Don’t Escape 2 is the “sequel” to Don’t Escape 1, created by the Scriptwelder, who is also known for his series Seep Sleep. It’s a flash game that combines two or even three different gaming genre. It’s a point and click adventure game, a zombie-survival game as well as a bit of a management game. The mechanics are similar to those in Don’t Escape 1, which essentially means looking for/clicking at things with your mouse, trying to figure out how to combine some items with other items, and in what order, so that you have the best chance of survival. I am reviewing this game because with the large number of different zombie games out there, especially recent titles, this was the one that caught the most of my attention, and I will tell you why.
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The short introduction tells you all you have to know about what is about to happen. Good Luck!
Don’t Escape 2 – The End if Nigh!
The Story in Don’t Escape 2 is pretty straightforward. You and a fellow survivor (Bill) hide in a small building in the middle of nowhere. Bill has been bitten and a horde of zombies is approaching. You have 8 hours to prepare your little safehouse for the attack. Can you survive the night?
The one thing I will have to underline is that Don’t Escape 2 is not a sequel to Don’t Escape 1, in terms of the story. You are not a werewolf, trying to not escape again.
When I first started playing Don’t Escape 2 I had so many options laid out before me I did not know where to begin. Where as Don’t Escape 1 kept you within a single space, and there was pretty much only one way to have a “Happy Ending” in Don’t Escape 2 you have far more choice. So much that my first few games were indeed all about trial and error.
While you only face a single zombie throughout the entire game (not counting the final resolution) your main enemy is the clock. Most actions you do take time, such as traveling, building, digging, etc. When you play the game for the first time you will make plenty of mistakes, and sometimes you will have a problem realizing just what exactly you are meant to do. Some solutions do not become apparent until you give them a bit of thought. And of course there is the problem of choice. There are some points in the game where you have to decide what is the best solution. As the simplest example, do you use a shovel to kill a zombie, with a chance of it breaking, or do you use it to dig a hole? But then, digging the hole alone takes a lot of time and the lone zombie is guarding the glasses that a fellow survivor needs in order to join you.
That’s what appealed in Don’t Escape 2 to me. The fact that you do not have enough supplies to do everything, there is no chance of completing the game 100% on your first try. At the same time when you do make some manner of mistake it is still possible to win, by having the right sort of backup, when things do go bottoms up.
The one thing that might not appeal to some is the fact that you have to click a lot, and search for prompts around the screen. On my first try I also did not find one “hidden” area, that was simply hard to find on my first playthrough. Usually it’s easy to tell apart key “plot” items from just background objects, but once again you have to click to make sure. These are not real problems, and if you played and or enjoy point and click adventure games then you will know how these things work.
The graphics have this pixelated and grainy feel to them, yet at the same time I somewhat like this style. Like I always said, you do not need 3D “Current Gen” graphics in order for a game to be enjoyable, and Don’t Escape 2 certainly has enough going for it to be enjoyable. The music is sufficiently creepy and zombie-like (you know what I mean) and the sounds do the job just fine.
Unfortunately, it is possible to complete the whole game in less than an hour (depending on how much time you invest into it) and then once you understand all of its little quirks it won’t take you much longer to obtain all or at least most of the medals/achievements. It is also not randomized in any way so once you do finish it there is not that much re-playability, especially when you get all the possible medals.
Still, for such a short-ish flash game I feel a lot of work has been put into it, and the game captures the essence of what zombie survival is, and the scenario that you are put into, with limited time and resources is what kept me rather refreshed in the zombie genre. Unlike other flash zombie games, such as the Last Stand series, here you do not have all that much action, and instead the focus is on careful planning.
Overall I would give this flash game an 8.5/10. It might seem like a relatively high score, but for such a small game it has a lot going for it, and it’s definitely worth trying out. If you do want to try it, head to Newgrounds.
Read more: Don’t Escape 2 – How will you survive?