DECKSCAPE: ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ
Designer: Martino Chiacchiera & Silvano Sorrentino | Publisher: dV Giochi
An escape room game that’s actually about escaping a room is refreshingly straightforward. Here we’re attempting to escape Alcatraz, the island prison in San Francisco bay. While each Deckscape game uses its own mechanics, this one is mercifully vanilla in its use of clues on the cards, and working things out from the prop in the box. This prop is one of our favourite things in games – the fake newspaper. While it’s not exactly Consulting Detective it is full of suspicious little puzzles that you might not be able to draw the answers from immediately.
It’s still a series of tests, and there’s very little in the way of non-linearity. Yes, there may be optional pathways to explore for a few scenes, but they all have to be explored and everything collected to progress. Without ‘failing forward’ without knowing you’re failing as an option, it’s less of an adventure you’re in control of than a hazard perception test. Failure sees you mark an alarm level and number of ‘x’ on your score sheet, and that’s about it.
Some of the puzzles are interesting lateral thinking tasks, while others are a little obtuse – only a couple of times are we asked to make a choice about ‘doing the right thing’ which is often when these games excel. What’s missing here is the sense of immersion that you get in similar games – even if not to a huge detriment.
It’s a tempting little diversion, and worth it if you’ve got a group for a games evening that might like to have minor arguments and doesn’t mind the oneshot nature of the game. As a solo game, we recommend ignoring the timer however, as one of the pleasures of solo gaming is doing things in your own time. Or in this case, avoiding doing time.
CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT