The Artful Escape

The Artful Escape is beautiful, sad, compelling and mind-blowing in equal measure. It’s more of a concept album than it is a game and that’s fine, because with so many set-pieces, such well-realised vignettes, and such awe-inspiring talent behind it, you’re more than happy to sit down and take in the journey as your fingers dance on the pad from time to time to keep the game moving forward. You’ve heard of prog rock music before, but this might be the first prog-rock game.

The Artful Escape is well worth the wait. An exciting, well-acted feast for the senses, it does not disappoint. There are a couple of technical issues that need to be sorted, but on the whole, games this imaginative and enthralling don't come along very often.

A must for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, and absolutely recommended for everyone else, The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti tells with irony and intelligence the path of artistic and inner growth of a talented teenage musician. Through the celestial bodies of the Stupefacosm, the protagonist and the player learn together to follow only the rhythm of their electric guitar, among extraordinarily inspired landscapes. Even in the face of a playful sector that does not represent the fulcrum of the work, the only regret remains a rhythm game soul that could have dared more. But in the face of the power of the proposed experience, we consider it a slight observation that we hope will be heard in a desirable second journey into the Stupefacosm.

The Artful Escape is an enigmatic coming of age story, wrapped in reverb-laden riffs and space opera shenanigans. It is quite unique, and absolutely unmissable.

A tour de force of light and sound, The Artful Escape is unlike anything else you’ve played. With no easy genre label to stick on the game, the only way you’ll know if you’re going to enjoy it is to try it. It’s a trip alright, one that will have your foot tapping and your head rocking from start to finish.

The Artful Escape is a joyous intergalactic trip with an electric guitar and vibrant visuals. Like a good solo, if you get swept up in the experience, you'll forget all about its flaws.

The lack of challenge in The Artful Escape, not just in its play but in its emotional texture, somewhat shreds the odyssey.

How did this game go under the radar!?!?!!? It is FANTASTIC, AMAZING, GENIUNUS, IMAGINATIVE, MESSED UP, BACKWARDS, SHOCKING and the list goes on. WOW and what an experience the have in video games. Never thought I would see anything like this and what a a work of art to bring gamers into and through that story; and concept of telling a story like that. I applaud this gaming company that made this game for us. Thank you for showing me that style of art and putting me through that journey. WOW,WOW and WOW! No joke people and try it for an hour and you will go on a magical ride!

Different experience and artful gameplay. I loved it but I don’t know it does not deserve higher grades because of the short story and it felt like I’m playing mini game. 7 is enough.

The Artful escape The power of music! The artful escape is a linear nearl 4 hour long narrative adventure, you’re the nephew of a legendary musician trying to find yourself, and a night before a big gig youre abducted by aliens.. This is a game about finding yourself as an artist.. youll go through these beautiful locations just rifting on your guitar, eventually getting to a boss battle that will have you playing a simon says like mini game.. then its off to the next area.. This game is again beautiful, I was so impressed with the visuls nd I loved sliding down hills and the platforming here, the story however I was kinda bored of after a while, wasn’t one that really clicked with me so I didn’t care how it turned out all that much.. But I still had this eautiful world to pull me through.. Gameplay wise this was my favorite aspect, it was fun putting on a little rock show for these aliens before sliding through some caves.. but if this doesn’t sound like a story that intrigues you, the gameplay isn’t enough on its own to justify a playthrough.. Overall The Artful escape is a good game.. Not one Ill think about much going forward, but at the same time has the potential to be one of someone elses favorite games of the year, I give The Artful Escape a 7/10

This game is very niche: less than 30% of players have finished this FIVE hour game, according to Xbox achievements. So the odds are it won't appeal to you. While I liked the art and the music was fine (I actually preferred the folk stuff on the title screen), I was not into the limited gameplay or the drawn out story.

By now, we're all too familiar with the Annapurna Interactive artsy (borderline pretentious) games, so it won't come up as a surprise when I tell you "The Artful Escape" follows the usual script : almost no gameplay at all, close to no plot, no challenge and great attention paid to artistic direction. Basically, it's some sort of 5 hours interactive visual experience. Maybe it's your thing, but as for every other Annapurna games, it's unfortunately not mine.