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Exit is a peculiar game, that you will either love very much for it’s quirky charm and mesh of different genres to make a new kind of puzzle game, or you will hate it. In the game you play Mr. ESC, an escapologist that you must lead through burning buildings to find survivors and find the exit for them within a certain time limit. The humorous story is basically Mr. ESC sitting around drinking coffee talking about how good he is at getting people out of burning buildings for the right price. You will help people out of burning buildings, malls, hospitals, offices, and more, sometimes there are earthquakes as obstacles as well.
There are one hundred levels in all with the first ten levels being a very through tutorial of how the game works. There are also some bonus sets of levels that are repeats of others, and each set of levels is broken up into ten, with each ten having you in the same building. When you start out a level you want to be thinking ahead of how to complete a certain obstacle, and figure out what each of the different kinds of survivors can do. You can control the survivors by pointing them to go to one spot or another, have them fetch keys, and generally help you master the multi-tasking required to complete a level. Adults can get over the same obstacles you can pretty easy, although Mr. ESC can also jump and grab onto ledges. Overweight adults can push heavy objects for you, but they need help getting over obstacles by you and another adult, and they can’t walk over some platforms or otherwise they fall and die. Kids need help getting over and from on top of obstacles, but they can go across weak platforms and get into small spaces you can’t to grab keys that you will need to open doors. Patients are pretty much useless, and you have to carry them on your back and usually onto a stretcher, making the game even more difficult because they give you limited mobility when rescuing them.
There are objects you pick up such as keys, fire extinguishers to put out small flames, and explosives to blow through walls. You will use these objects in conjunction with the survivors to figure your way through the building survivors and all. One such example is there was a overweight adult stuck, that could not go upstairs because it would mean he would fall through the floor. So I had him push a big block, I went up the stairs, where there was a ladder, I latched the ladder on, went back down stairs, myself and a regular adult helped the man over the block he pushed, went up the ladder, and the level was over. It is basically like this through out the game, although as you go along you will have to watch out for electrical floors, dark rooms, and other obstacles, so using your cursor to inspect and direct as many survivors as possible is vital. Since the pace of the levels is fairly steady to slow, it makes getting out before the time is depleted all the more important, and makes this a pretty lengthy Live Arcade title.
While the game is inventive, it is very slow, and can be repetitive. Even when you run, things are clunky, and as silly as it sounds, you can get stuck going up and down stairs thanks to the touchy controls. Speaking of controls, it is ridiculous that you have to use so many buttons and remember so much for the controls in the game; so even after the ten level wide tutorial you may find yourself forgetting what to press for the simplest task. It doesn’t help that the babysitting of survivors means that you have to deal with them being clumsy and getting stuck in tight areas, or falling. The achievements for the game is what you would expect, and they are basically rewarded depending on how far you have progressed through the game, so as long as this is your cup of tea, you should get every achievement if you play all the way through. If you find yourself completing the entire game, there is also downloadable content in the way of levels coming as well. There is also your standard leaderboards, but it would have been nice if there was some kind of online co-op element to the game, something that would have at least made the game more bearable for people having troubles getting through all of it.
Visually the game has a stylized old look and feel to it, with the cutscenes reminding me of Microsoft Word Clip Art, but the vintage look does very well throughout with hard edges, and contrasting colors throughout, with only Mr. ESC being black and white with a little red scarf so you can easily pick him out through all the mess on the screen. The music in the game is pretty good, but it is incredibly repetitive, as you will go through the same music over an over again, with the same victory music every time you complete a level. The limited voice clips used might remind of the more seasoned gamers of “voices” you would have heard on games back in the early 90’s when videogames started to use computer made voices in their games. Mr. ESC will exclaim to survivors, “Let’s go!” and you will typically just hear the survivors complain, even when you are escorting them. The cheap sounds mix with the retro art style, but it sounds almost to cheap, and takes away from the experience in a way.
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Exit is a unique blend of puzzle and platforming, and if you are a puzzle fan in need of something different from the typical Tetris knock-offs this might be for you. Otherwise, you probably will want to steer clear from the game, as the unique style still doesn’t mask the fact that you feel like you are wading through molasses babysitting a bunch of whiny survivors, and simply looking for the exit. At 800 Points or ten dollars though, the game is a decent value.
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