park escape Review

While the game’s elusive title might trick you into thinking this is another one of the simplistic escape games, trust me it is not. It is a genuine point-and-click puzzle adventure, set in the modern world where you play the detective investigating serious crimes.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Development

It is currently only available for Android and it is offered by a studio called PapaBox…

Park Escape is currently only available for Android and it is offered by a studio called PapaBox under the puzzle genre. It is a PEGI 12 for containing crime and scenes of murder and such. PapaBox is the game’s developer and publisher with its headquarters in Asia-Pacific. They are a very young studio, founded on January 1st, 2020.

This is only one of their numerous releases, some only published and others both developed and published. PapaBox currently has around 30 game app entries on Google Play Store alone many of them with the “escape” in their titles, like Lost Town: Escape, Prison Escape, Bomb Escape, etc… But, they also have other genres somewhat.

It was released on August 5th,2020, and it is currently doing great. It has over 500 thousand downloads from the Google Play store and it stands at a very good 4.5-star score.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Atmosphere

Right from the start, we are being taken in by a crime investigation type TV show atmosphere…

Right from the start, we are being taken in by a crime investigation type TV show atmosphere, with news clippings of murders and kidnapings introducing us with the gist of it. We play as detective Liang Bowen and in the tutorial phase, we talk to our colleagues about the abandoned amusement park investigation, which is the case that starts off the game.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

GAMEplay

The gameplay view is like in a standard FPS and you tap on objects that are on the screen…

The gameplay view is like in a standard FPS and you tap on objects that are on the screen which can be interacted with. The mechanics like picking up keys and then tapping the corresponding lock to open it are the basics of this game.

All items you get also correlate to each other in various ways, like the gun and the ammo clip will produce a loaded gun. You also pick up and use various other things, like identity cards, food, and even ties. It also features some sleek mechanics, like it makes you swipe down the holster to holster the gun in it, or to make your tie and suit.

Right at the start, you need to break in the abandoned amusement park. Because it is abandoned for several decades, you need to get creative. Like finding a way to break the glass, finding screwdrivers, breaking into locked steel lockers, fixing the electricity, and such…

Some of the most interesting parts of the investigation you are leading are seen in clues you find, like the glued trash can lid, which indicates it was glued by mischievous children, which you are looking for.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Graphics

You’re in an old school thriller anime from the ‘80s or the ‘90s…

The visual representation is rather decent, as the overall impression is like you’re in an old school thriller anime from the ‘80s or the ‘90s. Models, gloomy colors, shadows, and animations all give off that impression from that age of Chinese animation.

Since it functions as a point-and-tap adventure, there aren’t many animations to speak off, but what is seen is rather decent and clear. This is especially important since you never know which object you can interact with and everything is a potential tool, like a pebble, a stick, a piece of metal, anything!

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Tech Compatibility

All smartphones dished out in the past 5-6 years will be able to play it…

Since these point-and-tap-style games do have toned down animations, the overall game is quite easy on the CPU and GPU. Virtually all smartphones dished out in the past 5-6 years will be able to play it. The anime-style animations and models do not in any way make this game demanding and it is not a large download. It asks for Android 4.4 or up to be playable.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Free-to-play Friendly

It is not in the nature of this genre to have some excessive monetization…

It is not in the nature of this genre to have some excessive monetization. So, this is a game you can play and completely neglect any in-game currency. However, there is an in-game currency (Coins) and you can use it to purchase additional gear to make your challenges easier. There are optional ads you can watch for Coins.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Verdict

It is a perfectly thrilling detective point-and-tap puzzle adventure, with a strong atmosphere, a good story, and gameplay…

PapaBox is definitely the leading veteran in the escape genre. A majority of their mentioned 30 or so titles in the store are along with this genre, while with Park Escape they’ve tried to up the game. The game is a perfectly thrilling detective point-and-tap puzzle adventure, with a strong atmosphere, a good story, and gameplay that engages your brain much more than your phone. Top marks as far as we’re concerned!