Escape Plan

An inventive noir brainteaser that's short but dense, filling out the package - not with fluff - but smart puzzles, visual gags, and a bucketful of inky black blood.

One of the best Vita launch games and the best puzzle game of 2012 so far, period. It's a shame the touch controls don't always work as well as they should, but overall this is a minor complaint.

Escape Plan's puzzles are charming and inventive, and it's smartly designed to be playable in short spurts.

Even though it may have been lost in the PS Vita launch mix, Escape Plan is very much a game worth checking out. It's dark, it's funny, it has some head-scratching puzzles and it finds some unique ways to use the Vita's touch and motion control capabilities.

There's just a cleverness to the whole thing that completely sells the experience, even if it may be a tad short for the fifteen-dollar price tag.

It's good fun, testing both your problem solving and manual dexterity, and it makes good use of PS Vita's controls. [Issue#216, p.73]

Escape Plan is decidedly artful and will please fans of Limbo - perhaps not quite as tightly woven, but a quiet achiever for the launch of the PS Vita to be sure. [May 2012, p.78]

The visual style is distinctive, and the puzzles are challenging, yet accessible for anyone. If you enjoy brainbending games, you definitely need to check out this little gem. I guarantee it will be some of the most fun you have out of your Vita at launch.

It's one of the most unique and charming looking games you'll ever play, and the pick-up-and-play value makes it perfect for a handheld. Minor control issues prevent it from achieving perfection, but it's still perhaps the most effective showcase of the Vita hardware to date.

Ruthless, funny and totally non-sense: Escape Plan is the most unconventional puzzle game you can find in Sony's online Store. With a refined artistic direction and an addictive gameplay, Fun Bits Interactive's IP is one of the must-have games for your PS-Vita.

The tasks are superficial, the controls not always accurate. Nonetheless this a charming little puzzler that I don't want to miss.

Escape Plan is a hard and fast but extremely fun puzzle-game that takes advantage from the unique features of Sony's latest hardware platform to deliver a rewarding and visually pleasing product. Believe us: this is one of the strongest titles in the PlayStation Vita's launch library.

For an adventure absolutely beaming with personality and potential, the gameplay experience wasn't quite as fine as I would have liked, but it doesn't make Escape Plan anything less than a great game in its own right. It's just unfortunate, because it could have been more with slightly better execution.

I ended up liking Escape Plan more than most of the retail titles available at the PlayStation Vita's launch, and if you're looking to load up on games while stretching your buck, you can't go wrong with Escape Plan. I only wish it were a little longer for the price.

The game plays quite well on PlayStation Vita, and provides a welcome change of pace in comparison to the rest of the launch lineup, that for the most part involves more action-oriented fare.

If the controls were completely reliable rather than "reliable most of the time", Escape Plan would be a classic. [Apr 2012, p.109]

Escape Plan is overall a very recommended game, entertaining and with unique and captivating visuals. However, it falls midway in becoming the great game it could have been because of its control problems. We hope a sequel will fix this to realize its great potential.

I love the way Escape Plan looks, the way it sounds, and how puzzles are complicated in an interesting way without ever becoming overwhelming. Physically interacting with the game is where it falls short. I still consider it a worthy addition to your early Vita library – especially when there are so few original titles for the handheld.

Escape Plan is probably one of the best puzzle games you can find on VITA. Minor control issues prevent it from achieving perfection, but it's still a very recommendable game.

Escape Plan looks and sounds like an absolute must-have. It isn't however, as the gameplay is a tad too simplistic and the controls a tad to unresponsive. It's a shame, really.

Escape Plan's macabre humor and beautiful black-and-white chiaroscuro look make it a welcome respite from the noise and flash of the other Vita launch titles. Sony has a knack for finding and funding indie developers with a refined sense of style.

When the credits roll, Escape Plan leaves you satisfied of time well spent; getting know its cast of charming characters is a pleasure and its gameplay is largely on the right side refreshing. Though it arguably rarely feels essential, it is a quietly charming game that feels perfectly at ease with its glacial pace, and it is this – along with Lil and Laarg's PVC-clad charisma – that ultimately enables Escape Plan to meander its way into your heart.

Escape Plan is not the "bold next step" for the puzzle genre we've been waiting, but it can be quite addictive and it offers some clever puzzles and one of the best art directions we've witnessed in a long time.

Escape Plan could've been a classic. [May 2012, p.85]

It's not perfect, and even skilled players will struggle with some of the more demanding multitasking required for certain scenarios (the level-skip is an acknowledgement of the inconsistent difficulty), but it's clever, cunning and entertaining.

Escape Plan's style and intelligent use of Vita's inputs come together to make it one of the more compelling titles in the system's launch line-up.

Escape Plan's visual style is so well done, you will probably fall in love with it at first sight, just as we did. The game's opening has you waking up Lil by tapping the touch screen as he tries to push your finger away. He is absolutely adorable. [March 2012, p.56]

Although it is easy to assimilate, Escape Plan does nothing new and is worthy because it is a different title in the Vita.

Occasionally touchy controls and an inexplicable feeling of repetition undermine an otherwise creative tactical puzzle game.

Escape Plan is hardly a world-shattering nor an especially touching puzzler, if that's what you expected. But it still is an acceptable getaway to calmer waters, somewhere beyond Vitas flashy and action-heavy launch line-up.

My absolute favorite feature of Escape Plan is the ability to skip levels. As the game helpfully, and humiliatingly, tells you after a few failures, you can skip any level and move onto the next one.

Puzzles are linear and easy to solve, and the gameplay is intuitive but surely not original. Anyhow, Escape Plan has a great visual style and a nature of its own.

Initially dazzling, Escape Plan runs out of juice long, long before it's over. [May 2012, p.98]

Despite the amazing visual concept, Escape Plan doesn't add nothing new to genre. The overall experience is also marked by a poor implementation of the controls.

Escape Plan feels way too barebones an experience. There aren't many gamers out there who'll want to revisit and three star puzzles they barely fumbled through the first time due to iffy controls. [April 2012, p74]

Like the hardware it lives on, this is the PlayStation brand getting to grips with the era of iOS and Android - and the results, while rather conflicted in this case, are interesting.

Although the design is sublime and the puzzles present a healthy challenge, Escape Plan is hampered by imprecise controls and a far too slow tempo. Making the player wait for several seconds before they can start playing each and every room makes for a frustrating experience, and makes it less than perfect for playing on the go.

This never quite gets free of its cell of mediocrity. [Apr 2012, p.118]

Its puzzles are unlikely to engage your intelligence or imagination at a particularly deep level, but that might not matter, as Escape Plan's personality might just win you over anyway. [Issue#120, p.114]

A puzzle game that set everything in its positive first impression. The thing is you'll soon find out that its stylized beauty is dull scenery in fact. Its potentially interesting game mechanics do also tire out just as quickly as your reserve fund before Christmas madness.

Escape Plan is an interesting project with certain problems. If you can get past those, it presents an atypical story and a gripping experience, but it's one that requires you to be in a certain mindset to enjoy.

Escape Plan brings action and puzzles to the Vita with style, but awkward controls crash the party.

Escape Plan can be a real treat, but you'll only ever get fleeting glimpses of what could have been, leaving you with a frustrating adventure that rarely gets a chance to show its true potential. Escape Plan isn't a game you shouldn't be desperate to break into.

If you want a game that can mix up your activity on the go or maybe a title with a ton of personality that shows off the touch controls on the PlayStation Vita, Escape Plan can't be missed. If you've already got five games, resist the urge to buy more. This one will go on sale soon.

Escape plan looks really good with its black and white art style. The touch controls are too imprecise though and that leads to too much trial and error.

Escape Plan is a fantastic concept, and one that often makes use of the system's greatest features to amazing success, but the final product left a great deal to be desired, and left us more than a little conflicted.

There are some neat ideas of how to effectively use the various touch screens of the Vita, and the art is gorgeous enough to make the game an able showpiece for what the system can do visually. There just isn't quite enough to the game beyond that to make up for some of its more irritating aspects.

Escape Plan is nothing more than a tech demo a showcase for the different control options for the Vita and fails completely trying to do so. What remains is an artistically interesting game, that fall on its gameplay.