Escape the Beach

Rather than comparing Escape the Beach to other walking simulator games within a similar genre, I think this game deserves its own recognition of merit for the overall message. I personally feel this game appeared at the right time in my life to truly appreciate it from many different perspectives. If you choose to play this game, one piece of advice I would give is to slow down and let the game make you feel whatever it is you choose to feel. I think this game should be played by everyone at some point in their life. Particularly since life seems to feel so hectic and chaotic for many in this day and age of information overload. I also really enjoyed the game from an artistic perspective. All the colours, words and points of view combined together encapsulated a feeling of summer in a unique and unforgettable way. I'll leave one last inspirational quote here to fit into the vibes: Is this real life? Or is this just fanta sea... (I'll see myself out).

"Are we all alone?" The sentence, written on a pitch-black analog TV, was floating on the sparkling aquamarine. Everywhere I looked, old battered televisions with blinking signs perched like crows on the ocean's surface. My eyes stopped on the blinking "Desperate but hot," wrenching a chuckle from the depths of my throat. An airy female voice intimately whispered in my headphones: "I can promise you this much: your experience here will be anything but peace and quiet. I hope you're ready." Sarcasm drenched the consonants of the last sultry syllable. 'Surely I would have a lot of fun here.' I thought as the corners of my lips curled into a sardonic smile. Escape the Beach is an... experience. The game is bold in its message if there are people who want to stop and hear it. I don't think this game is for everyone. In fact, I believe this is one of the hidden trump cards of the meditative walking simulator. In our age, everyone is in a hurry. Breakfast. School. Family. Lunch. Work. Friends. News. Stroll. Gossips. Home. Dinner. Netflix. Gym. No. Time. FasT.a.N.D.FaSTeR.Unable.tocatchabreath The game forces you to stop, to slow down and immerse yourself in the moment. To breathe. It reminds you to just exist on this lonely beach while the narrator's attractive voice echoes in the air. I fell in love with the fact this game respected my pace. I will not talk about the breathtaking scenery and rich, dreamlike colors. Or the puzzles. The way our narrator's voice gradually became warmer and warmer. No, they should be felt. For me, Escape the Beach is the personification of The Hanged Man archetype. The game asks you, "Will you allow the beach to metamorphose you? Will you surrender control? Or will you try to subjugate the place to yourself the way society taught you? To control it?" It's very tempting, isn't it? Why don't you find what you will choose then? The beach is waiting for you...

Well this was something else! A walking simulator that makes you question what life means and why you even bother living it. Well worth an hour of your time!

I just played the full game and I really enjoyed it! It was better than I expected, I loved the mysterious backrooms-type vibe it has, and how the way to escape is... clever. It's definitely worth checking out, especially now that it's on sale, also you would be supporting more cool games by buying it! I love how experimental it is. It would be awesome to see the creator continue to do other similar projects in the future as it's rare to find any kind of actually interesting games nowadays.

I'm leaving this as a positive review for now as I feel it's unfair to leave a negative review on a game that just released from a new dev The game itself is cool from what I've played, definitely a surreal experience. If you're looking for another Stanley Parable this is not it, I would put it closer to Beginner's Guide if I had to tonally compare it to something. For what it is, the price is fair, and the story it tells and the way it tells it is great. I could not finish it as there is a bug that feels very detrimental to the experience: the camera control is bunk. For some reason, only in this game, it does not detect mouse movement if it is small movement. This doesn't sound bad, but I urge you to try it for yourself, it is infuriating. Even then, after you make large movements with the mouse, it still feels jagged and "stair-steppy" Again, this does not happen with any other game I own. I think a minor nit-pick would be to have a more interesting font to look at, instead of one that looks so default. Maybe have an option to choose from a list of fonts? I like the idea of this game, execution could've been better. Do I recommend it? Yes. Do I think this bug should've been ironed out before release? Also yes.

I can recommend the game for what it is - a unique experience with a solid message, created from a solo dev as their first steam game. The price is good for what you get. And while I did experience some relatively minor bugs with the camera controls, they were patched really quickly. Definitely check it out if you're looking to support more indie devs.

Cool premise and story.

The game looks and feels great . I like the Mystery and the voice acting as well. Good calm visual and audio experience and the yeeting of stuff is awesome !