Developer: Mint Age Studios
Publisher: Back To Basics Gaming
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Escape Machines – Preview
Escape Machines is a flash game made by Mint Age Studios. Though most flash games have an edge of addictiveness to them, Escape Machines takes pride in bashing said addictiveness and replacing it with a completely forgettable story and campaign. It doesn’t really sound promising, but the game is still in the beta stages and a forum will be launched for feedback which is much needed as the game currently feels unfinished across the board.
What comes up first is the story. An A.I. had been created and, lo and behold, it turns hostile to all that is made from skin and bones. But this isn’t the major point; some AAA games have had a story that’s far more flimsy and feels more awkward than this. Moreover, not all gamers play games for the story. It’s the way it’s currently brought. Cut scenes are just stills in which pictures of people who matter to the plot overact their expressions which make the scenes more comical than grave, which is what the game is trying to convey: a sense of gravity that the world is currently ending for mankind.
Escape Machines uses text based story telling. This isn’t bad, and can give you the time to relate to characters and give them their own unique voice. It’s a way of drawing in a person and keeping them immersed. If you want to do this successfully, at least spell check your dialogue and text. It’s one thing to have feeble writing, it’s another to make said feeble writing even worse with grammar and spelling mistakes.
It has to be said, the game has a catchy tune to it. It catches the cyber feel of the environment perfectly. When an enemy drone spots you, you’ll be notified by their voice command and this too makes it feel like the enemies are actually intelligent. On a lesser note, all the guns sound the same and most enemies do too. Sometimes all you can use is pew pew pew for a laser gun, but making a laser gun sound the same like a shotgun or a machine gun doesn’t work at all.
Gameplay is another set of ups and downs. The controls are functional and easy to master. The gunplay is also quite straight forward: you aim with your mouse and you click to start shooting. You start with a gun with unlimited ammo. As you work your way through the levels you’ll be given materials and money to buy other weapons and ammo with. What’s bothersome about the guns is that all of them have the same effect. All of them shoot in a straight line. Some of them do slightly more damage, but this is almost always negligible, and the range is all the same. A shotgun shouldn’t have the same range as a machine gun, or a laser gun. Also the fact that enemies always have a bigger range than you do, doesn’t help matters.
Escape Machines also boasts an inventory management system. Not all guns occupy the same space and not all items are equal in size, so you’ll have to puzzle to make the most of the given space.
You can upgrade weapons with materials you gain during missions, it is a nice mechanic in theory, however as it stands these upgrades do nothing to the guns handling, all of the guns feel exactly the same.
The biggest sin however is still to be named. An energy system is in place. So every five times you die, you’ll be out of energy and you’ll have to wait to regain said energy. If you don’t want to wait, there’s a big chance you’ll be able to ask your facebook friends for extra energy or buy some with real life currency.
This is bothersome. On two levels. On one it’s a desperate cash grab and this game isn’t currently that good to warrant it. On the other level is the fact that this game hinges on addictive gameplay. You want to jump right in, to kill the enemy that downed you. You’ll have earned materials to upgrade your weapons making you stronger. You want to play until you’ve maxed out all the stats and every gun and take out bad guys left and right, the last thing you want to do is wait. If you make players wait then they might lose interest in the forgettable gameplay and story and move on.
Conclusion
There’s a lot of potential for this game even though it’s ‘just’ a flash game, the story is easy to comprehend and the gameplay can become addictive, there are some issues with the game crashing but because of the auto save between levels there was little to no progress lost. Escape Machines could do with some tweaks and some polish, if done correctly it might make you want to play for hours.
Escape Machines - Preview,
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