Every now and then I like to spend some time and go back to some games that I used to play in the past, but never quite finished properly. I just want to get a sense of closure you know. For instance, last year I played through both games in the Portal series that I had just not finished for some reason. Another one was the game Bastion that I owned and yet never successfully finished. Sometimes I have trouble giving a game the attention it deserves and when this happens I decide to shelve it and try it again some other time. Sometimes I forget to do that follow-up and that leads to me forgetting about the game entirely. For instance, this one had been sitting in my games library for nearly seven years. The game is called The Escapists. As the name suggests, your main goal in this game is to escape from prison, although it probably won’t be as impressive as in The Shawshank Redemption. I remember scrolling through my list of games and remembering that I had never even escaped from prison. So, I tried doing that. This is how it went.
I didn’t remember anything about how to play, so I started a tutorial to refresh my memory. Then I jumped into an old save file. The first thing I learned was to make sure to not buy anything illegal and then immediately pick a fight with a guard. Thanks to that, I spent a fair amount of time in the infirmary having wasted money. I used to have a job in the game as a source of income, but because I didn’t know how the game worked I lost the job almost immediately. So my main way of earning money now was to do people favors so I could buy things and “borrow things” from other inmates. It didn’t really matter who I offended, so long as I didn’t overdo it. Eventually, I figured out a way to potentially make some actual progress. I realized that there is a vent system only eight hours into the game. However, I had no real way to take advantage of it until I did something by accident. Let me direct you to the picture below.
As you can see on this page, there is a recipe for a fake vent cover. This meant that if I opened a vent, I could put this down over it to disguise that I had busted up the original vent. The only problem was I didn’t have the material needed for the recipe. The tutorial taught me how to get through vents, not how to make paper mache. So we were back to square one. Until I experimented a little bit and used a toilet paper roll and super glue to find the recipe for paper mache on the first try. In hindsight, it makes sense. However, I wasn’t expecting the materials to actually combine, I was just testing my luck. Now, I could move forward with my plan.
I eventually released that as long as favors didn’t require me to be in direct confrontation with wardens and if I hid certain items beforehand, then I could get enough money for items to break the vent. Eventually, at a time when the wardens weren’t nearby, I broke the vent above me and headed up while placing the fake one I crafted down. Everything was going according to plan. Except for one thing, I didn’t know how to open up the fake vent once I placed it. Unfortunately, I would reload my saves twice before I found that the answer was just right-clicking on it. Whoops. Anyway, I had finally made it into the vent system and I was met with a new problem almost immediately. I didn’t prepare well enough.
You see that wall in front of me. That is another wall that I need to go through. The first time I got up here, I thought that there wouldn’t be any more obstacles. However, it seems I would need to use up most of the files I brought along. My goal was to check out that ladder to see where it lead. Eventually, after going in and out a couple of times, I was able to clear out the path and destroy both barricades. Then I went up the ladder to find… the roof of the building. The sniper was not happy about that and I got destroyed and sent back to square one. Just kidding, I totally reloaded. So this time I took down a different barricade, only to realize there are a lot of barricades up here. I only brought enough materials to take down two of them. I still had a long way to go it seemed. Later on, I would eventually get caught again and get sent to solitary, but I learned something important. While they did replace the vent cover, they didn’t replace the barricades I had already destroyed. Thank goodness for that. Still, breaking out of prison isn’t easy. At least in a videogame. I don’t have any experience with the real thing.
That’s about where I am right now. I am still doing odd jobs while trying to prep more money to get tools and supplies so I can finally cross escaping a prison off my bucket list. Of course, in a videogame. Honestly, I probably will stop playing this after I finally escape the prison and complete some more objectives, but it is a nice little distraction from all of the shiny hunting I have been doing recently. Well, I promise to let you know if I ever manage to make it out. I haven’t gotten very far yet, but I am at least starting to make some progress, which is more than I can say for me seven years ago. For now, thanks for reading and I will see you next time.
That Casual Gamer Guy 