Fans of puzzle games and general teamwork-based activities have been the customer base behind the rise in escape rooms’ popularity. Following this popularity, there have been a handful of games developed with this concept in mind. While the realm of a video game invites a wider range of creativity, there is always room for more versions.

Bringing a more literal version of the escape room games that are designed more like the ones you can find in real life is Pine Studio with their game Escape Simulator. They are putting players in a single room with a complex series of puzzles to solve in order to find their way out and using the freedom that developing a video game provides over a real-life escape room. Not only did this game get off on a strong foot with their initial rooms, but it is sure to grow into more with a community behind it.

Gameplay

Just as you would expect from any escape room, you pick the room you want to solve and are thrown in to get started. There aren't any explanations or stories given in any rooms, but they definitely put some life behind the designs of each room. When you start the game, they have a tutorial area that is designed like a kid’s room then three different environments with five puzzle rooms each – Egypt, Space, and Mansion.

When you start a room, regardless if doing so solo or with a coop partner, it is completely up to you to figure out what to do and how to get started. They aren't very big rooms, so give it a quick look around, collect some items that seem important, and then start on the first puzzle. The puzzles vary in style and there aren't very many lock-and-key puzzles, so be ready to actually use your mind to get through these.

Each room gives you a limited amount of time to complete and earn a trophy point for solving it within the time limit. However, if you go over the time limit the game doesn't kick you and still lets you finish it. This is handy if you are trying to find all of the hidden tokens that are scattered around each room to find, as they are the only collectible in the game but are consistently in each room.

The controls are honestly a little rough to figure out when you start. You can collect items, throw items, examine items, interact with objects, and pin items. There is also a trash bin in every room if you feel the clutter is a problem to solving the puzzles. Essentially, you left-click on the mouse to pick up an item and right-click while holding the item to put it in your inventory. If you left-click while holding an item, you will throw it. Press E while holding an item to examine it where you can move it around and interact with it. If you have a clue that you want to refer to while solving a puzzle, you can pin it with the icon that is found at the top of the screen while examining it. Once you pin it, you can move it around so it is where you want it to be on your screen. Then you can interact with the puzzle while looking at the notes at the same time.111

Now, as for the part where I said this game has room to grow with the community. Along with the initial fifteen levels they have set up in the game, they have also given this game a level designer for players to create their own escape rooms for others to solve! While I am not a handy level designer myself, it did seems to have all the tools you would need to set up the rooms however you wanted, but it may take some time to learn how to do this. I didn't see a tutorial on how to use these tools either, so that would have been something handy to have included for interested users.

Visual and Audio

Neither the graphics nor the audio design in this game is really intriguing. The music in the game is all very subtle and mainly there to just not leave the player in silence, but it is themed to whatever room you are doing. The graphics are pretty cartoonistic and have more effort put into the level itself than the characters, which was a smart choice. You can easily tell what everything is and should be able to see everything fairly well thanks to the simplistic and colorful nature of the chosen art style.

Replayability

While I don't see a reason to replay the rooms you have already completed, the community behind this game is sure to start pumping out awesome escape rooms for players to start solving. Thanks to this feature, this game does have some actual replay value.

What Could Be Better

When you do an escape room in real life, they always provide a limited number of hints for when you get stuck. This game only offers the ability to turn on item hints which basically just shows you if an item is a key item or space filler. There are no actual hints for when players get stuck. They definitely should have provided something for players that get stuck, even if it had a limited number of uses.

The controls were a bit rough to get used to, but end up working out after solving a few rooms. I can't help but feel that this could have been improved on though. The game is designed to be played with the mouse and keyboard but doesn't seem to be designed to take advantage of the number of keys available. There is really no reason to have multiple controls put into one key or button when there aren't a lot of controls needed for the game in the first place.

Conclusion

Escape Simulator is a puzzle fan’s dream! It can be hard sometimes to put together a group of people in order to go to an escape room and then when you do they are a little pricey. While I enjoy going out to these rooms when I can, it is great to have a way to do an escape room without having to form up a party together. Plus, relying on only yourself to solve a room of puzzles is a different experience than working with a group. If you like escape rooms and solving puzzles, then this is a game that needs to be in your library!