The Escapists 2

This is a birds-eye view, isometric game where you are stuck in prison and try to escape! There is some stuff to like in this game, and the game has a lot of potential, but I ended up uninstalling it out of frustration without finishing it.

THE GOOD:

• The train robbery introductory mission is really fun! There is no event loop to keep you constantly off-balance. It's fun to sneak around the guards and figure out where the components are so you can build what you need to escape.
• There is a co-op mode where you can play with friends.
• The premise of planning an escape from prison is fresh and exciting.

THE BAD:

• While the premise of planning an escape from prison is cool, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
• The fun of the train robbery quickly devolves into drudgery in the intermediate missions. You are stuck in a frenetic event loop of going from place to place. This makes it very difficult to ever rub two brain cells together and come up with some kind of plan. A pause feature so you could take a breath and plan something out would be really nice. Perhaps, at least the option to fast-forward to Lights Out so you can have some time to think.
• It's not really possible to plan anything anyway. Most escaping involves building items from components.Components are spread around randomly and you have to search everywhere in a huge map for them. So really, it's not a game of planning at all, but a game of searching around for components. It would be nice to be able to select the finished item you want to build, and then see where the components you need are on your map overlay.
• It's tough to traverse the list of items you can build, especially when one finished item requires another finished item to complete. It would be really nice to see a tree of components so you'd know at a glance what base components you need.
• The map overlay shows you a lot of useful information, including multiple levels and where the ducts lead, but it's hard to read so it's really hard to figure out which duct leads where. In any event, you are stuck in a frenetic event loop and you don't have time to look at the map anyway! So even if you could plan something out, it wouldn't matter.

THE UGLY:

• Nothing! I did not encounter any bugs or crashes while playing this game.
• Tip (Minor Spoiler): It's not obvious at first, but to complete the requirement to go to a specific location you just need to show up. You get a green check mark, and then you can move on. This will give you a bit more time to take care of business, although it doesn't solve the game's fundamental frenetic event loop problem.