Inescapable

Inescapable is not quite what it's been billed to be by many reviewers. As a gigantic fan of Super Metroid, the cavernous screenshots practically had me salivating, but the Metroid influence is only part of the story, here, with considerable influence coming from early DOS and Amiga platformers. Another World would be a good talking point, although the visuals are less stylized. Whether you grew up with games on those platforms or, like me, you were raised mostly on consoles, you have to appreciate the dedication and authenticity at work here. The pixel-art is excellent making great use of the limited color palette. The game lacks music, but it lends a harshness to the proceedings with nothing to accompany the player except the ambiance of gunshots.

What's more, though, is that the game plays well. Some have complained about the lack of a map here, but perhaps that just shows that people have become too dependent on them. The world is well designed, small but quite labyrinthine. Despite that, the gameplay itself is rather straightforward with the focus on finding a series of keys and power-ups that enable the player to progress through the game. It's nothing that we've not seen before, but it hits all the right notes, getting a nice balance between obscure and obvious by usually showing you where to use keys before acquiring them. As usual with open-world adventures, the amount of backtracking may bother some, but over the course of the game, you do find a few shortcuts. The game also adds a few twists that are less common such as severe limitations on drops early in the game and a health bar that doubles as ammo for a special weapon, though admittedly the action rarely gets heated enough to necessitate the risk.

All of this makes for a decent game, but it's the storytelling that makes it stand out. Many will find the obfuscated approach to revealing the plot frustrating as there is very little traditional exposition, but I appreciated the subtle way that the details are gradually revealed. There's an elegiac quality rarely seen in the loud and fast world of video games. The ending, in particular, has clearly rubbed some people the wrong way, and it can't be called anything but an anticlimax, denying its audience of any reward, but by way of a quote from David Foster Wallace, the game makes some interesting meta-commentary on the hero worship we often see in games and other media and how it disconnects from the reality of courageous people.

Undoubtedly, Inescapable is designed for a very specific audience, and while it's well made, it does have problems, particularly in its challenge or lack thereof. While the level design is good, there is very little variety in enemy types and there are far too few puzzles. It lacks the polish that we might expect from a Metroid or Castlevania title, especially in terms of the combat. This game is unlikely to be seen as a classic, but developer Mangetic Realms shows a lot of potential here, and the conclusion while unexpected is gutsy and smart. Although the game left me wanting more, it's a testament to the craft here that I would have been willing to keep playing.