This game is a beautiful piece of art that falls into one of the most tragic pitfalls it possibly could. That is to say...it's somehow, inexplicably, the wrong genre.
The Artful Escape is a platformer with light rhythm elements, about defying the expectations others have for you and becoming your own, truly authentic, self. It celebrates embracing every inch of your own impulse from your narrative embellishment, your cringe, and your fears about your purpose and the purpose others impose on you. It's a meaningful message, using music as a near perfect vehicle...
So why on Earth did it end up a platformer? The platforming and puzzle action is simple and repetitive (thankfully being saved by the short runtime of the title) and left me begging for a game in this world in nearly any other genre...but ESPECIALLY within the adventure game genre. It reminded me a lot of 90s point and clicks like Starship Titanic or The Neverhood, that reveled in weirdness and demanded the player catch up through their own exploration of meaning, and any additional opportunities for the player to interface with this world more would have ratcheted this title up to a 5-Star review in my mind.
Artful Escape has an amazing world with stunning characters and an affection for Jack Kirby-esque lingual exaggeration and overly-elaborate design, but is ultimately weakened by the player's limited connection to it via simplistic gameplay, which reduces the expansive and infinite cosmos into another five hour indie platformer.
This story is about defining the self. It's gender-transgressive, defiant, and anti-establishment to a tee. But all of the design being centered around self-definition creates an unfortunate side-effect, that can either be interpreted as a meaningful choice in order to reinforce the morals of the story, or as an oversight. Ultimately, in The Artful Escape, the self is so important that everything else, no matter how beautiful, is ultimately overshadowed.
This means players get a fast and stunning exploration of their own aesthetic leanings tucked between average quality platforming, that works much like a firework.
Beautiful while it lasts, but small, impressionable, and with little time to wow you before the next. I loved every second, but when your game is about the expansive infinity of the self and the galaxy at large, one can't help but hope for more than pressing A to jump over gaps.
The Artful Escape is a platformer with light rhythm elements, about defying the expectations others have for you and becoming your own, truly authentic, self. It celebrates embracing every inch of your own impulse from your narrative embellishment, your cringe, and your fears about your purpose and the purpose others impose on you. It's a meaningful message, using music as a near perfect vehicle...
So why on Earth did it end up a platformer? The platforming and puzzle action is simple and repetitive (thankfully being saved by the short runtime of the title) and left me begging for a game in this world in nearly any other genre...but ESPECIALLY within the adventure game genre. It reminded me a lot of 90s point and clicks like Starship Titanic or The Neverhood, that reveled in weirdness and demanded the player catch up through their own exploration of meaning, and any additional opportunities for the player to interface with this world more would have ratcheted this title up to a 5-Star review in my mind.
Artful Escape has an amazing world with stunning characters and an affection for Jack Kirby-esque lingual exaggeration and overly-elaborate design, but is ultimately weakened by the player's limited connection to it via simplistic gameplay, which reduces the expansive and infinite cosmos into another five hour indie platformer.
This story is about defining the self. It's gender-transgressive, defiant, and anti-establishment to a tee. But all of the design being centered around self-definition creates an unfortunate side-effect, that can either be interpreted as a meaningful choice in order to reinforce the morals of the story, or as an oversight. Ultimately, in The Artful Escape, the self is so important that everything else, no matter how beautiful, is ultimately overshadowed.
This means players get a fast and stunning exploration of their own aesthetic leanings tucked between average quality platforming, that works much like a firework.
Beautiful while it lasts, but small, impressionable, and with little time to wow you before the next. I loved every second, but when your game is about the expansive infinity of the self and the galaxy at large, one can't help but hope for more than pressing A to jump over gaps.