1.5/5 ★ – Hill417's review of The Artful Escape.

I’ve said numerous times that in today's gaming landscape that in order to stand out then it needs to have a distinct art style and fun gameplay with an interesting idea. When it comes to “The Artful Escape” it features a strong aesthetic identity with a nice message about identity and discovering who you are, but when it comes to gameplay… well, it is nonexistent. Our protagonist Francis Vendetti is the nephew of legendary deceased folk musician Johnson Vendetti and their hometown of Calypso, Colorado is holding a festival in honor of the 20th anniversary of Johnson’s hit album and Francis is set to make his folk music debut. One problem: Francis would rather play rock music. Too bad he doesn’t get a say in it because literally, and I do mean LITERALLY, the entire town expect him to follow in his uncles footsteps (who he has never met by the way). Francis just wants to get away from it all be someone else. Well lucky for him he will get that chance because he has been chosen to play as the opening act for Lightman (an old rockstar) in the cosmic spanning concert dedicated for the inter dimensional being called “the Glamourgonn”. So Francis sets out on the spaceship called “The Cosmic Lung” and sets out on a journey to multiple planets in order to reinvent himself. Soon you will get to customize your appearance and even rename Francis. With so many stories where the theme is “discover who you are” or “confront your problems” it is refreshing for a narrative to say “if you don’t like who you have become, then why not be someone else?” And it sticks to that idea as Francis embraces his new persona and doesn’t have some revelation or compromise that he should play folk music. By the end of the game he is a completely different person, and I will always respect a story that sticks to its guns. I also found the papier-mâché art style to be unique and gives the game it’s own distinct identity. Unfortunately a decent story with some nice themes is all it has going for it. When it comes to actual gameplay, it consist of side scrolling and button matching when you have to play guitar. The side scrolling segments are not challenging. You are just walking, jumping and lighting up the environment with your music. There are no enemies to fight off, no puzzles to solve, not even so much as a large gap to leap across. We get to admire the grandeur of the scenery, but that is about it. If I didn’t know any better, I would consider this a walking simulator because that is 95% of the mechanics. The other 5% is just remembering what buttons to push during a jam off. There isn’t even a penalty for messing up the sequence or a game over screen. Look not every game needs to be an excruciatingly difficult, but they at least need to provide some level of challenge. The campaign is only three hours so it doesn’t quite overstay its welcome, but to be brutally honest you are better off just watching a long play on YouTube because it will be the exact same experience. Hell put it on as background noise while you cook or do chores around the house. I know that sounded very harsh, but I do want to reiterate that the message and themes are great. The thing is, “The Artful Escape” is more suited to be told as either a comic book or an animated film. A video game just isn’t the right type of medium for its story.