A replayable, short, fast-paced and challenging singleplayer fps maze escape game with stealth elements and claustrophobic flat randomized maps. And a countdown timer. System Escape can be won in under 10 minutes, but it is permadeath if anything zaps you exactly once. It took me quite a while for my first victory. There are 3 difficulty settings. There is no progression between runs other than a victory scoreboard. Overall, the difficulty makes the patrolling minimalistic enemy guard robots seem very threatening, and exciting to flee from, especially when you're running out of time. Good for quick play sessions because the max possible time of a playthough is like 20 minutes, and runs will usually be over much faster than that. I have played System Escape since the first alpha.
SPOILERS/WALKTHROUGH/TIPS BELOW
Primary objectives when you start a new game -
1) Follow the arrow to the Utility Gun. It comes pre-equipped with a single-use Guide, which points you to your next objective. Reload your Utility Gun with ammo spread across the levels (represented by boxes on tables).
2) Find the Unlock Computer. Use it to instantly unlock all locked doors on the current level. There are two computers on each level. One extends the destruction countdown timer. One unlocks doors.
3) Find the Laser gun somewhere in a previously-locked area. It will be sitting on a table and glowing slightly. It will only be partially-charged, and so will only be good for several shots at first, but it's rechargable.
4) Find the Elevator in a previously-locked area. Use it to go to the next level.
5) Find a recharger station to recharge your laser. There are sometimes more than one recharger per level. Rechargers appear on all levels after the first one. They do not run out of energy.
6) On all levels other than the starting level, there are only two major objectives: find and use the Unlock Computer, and then find and use the Elevator.
7) Optional Time Extender Computers are located on each level, and completing them adds a couple extra minutes to your countdown before you die. The starting time per game varies depending on map complexity, but you will usually die from other causes before the timer runs out.
Familiarize yourself with the various Utility Gun ammo types available on every level -
1) Guide - points directly to your next objective from the list above. Note that the arrow does not take the map into account and so it will sometimes point at dead-ends which you must find a way to navigate around to get to the thing Guide is trying to point you to. There are 3 Guides that spawn on every level and you get a free one when you pickup the Utility Gun. Guide lasts 8 seconds.
2) Radar - allows you to see guards through walls and the direction they are pointing. Radar lasts 12 seconds.
3) Slower - slows down the world for a few seconds. Because it slows guards, it can be used offensively to get behind guard shields to shoot them. It can also be used to flee, but this is not ideal because this ability lasts a short time.
4) Cloak - makes you invisible to guards, turrets, and cameras. Guards can still hear you if make noise while cloaked, and they will turn towards you and investigate, but they will not shoot. Not moving makes cloak last much longer. If you shoot or charge your laser while cloaked, you uncloak. Great for setting up sneak attacks on guards. Great for bypassing guards - they will have difficulty following you. Extremely useful when hacking Computers.
5) Shield - surrounds you with a shield that will protect you from a single laser shot. Shield makes a sound when it gets shot. Shield lasts 30 seconds.
6) EMP - area-of-effect blast that stuns guards, turrets, and cameras in a radius around the player. Works through walls and doors. Stun effect lasts several seconds. Very powerful!
System Escape Basic Protips -
1) Guards are slower than your sprint speed. However, sprinting is much louder, and guards will hear you through walls and doors. Guards have excellent hearing. Guards will not hear if you crouch-move. You can crouch and sprint at the same time.
2) Guards have excellent vision and will detect you quickly, so you should treat them like the fabled Medusa - avoid looking directly at them. Instead, learn to infer what they are doing by looking for their green spotlights and listening to their noises and the sound of opening doors.
3) Guards will give up chasing you and return to their normal patrol mode pretty quickly after they stop detecting you, so fleeing quickly and then hiding somewhere until they calm down can be very effective.. if you don't end up in a strange room filled with turrets, cameras, and more bots.
4) The first thing a guard does when it sees you is deploy a shield in front of it, then it will attempt to shoot you. This gives you a moment to flee before getting shot.
5) Guard shield walls despawn the instant that the guard stops seeing you. Duck into cover, then jump out, shoot one laser shot, then duck back into cover. Every time you jump out, the guard will be vulnerable for a moment before it can deploy another shield.
6) Shooting a guard while it is unaware will trigger a sneak attack which insta-kills them. This does not apply to turrets or superbots. Regular guards take 2 regular laser shots to kill.
4) Rechargers for your Laser appear on most levels after the first one. When fully-charged, you will have enough shots to kill many guards and cameras and turrets. You cannot use the laser while charging.
7) Hold down the Laser gun trigger for a little while and then release to deploy a temporary shield wall. Shield walls persist for a limited time but block all shots that hit them. Or keep charging to power up a super-shot that instantly-kills any enemy. Super-shots use 10% of your laser battery but will kill turrets and super-guards in one shot.
8) Watch for cameras on the ceilings. Shoot them, or use them to lure guards away from an area you need to get to.
9) Maintenance Hatches (vents) allow potential alternative routes through the level.. or dead-ends. They are a different kind of door. You have to crouch to enter them. Guards cannot travel through vents. Rarely, vents may allow access to the elevator without needing to use the unclock computer.
10) Guards respawn so you can't defeat them all, but there are a specific number of them per level (depending on your difficulty setting; the starting level on Normal has only 2 bots). There is also a brief delay before they respawn, and they will never respawn in the same room that you are. You will find many guard respawn locations on every level, but you will never see them working. Cameras and turrets do not respawn.
11) Cloaking while using computers is the safest way to complete them. Cloak lasts a long time if you don't move!
12) Doors sounds are very loud, but guards do not consider the sound suspicious and will not investigate you just for using doors.
13) The game has 4 levels you must complete to claim victory.
