The Escapists: The Walking Dead

A great tie-in and a solid game in its own right, The Escapists: The Walking Dead is an enjoyable and surprisingly deep head-scratcher.

62%Game Brain Score

story, gameplay

grinding, stability

56% User Score Based on 614 reviews

Critic Score 64%Based on 13 reviews

Platforms

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About

The Escapists: The Walking Dead is a single player survival role playing game. It was developed by Team17 Digital Ltd and was released on September 30, 2015. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and neutral reviews from players.

"The Escapists: The Walking Dead" is a prison escape game set in the world of the popular comic series. You'll control Rick Grimes and his group, building, crafting, and fighting your way through various locations from the comic. The goal is to survive and escape, following the story of the original series while dealing with the constant threat of walkers.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

The Escapists: The Walking Dead screenshot

+13

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56%

Audience ScoreBased on 614 reviews

story22 positive mentions

grinding20 negative mentions

The pixel art graphics and soundtrack are charming and well-executed.
The game offers a unique blend of The Escapists mechanics with The Walking Dead narrative, appealing to fans of both franchises.
Crafting mechanics allow for a variety of items to be created, adding some depth to gameplay.

The gameplay is linear and lacks the freedom and creativity of the original Escapists, making it feel restrictive.
Repetitive tasks and busywork can make the game feel tedious and more like a chore than an engaging experience.
Combat mechanics are clunky and often frustrating, detracting from the overall enjoyment of the game.

story
160 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14%
73%
13%
The game's story has received mixed to negative feedback, with many players finding it convoluted, poorly constructed, and difficult to follow. While some appreciate its adherence to the original Walking Dead comics, others criticize it for lacking depth and coherence, often feeling like a chore rather than an engaging narrative experience. Overall, the story is seen as a significant drawback, with many players recommending it only for die-hard fans of the franchise.
- “Man, I love how the developers who worked on this DLC really portrayed the lore, the characters, the backstory, and the general atmosphere and feel of the show as accurately as the writers intended it to be while still keeping the escape out of the jail aspect in. This has to be the best Breaking Bad video game adaptation yet.”
- “If you like The Escapists and are a huge fan of The Walking Dead, then I recommend this game to you 10/10 because the storyline is based on the original comic book series.”
- “This is a clever game that follows The Walking Dead story with a few deviations while still keeping the original spirit of the show alive.”
- “The main problem with the story is that you can't follow the few incomplete lore pieces that they give you.”
- “For these reasons, I unfortunately have to say that the story sucks.”
- “This, hands down, is the worst game I have played, in terms of storyline and gameplay.”
gameplay
118 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
69%
11%
The gameplay of "The Escapists: The Walking Dead" has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it tedious and linear compared to previous entries in the franchise. While the game retains its pixel art charm and introduces some crafting mechanics, it often feels like a reskin of the original game, lacking the open-ended sandbox experience that fans expected. Overall, the gameplay is criticized for being grindy, repetitive, and poorly adapted to the zombie survival theme, leading to a frustrating experience for many players.
- “The gameplay is really good in this!”
- “Great soundtrack, fun gameplay.”
- “As far as gameplay goes, I really enjoy it as of right now, but I've heard from reviews that this game can get a little repetitive and has a lot of unnecessary actions.”
- “Instead of the open-ended, sandbox-style gameplay where you could plan elaborate escapes, this game forces you down a more linear path with specific objectives that often have only one solution.”
- “The gameplay loop involves a lot of busywork—repeating tasks like gathering supplies, crafting, and adhering to routines—which quickly becomes tiresome.”
- “You get the original Escapists, retexture everything, create some new yet simple game mechanics and plaster the title 'The Escapists' at the front, and you got yourself a cash grab over the success of the original.”
grinding
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
4%
13%
83%
Players overwhelmingly criticize the grinding aspect of the game, describing it as tedious, boring, and unnecessarily repetitive. Many feel that the grinding detracts from the overall experience, with tasks that add little value and combat mechanics that force players into a cycle of health grinding. Overall, the grinding is seen as a major flaw that hampers enjoyment and progression.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “Everything feels so tedious and the gameplay does not translate well at all. Everything feels grindy and the tasks add little to nothing, which just gives you artificial tasks that only serve to slow down gameplay and make the experience unfun.”
- “You are constantly trapped in the daily routine cycle, doing tedious work that isn't improving your situation in any way - a core mechanic that prevents you from playing the actual game!”
- “While loosely following the story, this entire game feels awfully constructed, convoluted, and mindbogglingly grindy, as literally almost anything out there is out to kill you and the combat mechanics aren't that great to begin with.”
graphics
23 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
57%
13%
The graphics of the game are characterized by a pixel art style reminiscent of "The Escapists," with many users noting the appealing 8-bit visuals. While some appreciate the enhanced graphics and smoother gameplay, others find them lacking, describing them as clunky and frustrating, which detracts from the overall experience. Overall, opinions are mixed, with ratings around 6/10 reflecting a blend of nostalgia and disappointment.
- “The graphics have improved drastically, resulting in smoother and more eye-soothing gameplay.”
- “Nice pixel graphics, a lot like the original Escapists!”
- “+ appealing 8-bit graphics.”
- “But having tried to play this a whole 2 times, for a total of 9 minutes... I can't get past the bad graphics and clunky controls.”
- “I really enjoyed the tutorial level and thought maybe this was the Escapists saving game... but I was wrong. It just turned into the same thing with a different skin. Again, maybe I didn't give it enough time, but I couldn't play past the first 10 minutes of the first level after giving it several tries. The graphics, gameplay, and crafting mechanic just didn't work for me.”
- “I love The Walking Dead and the visual graphics/design of this game, but as a more casual to moderate gamer, this is way too hard for me, leaving me with frustration rather than a challenge I can overcome with some practice.”
music
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
53%
31%
16%
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with some praising the energetic and well-crafted 8-bit soundtrack, particularly noting the first level's standout track. However, others have criticized the music as terrible and have found the overall gameplay to be shallow and repetitive. Overall, the soundtrack is seen as a highlight, despite some negative opinions.
- “The soundtrack for the first level is awesome.”
- “Music is cool, and the 8-bit atmosphere is very well crafted.”
- “Great soundtrack, fun gameplay.”
- “The music is terrible, and so is the gameplay.”
- “More simple than the Escapists soundtrack.”
- “The Escapists: The Walking Dead is a visually charming game with a standout soundtrack, but its gameplay is shallow and repetitive.”
stability
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
80%
The game's stability has received mixed feedback, with some players experiencing significant issues such as freezing, bugs, and glitches, particularly with the Xbox One controller, which can lead to frustrating situations where recent saves cannot be loaded. However, there are also users who report no glitches at all, indicating a varied experience among players. Overall, the stability appears to be inconsistent, resembling issues typically found in beta versions or free-to-play games.
- “I found no glitches so far.”
- “I found no glitches so far.”
- “So if you die, make a mistake, or if the game freezes or bugs out, you can't load a recent save.”
- “I love the game, but there are some glitches with the Xbox One controller.”
- “As I was past the point of being able to refund, I persisted with the glitches that would normally accompany a free-to-play game or a beta version.”
atmosphere
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
50%
17%
The atmosphere in the game is praised for its faithful representation of the source material, particularly in terms of lore and character portrayal, making it a standout adaptation. However, some players feel that certain gameplay mechanics detract from immersion, as they do not align with the thematic elements of survival and tension expected in a zombie setting. Overall, while the music and visual style are well-received, inconsistencies in gameplay can undermine the intended atmosphere.
- “Man, I love how the developers who worked on this DLC really portrayed the lore, the characters, the backstory, and the general atmosphere and feel of the show as accurately as the writers intended it to be while still keeping the escape out of the jail aspect in. This has to be the best Breaking Bad video game adaptation yet.”
- “Music is cool, and the 8-bit atmosphere is very well crafted.”
- “This version of the game fails trying to use the gamestyle of te.. it could be great but it fails in very little things (bugs apart) to be immersive.. the tasks you have to do have nothing to do with the game atmosphere.. you should be worried about keeping your fences fixed, controlling the number of walkers nearby, or at least having to do some runs for meds and supplies.. instead, you end up getting punished for skipping meals and bedtime to kill some zombies!.. if you don't eat or sleep, the 'walker alert' goes higher.. wtf?”
monetization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization strategy of the game has been criticized as exploitative, with many users feeling that it prioritizes profit over quality, leading to a perception of the game as a cash grab rather than a well-crafted experience.
- “This feels more like a cash grab rather than an actual well put together game.”
- “I just feel permanently disrespected and cash grabbed; it's such a shame.”
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is praised for its strong sense of humor, particularly in its creative use of guns, which adds a comedic element to the gameplay.
- “This game has a really good sense of humor with the guns!”

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64%Critics’ scoreBased on 13 critic reviews

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7h Median play time

7h Average play time

3-10h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 6 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

The Escapists: The Walking Dead is a survival role playing game.

The Escapists: The Walking Dead is available on Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5, Mac OS and others.

On average players spend around 7 hours playing The Escapists: The Walking Dead.

The Escapists: The Walking Dead was released on September 30, 2015.

The Escapists: The Walking Dead was developed by Team17 Digital Ltd.

The Escapists: The Walking Dead has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

The Escapists: The Walking Dead is a single player game.

Similar games include The Escapists 2, How to Survive 2, The Survivalists, How to Survive, Dead State: Reanimated and others.

The Escapists: The Walking Dead

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