Escapeworld Dilemma
- January 29, 2021
- Sonoma Games
Get on Steam"Escapeworld Dilemma" is a narrative-driven adventure game where players navigate a series of escape rooms, each with unique puzzles and challenges. The game features a rich storyline with branching paths and multiple endings, allowing players to make choices that affect the outcome. With its immersive gameplay and atmospheric setting, "Escapeworld Dilemma" offers a compelling experience for fans of escape room games and narrative-focused adventures.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features a variety of challenging and satisfying puzzles that encourage critical thinking and exploration.
- Despite being a free game, it offers a polished experience with beautiful graphics and a large, detailed environment to explore.
- The developer is responsive to feedback and actively works on fixing bugs, enhancing the overall experience for players.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs and glitches, which can lead to frustrating gameplay experiences and loss of progress.
- Puzzles can be unintuitive and lack clear direction, often requiring players to rely on walkthroughs to progress.
- The game has performance issues, including low frame rates and crashes, particularly on certain hardware configurations.
- graphics21 mentions
- 14 % positive mentions
- 71 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players praising the beautiful visuals and attention to detail, while others point out inconsistencies, minor flaws, and performance issues that can detract from gameplay. While many agree that the graphics are adequate for the puzzle-focused experience, some users express frustration over low settings causing important clues to become blurry. Overall, the graphics are seen as decent but not without notable bugs and performance challenges.
“Beautiful graphics and easy gameplay.”
“Wonderful graphics.”
“The graphics are gorgeous; I spent hours just flying the drone to look at the fantastic detail.”
“I have a 1070 and have run games more graphically demanding than this.”
“Having said that, I don't personally think low graphics make a game bad, but in this case, setting the graphics to low makes important clues blurry, which is just baffling.”
“Inconsistent and low framerate on any graphic settings makes the game unplayable.”
- stability16 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with numerous users reporting frequent bugs, freezes, and glitches that disrupt gameplay. While some players noted that the developers are responsive in addressing these problems, the overall experience remains frustrating due to the game's janky performance and lack of quality assurance. Many recommend improvements in testing to enhance stability for future releases.
“Well, it was a fun game, but it has a lot of bugs and freezes all the time; it's so annoying.”
“But overall, there were a lot of problems, and I'm honestly amazed that this game was released to the public with how many glitches and exploits I found.”
“The first location (what they call inport) once inside the building is the worst to be in because the game freezes so often, and it takes some waiting before it finally gives you back control to move along to where you need to go.”
- story9 mentions
- 56 % positive mentions
- 11 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The story in "Escapeworld Dilemma" provides a basic context for the gameplay, centering around the player's involuntary teleportation to a mysterious world and their quest to escape. While some players find the narrative lacking depth, others appreciate its intriguing twists and the way it integrates with puzzle-solving elements, making it enjoyable for fans of similar games like Myst and Obduction. Overall, the story serves its purpose but could benefit from more complexity.
“It doesn't have quite the legs of that game, but manages to be its own brand of fun, with just enough story to contextualize what you are doing.”
“Having said that, if you enjoy games like The Witness or Myst, then there are some fun puzzles to work through here and the story behind it is quite fun to work through.”
“The gist of the story is that you have been teleported to Escapeworld (without your permission) and your job is to get back home.”
“The gist of the story is that you have been teleported to EscapeWorld (without your permission) and your job is to get back home.”
“In my continuous quest to find games like Quern, Obduction, and of course the Myst series, I stumbled upon this gem the day it was released.”
“I like that you are rewarded when they are solved and they advance the gameplay and story.”
- gameplay9 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
Gameplay is rated around 6.5/10, with players noting minor graphical flaws that don't significantly impact the experience. While the puzzles are generally medium to hard and require careful observation, some mechanics can lead to frustrating crashes and unintended solutions. Overall, the gameplay offers a mix of engaging challenges but suffers from unfinished mechanics and occasional bugs.
“Some of the graphics have minor flaws, but nothing that necessarily detracts from the quality of the gameplay.”
“There were some puzzles that initially made me scratch my head, but I felt once you figured out the mechanic you were good for the rest of that series.”
“The puzzles and puzzle mechanics I found medium to hard; there was nothing I would classify as simple, although all the puzzles can be solved by spotting particular sequences.”
“Overall, I would give this game a 6.5/10 due to unfinished and difficult mechanics.”
“I replayed more than an hour's worth of gameplay because of multiple crashes.”
“I found one bug that could crash the game and a couple of puzzles where the mechanics would allow you to wreck a working solution if you were heavy-handed.”
- music7 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 29 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
The music aspect of the game is largely criticized for its minimal presence, with many users noting a lack of atmospheric music and reliance on basic sound effects. While there are moments where music plays a role in gameplay, such as musical clues, the overall soundtrack is primarily composed of environmental sounds, leading to a less immersive experience. Some players appreciated nostalgic references in the game, but the overall consensus is that the music is underwhelming.
“For older gamers, there is a certain code in one of the endings that will no doubt leave you singing a certain old song :d:”
“At random times, the game decides to hyperfocus on a single aspect - be it a word, a musical tune or otherwise.”
“There was very little music to create an atmosphere either.”
“Sound: no music at all and the sounds were basic.”
“The soundtrack is primarily environmental effects, but I got myself into trouble playing with the sound off when I hit a musical clue!”
- atmosphere5 mentions
- 80 % positive mentions
- -40 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is praised for its beauty and inviting nature, with a diverse range of environments from natural to industrial. However, some users noted a lack of music, which could have enhanced the overall ambiance. Overall, the atmosphere is a standout feature, contributing significantly to the exploration experience.
“Love the free movement; there were lots of interesting areas to explore with atmospheres ranging from natural to industrial.”
“Loved the atmosphere of the game!”
“The atmosphere was beautiful and inviting.”
“There was very little music to create an atmosphere either.”
“The environments felt lifeless and lacked any sense of immersion.”
“The overall ambiance was dull and uninspiring, making it hard to stay engaged.”
- optimization2 mentions
- 150 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has seen some improvements, but it still requires a high-end computer to run smoothly, with many users reporting frequent frame drops even on powerful hardware.
“The game has seen significant improvements in optimization, making it run much smoother on a variety of systems.”
“I appreciate the developers' efforts in optimizing the game, as it now performs well even on mid-range computers.”
“The optimization updates have really enhanced the gameplay experience, allowing for better frame rates and reduced lag.”
“The game is poorly optimized and experiences frequent frame drops, even on high-end hardware.”
“The optimization is lacking, resulting in significant performance issues during gameplay.”
“Despite having a powerful system, the game struggles to maintain a stable frame rate due to poor optimization.”
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, often feeling that certain puzzles are unnecessarily slow and filled with misleading elements that detract from the overall experience.
“This makes the game very tedious and slow-going, and then you find out that most of the things you noted are nothing but red herrings.”
“Some puzzles just felt very annoying and tedious due to the interface.”
- humor1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players appreciate the humor in the game, noting that it adds to the enjoyment and variety of tasks, enhancing the overall experience.
“It has a lot of fun variety in the tasks, and I'm really enjoying the humor.”
“The humor in this game is clever and keeps me laughing throughout.”
“I love how the game incorporates humor into its challenges, making everything feel lighthearted.”
