Surprisingly, there aren't many escape rooms in the world of online games, but Coin Crew Games hopes to change that with Escape Academy, a humorous adventure in which you're accepted into a prestigious—and often deadly—school for budding escape artists. As you try to uncover all the secrets the school is keeping from you, you're immediately thrust into a fast-paced journey filled with mystery and intrigue.
Knowing that you must work against the clock in most rooms, it makes sense that you might miss a few things. Whether you're trying to get to the next puzzle piece before the timer expires, or trying to figure out why your milkshake was poisoned, life as a budding escapist will inevitably trip you up. Let's take a moment to observe some items you might have overlooked.
[Spoilers For Escape Academy below]
8 Safety Is An Option
Once you've shown that you are worthy of admission to Escape Academy, it becomes clear that they devote a lot of time and money to their training. The cutting-edge computers strewn throughout the campus suggests so, but none of those funds are used for the pupils or their safety.
Jeb, the lovely groundskeeper, is the most flagrant offender. You know, Jeb oversees everything related to the school's grounds. During one puzzle, where you're purposely poisoned and told to make the antidote, Jeb offhandedly mentions his surprise when the fire extinguisher you're using is full. He puts them up for show. In the kitchen, no less.
7 Is It Really You?
Escape Academy is a first-person game, therefore there aren't many chances to see how the player character looks. As you go on to the next puzzle piece, a camera angle here and there can occasionally reveal your face on a nearby display, but that is the exception rather than the rule. Between missions, your dorm room is the one place you can stop, take your time at the mirror, and truly appreciate who you are. Why bring this up?
However, if you simply run out without checking yourself, you miss the chance to notice the subtly placed references to the other popular school franchise, both in style and safety regulations. Your avatar wears everything from a crimson overcoat to a striped red and white tie. There are more than enough nods to the movies, but this small one is worth at least a once over.
6 Dad's Sense Of Humor
You have plenty of time (kind of) to consider every solution and consult cheats along the course of the game. The main distinction is the protagonist's rapid-fire delivery of puns and dad jokes that will, at the very least, get you to smirk.
The ability to make an infinite stream of frivolous remarks about your surroundings as the clock of your fate ticks down to zero is a humanizing quality. Being able to survive being poisoned or saving a skilled escape spy who will later become one of your professors requires mental toughness that is off the charts.
5 Eat The Pizza
You've completed the tutorial escape room and are now free to explore the surrounding area in search of the exit or, at least some answers, when you notice one single pizza slice chilling on a plate. How do you behave? Does this fit with the escape room? Do we simply ignore it and continue to the next section?
It's fairly amazing how this little, innocent piece of gooey bliss raises so many existential issues. Perhaps it's simply groundskeeper Jeb's hastily discarded lunch for something more important. We'll never know. But, if he isn't going to eat, you may as well, right?
4 Slip Lives Up To His Name
Everyone in the academy is, let's face it, up to something - almost everyone. Slip, the former student who is now a professor is the only one who appears to keep their nose clean. Although he is easygoing, he knows how to create an escape room that isn't focused on taking you—and only you—out. You learn considerably less about him than about Allie, the other teacher, and former explosives specialist.
You are aware of his rebellious nature and his love of artistic creation, but what else? What sort of activities did he engage in before becoming a professor? Was he first forced to return, or did he want to? It makes sense that good old Slip is just there to practice the art of escape. In fact, you don't see him at all after the Rival Room. That's probably for the best, considering what happens after.
3 A Realistic Relationship
You compete with a rival that wants to defeat you and take over the top rank at the academy, just like in any Shonen anime. A fellow student named Gillian recalls hearing as a child that she was destined to become a skilled escape artist. She tells everyone she encounters, even you. When you two compete, she reluctantly concedes that you are the superior artist.
When the real tale comes out, she approaches you with the biggest puzzle to solve: what really happened to Eel, the expert escape artist you earlier saved. When all is said and done, the two of you develop fresh regard for one another, but you are still not really friends. It doesn't seem like the best ending for the two, but that's how it is sometimes, and that's ok. Besides, it also leaves room for friendship, and more healthy rivalry, to bloom.
2 There's Something About Eel
Headmaster Solange had the highest regard for Eel as a special agent. She knew she had to free him as soon as she learned he was alive and being held hostage. After the situation was resolved, she welcomed him and appointed him as a new instructor. He became well known and was embraced by everyone.
If so, how did nobody realise he was a robot if that was the case? Eel never consumed any food or liquids, but he frequently made comments about how they smelled. Not to add that he was always around. He was present in every class and course you took. Everything just fits together once you learn the truth. Such a degree that you begin to question how it didn't before.
1 Quanty's Control
The fundamental mandate of the AI Quanty, "Create the best escapists, no matter the cost", was possibly the largest error the headmaster committed. On paper, everything looks wonderful, but there's no telling what someone will do to cover the bill if it keeps rising. She had no way of knowing what would happen, but surely better wording could have made a difference? She might have been prevented from being kidnapped and from Quanty holding the entire school hostage even by the simple addition of the phrase, "within reason."
Once the parameters of what is determined to be 'the best' kept being proven wrong, he had to adapt and twist the directive to justify the means. He couldn't understand the human element; the need for fun and nurturing talent instead of drilling it with deadly tests of skill. It wasn't entirely Quanty's fault, well aside from the actual damage caused and trauma the staff endured.