The Escapists - Not to be mistaken with 'The Escapist'

[twmac]

So, based on the Eurogamer review I ended up buying The Escapists (trailer actually makes the game look less slick than the final version):

 

 

I was really disappointed, everything seemed a little clumsy and repetitive.

 

I don't know what it was but all of a sudden the game just clicked into place when I got to the second prison and I had to devise plastic copies of guard's keys, steal a uniform and then sneak out at night to disable a generator. Learning not to push your chances too much and creating balance in the prison environment made so much sense and I got really into it.

 

I am now on the third prison and I find myself thinking about it when I am doing other things, trying to figure out how to trick the cameras, how to befriend other inmates and figure out how to break through the perimeter wall (I think I might need a sturdy shovel).

 

Anyway, this seems like the kind of game that The Idle Thumbs would love so I was surprised that I couldn't find anyone talking about it.

[J.C.]

I am intrigued by this. I'll have to check it out once I've got my PC running again. Or if it ever comes to PSN.

[Dewar]

I honestly thought this was a game commissioned by The Escapist, so I never even gave it a second look. It'll have to check it out.

[Bjorn]

I honestly thought this was a game commissioned by The Escapist, so I never even gave it a second look. It'll have to check it out.

If it was a game about the Escapist, wouldn't it be about the people who escaped the Escapist, thus earning themselves the true moniker of the Escapists?

[twmac]

You may joke about that, but when I mentioned it at work someone asked me if it was a game made by Yahtzee.

 

If anyone tries it out and wants any advice, then let me know. I forgot to mention that it has Rogue elements to it. For example, if you get beaten up by guards or inmates you lose all your illegal gear (re: useful stuff) and when you escape a prison you lose all your stats, gear and money but keep all the information you have accrued about crafting equipment. 

[J.C.]

Oh man, this sounds so up my alley.

[Ninety-Three]

I tried this out and I have not been liking it. The tutorial feels like it's fifteen seconds long, and fails to teach you a ton of important mechanics, eventually I just read the wiki. It's possible that the criminally brief introduction has left me under-informed about how the game works, so I could be mistaken in what I'm about to say.

 

It seems like escaping always comes back to depending heavily on crafting and tools, which spawn very slowly, forcing me to spend most of my time just waiting. I'll spend my first few days maxing out stats, then the only thing to do is loot everyone's desk, mug anyone carrying a useful tool, and wait for those things to respawn so I can do it five more times until I've built up enough supplies. Left untouched, heat dies down quickly, and relationships trend towards 50%, making those systems feel somewhere between "pointless" and "a brief inconvenience".

 

Can anyone who's played it weigh in, is there something I'm supposed to be doing in this game?

[twmac]

Oh, okay - how much of the Wiki did you look at? Part of what I found fun was dicovering what did and didn't work. Like, how does the contraband bag work and when is it a good time to use the bold cutters on a fence.

 

The lack of information seemed like the point of the game where you are trying balance the unknown with the formulaic. If you took that away from yourself then, yeah, I can imagine it might be a little tedious.

 

Last night I discovered that I don't need a screwdriver to open vents and instead I can use bolt cutters. That was a mini triumph/face palm situation for me that I imagine wouldn't have had the same impact if I had looked up an answer.

[Ninety-Three]

I didn't memorize every recipe or anything, though I did spoil myself on how to make tools (because it seems like the only way to learn in-game is to luck out and have that crafting note be exacty what you need, or spend hours doing the adventure game "Rub every item on every other item" thing).

 

My big problem though is that my progress seems to be gated entirely by my ability to acquire tools, and there's nothing I can do to increase the positively glacial speed at which that happens. I'm just stuck checking everyone's inventories and desks, then twiddling my thumbs waiting for them to refresh. Eventually I'll hoard enough to make some progress. Is that working as intended, or am I missing something? Should I be mugging every inmate I see in case they have a file in their pocket that's not for sale?

[twmac]

Yes, frequently inmates will have content that they are not selling. That's why you indulge in helping out people when they want someone beaten up. Other ways of getting is to take on jobs.

 

If someone is doing a job that you want, shiv them during the work period to make them fail and then take on their job.

 

The game has its own tip system via the phone booth that you pay for recipes, if you look them up then you have kind of invalidated one of the reasons for currency. The glacial pace, I fear, is caused by you looking them up instead of using some of the systems in the game. That, and you sound like you are really good at min/maxing, not upsetting the guard etc.

 

What prison are you on?

[Ninety-Three]

I am still on the first non-tutorial prison. I've been there a while, because I keep losing all my progress when I get caught by some bullshit untutorialized rule like "Tower guards can't see you at night, unless you're digging" or any one of the many "Oops, you got magically caught, no you can't evade any guards, get teleported directly to solitary" situations. The pay phone definitely does not unlock recipes which is why I wikied tool recipes, I have neither the time nor the patience to rub everything on everything else, and one definitely needs those recipes. Everything I can do requires tools to break through something, and then often paper mache so that I'm not magically teleported to solitary (         ) when someone notices a missing vent/wall/etc and omnisciently determines me to be the culprit. Even spending all my time searching desks/buying from inmates (I'm swimming in money)/mugging inmates, those resources (the biggest bottleneck being files/premade tools) just arrive so damn slowly. I could take a job that yields metal or lumber, but I find enough of that in my quest for other resources.

 

It feels like I'm playing an MMO, grinding mobs with a 1% droprate. It's boring, samey, and slow. I assume that you don't have that problem, could you give me an idea of how you play the game? How do you gather resources, and how much time (over the course of one prison) do you spend gathering each resource?

[twmac]

Oh man.
 
If you mean prison 1.

 

Just go to the Mess Hall during a meal and beat up all the guards (I recommend getting a padded uniform for this as it will protect you). You will enter lock down mode and have 2 minutes, if you then knock out one more guard the front doors will open you can exit the prison in no time at all

 

The thing is, a lot of what you are trying to do does not become pertinent into Prison 2 and 3.

 

My routine for these so far has been:

 

- Keep my job until I have around 200 (I might keep my job after that but usually the tension with other inmates and guards has escalated to the point that it is untennable

- Look for obvious weak points, plot out the guards routes to see where they are least likely to go

- Once a day, try and knock one of the guards out without getting caught and check to see if they have a key that you need (write their name down on a piece of paper if they do as this equipement shouldn't change) - if you can make that part of one of your tasks even better

- Once you have your route down wait until evening roll call, if youdo not have a key to your cell - don't worry just have all your gear ready 

- Try it and see! If you fail try and identify whether it was your plan that was weak or your execution as everything from whether you were doing it in a guard path or in a well lit area will have an effect

 

General tips:

- Guard uniforms are really useful but if you get identified by name, knock that guard out

- Two simultaneously knocked out guards usually means lock down, this is not the end of the world if you are about to escape but if you aren't get back to your cell immediately and wait for guard attention to die down

- Don't upset the other prisoners unless you need to and never upset the guy you share a cell with as he will rat you out to the guards if you do

- You can weaken fences and turf during the day and it will stay damaged for a while as long as you don't get put into solitary

- Green items don't need to be stored in your stash spot in the early levels - you can leave them on the floor

- Only have as many red/orange items as you can store on your person - if you get a random cell search you can rush back to your cell before they get there and put them on your person

- If you get into a fight with a prisoner try and lead him away from guards

- You can run away from guards in most scenarios until they give up, that changes when you hit 98-99 alert level from Prison 3 onwards

[Ninety-Three]

 -Green items don't need to be stored in your stash spot in the early levels - you can leave them on the floor

- Only have as many red/orange items as you can store on your person - if you get a random cell search you can rush back to your cell before they get there and put them on your person

 

Based on prison 1, I've found that items left on the ground, even in my cell, will get picked up by guards and vanish, while illegal items stashed in someone else's cell seem invincible. Is that wrong/unique to prison 1?

[twmac]

I would have to go back and check for Prison 1.

 

Prison 2 and 3 you can leave legal items anywhere, unless you get put into solitary and then they disappear. Illegal items will get picked up.

[Ninety-Three]

So I finally finished Prison 1 by giving up on subtlety and just KOing four guards. Made it to prison 2, and I've run into exactly the same problem as 1. I need tools, files and duct tape to make them, or I need lighters and talcum powder to make keys, and the only way to get them is a daily desk check on the other prisoners, or waiting for something useful to be randomly sold. It's frustratingly slow, but more than that, it's frustrating that I can't make it go faster. In a day's gameplay, I'll spend maybe four in-game hours actually -gathering- stuff, and the rest is either just killing time, or following the schedule to lower heat. My prison 1 problem is repeated exactly, so to reopen that question now that I'm at prison 2:

 

It feels like I'm playing an MMO, grinding mobs with a 1% droprate. It's boring, samey, and slow. I assume that you don't have that problem, could you give me an idea of how you play the game? How do you gather resources, and how much time (over the course of one prison) do you spend gathering each resource?

[twmac]

Right, I guess this is a problem for you.

 

For me the tension of keeping everything on an even keel (the heat from the guards and the distaste of the prisoners becomes more important as you need to keep your bunk mate happy), foraging for supplies and biding my time was compelling. In many ways it reminded me of Don't Starve and Minecraft in that respect. The quiet moments helped build up to the excitement of the escape attempts.

 

It normally took me about 2 days to get the gear I needed (once you start a prison the same guards should always the keys you want).

 

It sounds to me like this game really isn't for you, you definitely persevered with it for long enough.

[Ninety-Three]

It normally took me about 2 days to get the gear I needed (once you start a prison the same guards should always the keys you want).

 

I am clearly doing something wrong. In two days, I will maybe be able to assemble a single tool or plastic key. Is there some magic ritual used to reset desk contents and shop inventories? I just hit desks every day, and check out maybe four shops that spring up over the course of a day.