Game EXP: Escape First 3 (NS)

 

Escape First 3

Systems: Windows, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Nintendo Switch

Original Release Date: March 21, 2020

Publisher: OnSkull Games

Developer: OnSkull Games

As with the previous two games in the Escape First series (Escape First and Escape First 2), Escape First 3 is a collection of three themed escape rooms where you solve puzzles in rooms in order to escape within a predetermined time limit.  Escape First 3 was the first game in the series that Conklederp and I played, partly because in the second game there was a sequel of sorts to a room in the first game so I did not want to start with Escape First 2, and we just liked the premise of all three of the rooms in this collection.  So this was the first game in the series that we played although I decided to put out the articles for the games in chronological order because I felt that made more sense.  

The first thing that stood out to me (after playing the first two games) was that there was no textual indication of which escape room you were clicking on, although once you did you were taken to the screen/room which gave the backstory to that specific room.  At the time when I first played, it did not bother me at all, but after playing the first two games and seeing where they decided to go with this third title, I felt that it was a bit of a downgrade as far as UI and presentation go.  Similar to Escape First 2, you could not invert the y-axis, which at first I was afraid was going to significantly hamper my ability to play the game, hoping that there were not going to be any speed or dexterity based puzzles; thankfully there were none.  Again, I will try to refrain from talking about or giving solutions to specific puzzles (with the exception of one room because of how aggravated we were playing it), so onto the rooms in the order that we played them in!

"The Secret Inheritance"

There is really no better-designed escape room in this collection than the one we happened to start off with and really set a high bar for the rest of the rooms in this collection.  Right off the bat, we were able to wander and look around the room, noticing clues that we could mentally make note of like the various runes of different colors, locks on boxes and cabinets that were both letter and number combination locks as well as one where you had to solve a tangram to unlock a box.  Our first clue lead us to a codex in a glass case to unlock something or other and was very satisfying when we heard the tone of a successfully completed puzzle.  The point is, the puzzles here felt very true to ones that could be designed for a physical escape room.

Because this was the first video game escape room we played, there were a couple of moments where we were confused either by the interface or unable to recognize what a specific item was or why that item was not able to interact with the environment.  We used a walkthrough only once (from what I remember), but that ended up being because we had forgotten about an item we noticed earlier, but I had left it in its place because I was already holding an object and did not want to put it down.  There were also two instances of items clipping through the environment, the first when a piece of paper that had a clue to a puzzle fell into a desk, and the second when a book we needed clipped into the floor and would appear for literally a split second (which meant I had to mash the grab button until I actually picked up the book).

"The Secret Inheritance" was probably our favorite escape room from this collection, which was a bit of a disappointment because 

"Keep of Lost Souls"

We were not prepared for this escape room.  That is to say, Conklederp and I went in thinking that we were going to be playing a medieval-themed escape room set up in a similar way to "The Secret Inheritance," but instead we ended up playing what felt more like a fantasy-themed video game full of puzzles.  I realize that that sounds odd and/or contradictory.  In nearly every article in this series, I have talked about how physical escape rooms should be created, in that the designers should never expect players to bring in any information needed to solve puzzles (like knowledge of astronomy or botany for example), and that all of the information needed to solve puzzles should be given to the players.  Conklederp and I ended up getting stuck on either the second or third puzzle because we were approaching the puzzles like you would in a physical escape room, not like you would in a video game.

There was a lock that had a worn red/brown look to it compared to the silver/grey appearance of the other locks in the room.  There was no description of the lock in-game that you might get if this was in a point-and-click adventure game, or even a survival horror akin to Amnesia: The Dark Descent, letting the player know that this lock was, in fact, different than the other locks in the room.  From the walkthrough, we found out that we could smash the lock with a heavy object, so I used a heavy object in the room to break the lock.  There was another box secured by a padlock that we thought would require a key to unlock because you know, it was a padlock with a keyhole, so we searched the room over and over looking for a key or another clue that might lead us to one.  As it turned out, the only way to open the box was to break the lock with a crowbar with no indication that that action would be the solution or even possible.  I looked at Conklederp and said something to the extent of, "Okay, I think I know how to approach the puzzles in this game from here on out," although I ended up being somewhat wrong on that because the puzzles became more difficult and obscure to solve.

There were numerous puzzles in this collection of rooms that I was completely lost on.  One solution even ended up being so obscure that I know for a fact I never would have been able to solve it without a walkthrough.  There was an unfinished circle of stones that I knew I had to complete because there was a piece of stone close by that I could interact with.  The last stone, however, was the one that really threw us.  This stone ended up being located in the first room (we were currently in the third room) and actually part of a wall and unless you happened to have the curser go over that specific part of the wall and notice the dot reticule change to a hand, you never would have known that this was the stone you had to hit with a hammer to knock loose.  The last puzzle in the game, from all of the clues and objects we had, could only be solved by a process of elimination, but in a way that was stupidly time-consuming and designed to eat up the last precious seconds of the clock.

I feel like there were some good puzzles in this series of rooms and the atmosphere was fairly well executed with letters added for flavor and mood, but all of that was overshadowed by how poorly so many of the puzzles (not just the ones mentioned above, but at least four or five additional ones) were designed that that is all I am to think about when I think about this stage.  It put such a bad taste in our mouth that we said if the last room played like this one, then we would not get any of the other games in the series (which obviously did not turn out to be the case because we got them all).

"The Abandoned School"

Thankfully this third-and-final room was a closer return to traditional escape room puzzles than the "Keep of Lost Souls", although a lot of the puzzles were scattered around an abandoned high school with locations including the library, principal's office, multiple classrooms, and locker rooms spread across multiple floors connected by multiple hallways.  This was a massive area to explore and only a few times felt overwhelming as to where I felt I was supposed to go.  Thankfully there were a few mechanics in place that negated the feeling of needing to acquire an item in one room to use in a different room later down the line. 

I think our favorite aspect of this escape room was the setting as the location felt universal, even if neither Conklederp nor I had been to a high school with this specific layout.  Both of us graduated high school and the layout felt very authentic and I felt that this was key to instilling fear in the player.  Yeah, this escape room had more of a horror aspect to it with doors that would frequently lock behind you, doors that would open on their own, writing appearing on walls.  There was even a bug in the stage that when I looked at certain mirrors, the game would go completely black.  This first happened in a bathroom with multiple mirrors but only seemed to happen with one specific mirror, but I first thought that the lights had just gone out because they had before in previous (un-mirrored) rooms.  At this point in our Escape First career, there had never been any characters that appeared in any of the rooms so far, but our minds went wild with the possibility of jump scares.

There were a few puzzles that we either overthought or just confused us so again we had to resort to using a walkthrough when the in-game hint system failed to be as specific as we needed it to be.  One puzzle, in particular, had us organizing post-it notes that were initially haphazardly placed, but the secondary solution required that we remember the original order that the post-its were placed in.  We did find the solution by chance.  I would probably need to see that puzzle again to see if we did something wrong before saying that it was designed poorly.  The last puzzle though could have been implemented a little better as it required the player to place objects in a specific order, but how that order was determined was a bit ambiguous, without getting into further detail and revealing any more spoilers.  The point is, had there been a small addition to these objects, it would have been more of an "ahhhh!" moment and a great end to an otherwise well-constructed escape room that had great pacing in terms of telling the story and creating fear.

Escape First 3 ended up being a mixed bag, possibly because this was the first game we played in the Escape First series, and our feelings towards "Keep of Lost Souls" might have been different if we have started with the first game as far as approaching the game from more of a video game standpoint.  I do stand by my criticisms that a number of the puzzles were not well constructed, even from a video game standpoint, especially the one where you had to solve the puzzle by trial and error and ate up a lot of time and just felt tedious.  As with the previous games in the series, I would recommend keeping a walkthrough open for when the in-game hint system fails to be as specific as you need it to be, although at times it would give us the solution if we asked for hints more than twice on a single puzzle; but this only worked for a handful of puzzles and more than half of the time we just received the same hint after hint delay timer reached zero.  There are not a whole lot of options when it comes to video game-based escape rooms, and this entry is pretty great when it is following the general rules of physical escape rooms.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian