Francis Vendetti, the protagonist in The Artful Escape, has a far more comfortable life than some of his video game peers. His homeland was neither destroyed nor was his girlfriend kidnapped, no, actually he lacks nothing. He lives in a picturesque small town in Colorado in a majestic house on the top of a mountain. He is also a gifted musician and the nephew of a great folk star. So why the long face? Well, on the one hand Francis is an insecure, introverted person, on the other hand he is supposed to perform his greatest hits at a sold-out memorial concert in honor of his deceased world star uncle. Francis’ heart doesn’t beat for folk, but for guitar melodies that melt planetary cores, open the third eye and pour liquid light over the deep black expanses of the universe – in short, he’s into space rock.
Even if you are not in the same situation yourself, it is easy to identify with the inhibited Francis, who would like to realize himself, but firstly is too afraid of being seen and secondly does not dare refusing to meet the expectations of family and society. The Artful Escape is, as the name suggests, Francis’ escapist journey through a strange galaxy in which he finds himself.
There isn’t much going on in The Artful Escape in terms of gameplay, but the visuals are really beautiful.
Source: PC games
How and why Francis boards a spaceship the night before the concert isn’t important, and since The Artful Escape is short (you’ll be busy for about four hours), we want to anticipate as little as possible. The end comes quickly, one would have liked to delve further into the depths of Francis’ soul, the writing is a little off-beat in line with the psychedelic acoustics. Nevertheless: The story of The Artful Escape works.
In any case, the look of the trip to self-discovery is breathtaking in some moments. When gigantic spaceships glide through mountains of clouds in the afterglow of foreign suns or the skulls of long-dead creatures spit laser beams in time, you can hardly get enough of the game. And that’s despite the fact that the Switch version’s visuals are weaker than those of the other editions.
On the Nintendo platform, The Artful Escape suffers from nasty edge flickering and reloading textures. Nonetheless, it’s a delight to explore this quirky galaxy that has great imagery; from heavy metal magazine to Ziggy Stardust, from the works of artist Moebius to record covers by genre cult band Hawkwind, the sources of inspiration are manifold and meld together opulently.
While running and jumping (here we travel on a giant butterfly) we hit the strings without inhibitions.
Source: PC games
In a game that revolves around music, the sound is at least as important as the graphics. In keeping with the theme, the guitar weeps in the most beautiful tones and the interactive soundtrack doesn’t come with many catchy tunes, but with spherical solos. The speakers also do a good job, but the voices are only in English – at least you read the lyrics in German.
There is a reason why we are only now addressing the gameplay: it has to lag behind significantly in comparison to the story, presentation and sound.
The Artful Escape is not a classic rhythm game like Guitar Hero, even if you sometimes have to play melodies with buttons and shoulder buttons on the controller – there are no points, no scoring, no game over. The Artful Escape isn’t a platformer, although most of the time you’ll be running, jumping, and sliding around. Last but not least, the indie game has adventure elements, you sometimes choose between different answers.
Most of the time you can let Francis play his guitar as you move, then the background music will change based on your (partially automatic) strumming. That’s about it – The Artful Escape is undemanding in terms of gameplay, but this makes it easier to immerse yourself in the visually stunning scenes that bloom on screen.
As with so many indie games, the focus on a very specific niche – here the theme of space rock combined with a coming-of-age story – is both a blessing and a curse. If that doesn’t interest you, there’s little to offer apart from it in terms of play. Guitar music lovers, retro sci-fi fans, artistic souls and indie gamers should definitely check out The Artful Escape.
The Artful Escape has been available since the end of January 2022. You have a wide range of platforms to play the title on: it is for PC, for Playstation 5 and Playstation 4, the Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One and additionally also for Linux, Mac OS and smartphones and tablets with iOS operating system available.
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