Official_Xbox_Magazine_USA_Issue_202_July_2017

Preview
There was an achievement in the first game for being naked for a month
The Escapists 2
is this the breakout hit of the
year or a total shut-in?
stephen ashby
Publisher team17 DeveloPer mouldy toof StudioS
Format xbox one eta 2017
BEaT
down
the combat
mechanics have
been improved in
the escapists 2.
there’s a new lockon
system, blocking
has been added,
and you can use a
combination of light
and heavy attacks.
“as the saying goes,
‘if you’re going to
make an omelette,
you’re gonna need
to have a very
frank and open
discussion with the
eggs first,’” says
grant towell.
If shanking a prison guard, stealing his
uniform, and using it in an elaborate
escape plan sounds like your idea of
fun, then chances are you’re either on
the run from the authorities (thanks
for taking the time to pick up OXM, Mr
Criminal!), or you played The Escapists.
The top-down prison escape game
was a surprise hit back in 2015, and
Mouldy Toof Studios is back with a
bigger team, and a far bigger sequel.
“We’ve got a lot planned for the
game that really builds on the
foundations [of The Escapists], and
adds more elements in that the fans
should hopefully love,” says the
game’s senior producer, Dave Wood.
“Prisons can also now be spread
across multiple floors, which gives us
more design choices for the prisons
and allows for some great escapes.
For example, players can navigate the
rooftops and shimmy down makeshift
ropes made from bed sheets.”
New escapes have been one of the
major focuses for the sequel, but
there are other major updates, too.
“The most immediately obvious
changes are the improvements to the
graphical style of the game,” Wood
says. “There’s a lot more character
customization now, too, so players will
be able to put more of their own
stamp on their avatars.” We suspect
“Prisons are spread across
multiple floors, which allows
for some great escapes”
the customization doesn’t extend to
prisoner outfits; orange is really the
color of choice when you’re inside.
Cell mates
The other major addition is multiplayer,
as the second Escapists allows for up
to four convicts to dive into a game
together. This isn’t just multiplayer for
the sake of it, though. Serious thought
has been put into how the systems
will work. “When we started thinking
about creating a sequel, online
multiplayer was the top of the list of
new features we wanted to get in,”
explains Wood. “We spent a lot of time
thinking about the unique challenges
bringing multiplayer to The Escapists
posed, especially surrounding the
amount of time it takes to craft the
perfect escape plan.”
The biggest concern the team had
was that if someone needed to log
off, or players got dropped, carefully
planned escapes would immediately
go up in smoke. “We decided that
drop-in, drop-out gameplay was the
only way to go,” Wood continues.
As a result, there are no levels or
prisons built specifically with
multiplayer in mind, and no multiplayer
mode that you’ll need to activate in
order to play with your mates.
“Because there are so many different
ways to approach escaping a prison,
we felt that there was no point in
creating separate content for co-op
gameplay. You can experience all of
the campaign by playing with friends
or playing alone. However, not all
escapes can be undertaken alone!”
Now, that does sound intriguing.
Multiplayer-exclusive escapes could
be anything from giving your buddy a
leg-up over a wall, to taking on four
brutish prisoners, buffed up by hours
in the gym and kicking the crap out of
guards like a weird, color-blind version
of The Power Rangers.
Before we signed off with Mouldy
Toof, we asked lead designer, Grant
Towell, to describe his coolest
Escapists 2 prison break. He didn’t
want to say much, but shared the final
moments of his play: “I was riding
horseback, escaping on one of the
finest steeds I’ve ever seen… but the
only items I had on me were an orange
and a green felt tip pen.” We dread to
think of the carnage he left behind. n
029
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