My heartbeat was racing as I screamed at the top of my lungs. " Hurry up and break that wall down!" Escaping prison is always exciting. The fear of being caught while breaking through a library wall and into the open fields while getting your cutters ready, prepping to remove the fence and run towards freedom. Screaming at your partner to quicken their pace as pace anxiously, waiting for a wall to crumble, only to find out that there was a door to the outside all along. That is the fun of The Escapist 2.
The Escapist 2 is a game where you have to break out a prison. That's it. It's your only goal, but you have a large variety of ways to escape. Either by cutting a fence, or creating a key mould and forging your own key. Although it only has a total of ten maps, each map could easily be replayed and enjoyed again when played with a peer. The game is most enjoyable with a partner on the switch, due to the accessibility of multiplayer. With a single click of a button, your closest friend may join you on your escape to freedom. There are two game modes for multiplayer, both of which can be played locally or online. However, local play only supports up to two players at a time while online play has up to four. The two game modes are basically summed up as Co-op and Versus. Co-op being self explanatory, where you and your friends work together to escape while Versus is a race against time and a competition to see who may escape the prison first. Both game modes are equally enjoyable but the lack of levels may cause the game to be stale after a few hours.
The controls of the game are easy to grasp as they have a tutorial level to help you along. When in multiplayer, they also have small popups at the top of the screen to help you along with which buttons to press. There is very little cramping as there is no need for precise movement or any stressful actions until the day you decide to escape from prison, but even then, there is little to no discomfort in the controls layout.
The graphics are an upgrade to the previous escapist and extremely eye pleasing. The artwork is simple to understand and interpret, although the text may be a little small during split screen co-op depending on the size of your TV. Overall, The Escapist 2 is a solid game to get if you have someone to enjoy it with. Playing it alone is still fun, but the lack of levels or a level editor on the switch makes it a short experience for one person. For the price, I would say that The Escapist 2 is definitely worth the money.