Despite the challenging premise, prison escape games are few and far between, with the rather dire Prison Break tie-in game probably being the closest to representing that plot. That brings us to Mouldy Toof Studios' The Escapists where the only goal is to break out of confinement, which could be...

Freedom to choose how to escape; Different challenges across each prison; Trusts players to work things out for themselves

Can sometimes feel monotonous; Music can get quite repetitive really quickly

It should have been simple. I'd worked for days on my plan. I had gathered all the items I needed to make a sock-mace, shovel, and even a screwdriver. I'd managed to sneak out a guard's uniform du

Great variety in gameplay; Excellent crafting; Adorable visuals

Steep learning curve; Very little hand-holding

The Escapists is a unique experience in the games industry, and for that reason alone it's worth giving a shot. However, this isn't a game that attempts to slide by on novelty alone.

Prison life is bleak.

In HBO's superb crime procedural, The Wire, the criminals who end up in jail have a saying; "You only do two days: the day you go in and the day you come out". That's all well and good for a jailbird serving a life-sentence who needs to make peace with the fact that they're never going to breathe...

Surprisingly deep; Multiple ways of escape; You have to use the grey matter

Crafting isn't intuitive; Some hints would be nice; Combat is bascialy QTE

Mouldy Toof Studios teamed up with Team 17 for The Escapists (originally released on the PC) and in terms of gameplay the latter provides a sandbox experience inspired by the likes of Prison Break (one of my favourite TV series); with the objective being to escape from each of the six available...

Sandbox games work best when you're given a simple objective inside a framework of logical consistency and are let loose on it.

The first time I heard about Team 17's next game as a publisher, The Escapists, was through a friend on Xbox Live who happens to be a correctional officer himself. He mentioned it in passing and he told me that a friend of his was super excited about the game.

The Digital Fix pays a short visit to prison in the form of The Escapists, a new prison escape game from developers Mouldy Toof Studios, available on Xbox One and PC.

That right there sums up the two main feelings I have about The Escapists from Mouldy Toof Studios. What on first inspection and during the game's opening tutorial seems like a game where you simply plan an escape from prison, by crafting and finding the appropriate tools, soon becomes something...