Adventure · 2022 · Coin Crew Games · local · online
Escape Academy
A school for escape artists, and every exam is a room with a clock.
What it is about
You are admitted to a school that trains escape artists. Every exam is a room, every room has a clock, and between rooms you talk to the teachers, who all have agendas of their own.
The puzzles are what you know from a real escape room: combination locks, hidden notes, devices that only mean something together. None of it demands dexterity — it is about seeing, combining and passing it on.
For two, you stand in the same room and see the same things, just not at the same time: while one searches the cupboard, the other reads the noticeboard. That is exactly where the conversation comes from that this game is built around.
Our verdict for couples
This is an escape room for two, from the first minute to the last — not a single-player game with a second seat bolted on. You stand in the same room, see the same notes, and still have to tell each other what you found, because neither of you can look at everything at once. No reflexes needed, no practice either; what is asked is that you talk to each other. The clock runs alongside, and that is the difference between a cosy puzzle evening and one where it briefly gets loud. For two households the best news is that one copy covers you both via Remote Play Together.
Pros
- With Remote Play Together one copy covers both of you
- The whole game is built for exactly two people
- Neither reflexes nor prior knowledge required
Cons
- A room wants to be played in one sitting
- Once you know a solution you cannot find it a second time
- The clock sometimes turns a puzzle evening into a hectic one
Suitable from
Casual
- Conflict potential
- Spirited
- Cosiness
- Mixed
- When you can stop
- After 30–45 minutes
- How long it lasts
- 5–15 hours
What other co-op fans say
Eighty-six percent approve, from a manageable number of voices. The praise goes to how the rooms feel like real escape rooms, and to the fact that two people genuinely have two jobs. The main objection comes from exactly the same place, seen from the other side: because the rooms are built like physical spaces, it is not always clear what can be touched and what is decoration. Get stuck on that and you lose time in the wrong place — and the clock keeps running.
- “But also, as physical humans in a group, running around a physical space frantically for an hour is fun.”
- “The main problem with this game is it's designed like a physical escape room.”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
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Reanimal
Two siblings search for their missing friends, and the camera never lets you more than a step apart.