The Artful Escape

While the first hour or so is colorful, expressive, and visually dazzling, that feeling quickly dulls as the gameplay becomes incredibly repetitive and the story kind of runs in place for 4 hours until everything wraps up. I never felt like the game evolved much beyond its own premise, which leaves this rather short game feeling bloated and unsatisfying.

Есть такие игры, которые создаются с душой. The Artful Escape как раз именно такая. Стильная, настолько красивая и необычная, что словами это передать очень сложно. После прохождения остается только теплота на душе и покой (возникает желание начать играть на гитаре). Игра подойдет тем, кто любит и уважает музыкальное искусство. В конце можно с полной уверенностью сказать то, что разработчики добились того, чтобы быть услышанными - как минимум теми, кто купил её и прошел путь становления "самим собой" вместе с Фрэнсисом. К покупке однозначная рекомендация!

Oyun adeta bir albüm kapağı gibi gerek muhteşem sanat dizaynı olsun gerek attığım her adımda etrafın değişmesi olsun sizi gerçekten büyülüyor.Tek bir tuşla elektro gitar soloları atarken kendinizi gerçekten bir rockstar gibi hissediyorsunuz.İlk kısımları biraz yavaş aksa da özellikle kendi sahne kimliğinizi yaptıktan sonra akıldan silinmeyecek epik sahneler geliyor.Oyunu sildikten sonra dahi aklımdan çıkmayacak cinsten belki ara ara finalini açıp oynayabilirim.Bu tarz yürüme simülasyonu diyebileceğimiz oyunlardan genelde bu kadar etkilenmem ama bu oyun çok fena bir şey.

The Artful Escape is an example of having the markers of something truly brilliant. However, the execution holds it back from excellent because it favours emotionally resonant presentation over the integration between mechanics and narration. Your playable protagonist, Francis, supposedly shreds like an out of this world, intergalactic being. I'm not saying the guitar playing needed to be stupid difficult but I am saying the virtuoso idea should have expressed differentiation. During the platforming sections of the game, you hold Left Shift to riff. That makes sense for one button simplicity. Your guitar wails as you jump and pose dramatically. This is fine cohesion. But for bosses, where you essentially have a bit of a battle of the bands moment, you get visual mimicry instead of musical performance. It's narratively dissonant. At first it makes sense to monkey see, monkey do. But as Francis comes into his own, it should have featured the harmony of their talents blending together to make music collaborative. Giving the boss sections something accumulative to show growth and development while keeping it accessible would have made gameplay feel meaningful and connected to the story instead of feeling like all it's meant to do is confirm we are still watching. Then there's Violetta. She is supposedly a laser show genius. You expect the climax of the game to showcase that brilliance. Everything up to this point has maximally assaulted your eyes with overwhelmingly bright and psychedelic phantasma that nothing stood out as "wow, she really is a genius" despite both the GlamourGonn and Francis hyping up her abilities. The head that opens up to reveal him in earlier stages was more visually impressive than stacking a massive stage with a lot of technology that revealed itself as Francis completed more of the Simon Says-esque prompts. We never really get to understand how she thinks in lights and space. Nothing during the end game ever pulled back enough to let her work shine or alternatively, nothing she did outshone the rest of the game's visual rigor. The sound design for the crowd and concert venue gave the cues that we should be wholly impressed. However, it should have absolutely been a blend of that, music, visuals, mechanics and character development of both Francis and Violetta as they have worked hard and differently toward this big bombastic climax. Basically a showcase of agency instead of accessory for Violetta and something like breaking the fourth wall to showcase transcendence of identity for Francis. What this could have looked like is, and I realize I'm veering into 'this should have been a different game territory', constructing vocabulary to give the player the opportunity to play around as a departure from the established framework to really mint Francis' transcendence and tying in Violetta's genius to how and what you play affects what you see and hear. Maybe it starts off as mimicry with the boss as a call back to his humble beginnings, then a step up from that, and a step up from that til finally you are improvising and the light show follows suit. This idea (and there are plenty of other ways to do it) gives thematic integration of transcendence by feeling through texture and feeling through narrative orchestrates the climax. Instead, we get a game that knows it's a spectacle but wasn't fully sure how to connect mechanics and narrative at the same intensity as those cosmic imaginings. Are we meant to participate or merely perceive? Is it a commentary on stardom that it's basically decided for you so maybe it's actually the right amount of detachment or is it a coming of age story about breaking expectations placed on you and the elements of what a game is fail to express that thoroughly? It tries to distract from answering this by captivating you with rainbows and philosophy because it didn't want to, or couldn't, dazzle with systemic integration. However, there was some cool integration in other ways. None of the humans had eyes. They all had some type of glasses on their face. This could suggest framing of identity is either predetermined or you can only see through the lens you wish to see through. Your identity is obscured if you can't see it in the first place; people can't see who you are if they are obscured by expectations of you. If you make a stage persona, you will see and be seen differently from your wannabe folk artist following in your uncle's footsteps. Whether intentional or a practical choice, it was a nice touch that the game never delves into. This is purely meaning making from what I observed.  The Glimmerdimm arc was sandwiched between ones about test driving a new personality and mostly embodying a new persona. It tied the expectations of status quo and shaking them up to Francis' struggle upholding his hometown's expectations by breaking free of the mold quite well. For me, that was probably the best storytelling moment of the entire game. Another one was in the arc before it, we saw him on a talk show. He was told not to lose his head. During it, we see him getting lost in ego, getting called on it and coming back to his senses. What's the line between fabrication and separation from who  you are and the one you craft/let others see? The duality of a stage persona basically. Truthfully overall, it was an enjoyable experience. I don't feel like I wasted my time but situated in it's chosen medium, it definitely begged for expressive agency given its themes and was held back by continuous predetermined interactivity. I can't call it a magnum opus but rather as a suite with a few magnificent movements.

I played this gem on Gamepass a while back, and recently bought it on Steam. It's from the makers of Mixtape, so you kinda know what to expect. A lot of great music and bright colors, but the gameplay boils down to basically just running and shredding. But this game feels pretty special to me. It's a rock n' roll adventure through the cosmos that captures the essence of 80's films like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and is lead by a great cast that includes Michael Johnston (Bear from Obsession) Lena Heady, and the great Carl Weathers. It's a short and sweet feel good experience that pretty much made me smile from beginning to end. I liked it a lot!

The Artful Escape is not a game for music fans. The art and the ambient soundscapes are fantastic, but the music you actually "play" is just the most generic and sometimes annoying shredding ever. The story tries to be a coming-of-age tale, but the writing and the characters are just so pedestrian and uninspired that it barely registers. The gameplay revolves around walking, choosing completely meaningless dialogue and a Simon Says minigame that makes the final, epic showdown feel like an amateur band's first rehearsal - and they forgot to plug in the amp. This wouldn't even be a deal-breaker for me if the game offered anything of substance, but as it is the whole thing just feels rather one-note. 5 OUT OF 10

Picked this up after really enjoying Mixtape. Great little game, fun story and good music. Drags a bit in the middle but doesn't bring down the whole experience. Would recommend!