The Artful Escape

It’s time to embark on a strange journey between worlds and galaxies, a journey where you will meet various strange beings and face unimaginable dangers. This is not a journey to save the galaxy, it is not a journey to achieve a noble goal, it is a journey to discover your false personality on stage! The Artful Escape will take us on this journey, another game from the publisher Annapurna Interactive, from which we are used to taking on such strange and exciting projects.

The story revolves around the boy Francis Vandetti, who is known in the town of Calypso because of his late uncle Johnson Vendetti, considered one of the legends of folk music and the pride of the town. Here comes the role of Francis, who will play his uncle’s most famous albums on the twentieth anniversary of the album’s release. Here we learn of Francis’ fears about this concert and his desire to find it. In search of the right character to embody on stage, strange events begin. Francis finds himself on a spaceship traveling through the galaxies, accompanied by one of the galactic legends, Lightman, who tries to make Francis a star and at the same time tries to build his own stage character.

Strange Worlds and Colorful Graphics

The game’s story is interesting not because of the depth, as it is not deep at all, but because of the strange worlds you will visit. You don’t know what awaits you and it will be impossible for you to predict what will happen due to the strangeness of the worlds you visit and the creatures you encounter? The game offers us an attractive graphic direction and diverse worlds with bright and cheerful colors and others that are dark and mysterious. The game is simply a visual delight on a technical level, with a vibrant and interactive world in the background of the screen, plus a wonderful variety of loud tunes that you’ll play on various cosmic stages.

Simple Gameplay with Cosmic Music

The game style is very simple. Usually you run and play the guitar (you have to press a specific button to start playing) while sometimes you jump. Here you see the world in the background of the screen interacting with the music. The appearance of lights and fireworks or the dancing of objects in the background, with flowers blooming and plants awakening. They will pass. There are a number of stages on which you have to stand and play, depending on the desire of a particular creature. Playback is via 5 buttons, the right and left shoulder buttons for the control handle, in addition to 3 buttons on the keypad, and you must play the required tunes in the correct order to succeed in your show.

Limitations and Lack of Replay Value

The biggest downside to the experience is the limitation of the gameplay system, which we felt could have been improved to complement this unique experience. The game pieces are not that difficult and each creature will ask you to play an easy piece to pass this test and complete your journey. It was possible to increase the difficulty of playing the keys or to diversify the playing style of the keys. For example, the running and gaming portion would have been more entertaining if more platforming elements were added instead. Sometimes I just run and jump with no difficulty or actual challenge.

The game is short and we completed it in four and a half hours. This is where we come to the game’s other flaw, which is its lack of replay value. There are no challenges, as previously mentioned, and collectibles and side content are non-existent either, making it difficult to convince some players to buy it. In any case, The Artful Escape is a fun experience. Visually and interesting thanks to its strange and innovative worlds and the wonderful music that takes us on a different kind of adventure, it is not the adventure that everyone is looking for, but it is an experience that we recommend to those who are looking for varied experiences are.