needed to make a valiant break for freedom. Your rewards for this are a handful of coins that can be used to purchase tools and additional crafting components. I was either tasked with battering a misbehaving prisoner or hunting down materials to craft specific tools. Completing favours for others is a big part of The Escapists 2, so it’s unfortunate that so many of the tasks are pedestrian. Dropping by the canteen or attending roll-call each day also provides an opportunity to accept quests from fellow prisoners, while kissing up to guards with a bribe or two. Completing tasks given by superiors to avoid suspicion is critical as you plan your escape.

Experimenting with each new stage is a delight, and discovering its inner workings is a worthwhile challenge that, sadly, stumbles into tedium on occasion.Īfter being hurled into a cell, you’ll be a regular part of prison life. Every prison is cleverly designed with its own distinctive style and layout, whether it be a futuristic space station or a sun-drenched desert wasteland. Pick from an assortment of maps and you’ll be drafted into a new facility by the warden and his subordinates. The sole objective in The Escapists 2 is to, well, escape. The Escapists 2 offers you a chance to escape this life in a goofy prison simulator, where your job is to walk away unnoticed by any means necessary – even if it means starting a fight, or literally digging your way to freedom.

Every day is the same, following a strict routine with a mandatory curfew that confines you to a claustrophobic cell, with only your own thoughts as company. Your every movement is scrutinised by guards and hounds ready to pounce. Available on Nintendo Switch (version tested), PS4, Xbox One, PC and Mac.

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