Exit Situation One Evaluate – Get Out!
TL;DR for Exit Situation One
(performed on a Meta Quest 3 128 GB mannequin)
| Execs | Cons |
| + Distinctive, bold mechanics | – Buggy core controls |
| + Good worth | – Repetitive sound design |
| – Middling graphics |
INTRODUCTION
Do you need to expertise the claustrophobic thrill of an escape room with out the effort of pants?
Effectively then your potentially-nude desires of immersive puzzlery are about to come back true!
Whereas real-life escape rooms require each:
- pals, and
- the flexibility to endure the unblinking gaze of the world outdoors your house,
Exit Condition One—from developer Damon Poole—brings the chin-scratching stop-and-go “gameplay” of escape rooms on to your VR headset!
And for a fraction of the worth!
Full of the content material of two or three real-life escape rooms, Exit Situation One is a cut price at simply 10 USD.
Now not like most escape rooms, Exit Situation One is completely story-driven.
Really—given the shift in medium and all the trappings that include it—I’m inclined to say that calling Exit Situation One an “escape room” expertise is only a matter of framing.
Is Portal an escape room?
What about The Talos Precept?
Myst? King’s Quest?
ZOOMBINIS?
All of those video games require that you simply clear up some type of puzzle earlier than you possibly can proceed to the subsequent space, no?
So it appears to me that the factor that makes escape rooms particular and distinct could be that you simply do them in-person.
However as soon as you set a supposed “escape room” right into a console, then it’s only a puzzle sport, proper?
I imply simply because VR immerses our perspective extra deeply into the sport doesn’t make the videogame something different than a videogame, does it?
Like if I play a platformer in VR does it change into an “impediment course simulator”?
Does a VR JRPG change into a “sleepy and kind-hearted good-looking boy with a massive sword simulator”?
I hope not.
I hope not as a result of that style identify is too lengthy.
But additionally I simply don’t assume that’s the way it goes.
I feel there needs to be a sure stage of settlement with ordinary actuality for a sport to be outlined thereby; the sport has to truly strive to really feel like its real-life counterpart to say to simulate it.
Why do I deliver up this delineation?
As a result of how I categorically reckon with Exit Situation One determines how extremely (or in any other case) I like to recommend it.
If I evaluate Exit Situation One to flee rooms then it stacks up fairly nicely!
It’s a fraction of the worth. It’s a lot extra handy. And it’s extra immersive (when it really works).
If I evaluate Exit Situation One to puzzle video games extra broadly?
Effectively now issues get a bit dicey-
Let’s speak about it.
STORY
Exit Situation One’s bizarre and psychedelic intro actually excited me!
I used to be completely wrapped as I cascaded by various modes of gameplay in a liminal world of symbols, solely to seek out out that that was only a dream sequence, transitioning into a way more customary conceit for a videogame story:
You get up with amnesia, and an NPC helper is prepared that can assist you so long as you’re prepared to assist them!
How?
By doin’ up some puzzles!
You exit cryosleep in a malfunctioning spaceship, the place a robotic (who I’m fairly certain is voiced by the developer) asks you to assist him get issues again to regular.
All through your puzzle-solving journey you’ll encounter various voice recordings—left behind by the ship’s misplaced inventor/proprietor—that illuminate the small print of your mysterious environment.
Now I gained’t say something extra right here as a result of I don’t need to spoil something and likewise I couldn’t as a result of I didn’t end the sport!
It isn’t very lengthy, thoughts you.
However about three quarters of the best way by the factor I rage-quit after having my progress bugged too many instances on a stage that already noticed plenty of sluggish, clunky backtracking.
Whereas it’s true that I suppressed the thought “if this occurs another time I’m quitting” possibly half a dozen instances, it’s additionally true that journalistic integrity can solely take you to this point when the stakes are this low.
GAMEPLAY
In case you haven’t learn any of my other reviews, I’ll reiterate:
I all the time need the video games I play to be good as a result of I need to have enjoyable!
I additionally simply don’t like nit-picking different individuals’s artwork.
However, hey! That’s the gig, y’know?
So, Exit Situation One, put together to have your nits frickin’ picked!
This sport brims with cool, toy-like concepts, however their execution reveals the limits of a two-person growth workforce.
Now some of those toys labored fairly nicely!
There was an in-game drone merchandise that managed properly… and…
Really now that I give it some thought, that could be the one attention-grabbing and bold mechanic that didn’t have some type of technical caveat…
One instance of many ambitious-yet-flawed in-game toys was an item-spawning gun.
I’d seize the entrance deal with of this gun with what would in any other case be my off-hand, and by urgent that ahead set off I’d cycle by what merchandise I wished to spawn.
Then I’d pull the set off on my fundamental hand to spawn it.
Very cool concept for certain, however marred by the inconsistent placement of the off-hand.
That’s to say that when you don’t seize precisely the best spot on the entrance of the gun together with your off-hand, you’ll simply do nothing and really feel silly once you press the set off button.
You could be inclined to inform me that’s a talent difficulty, however I’ve performed sufficient VR video games with rifles in them to know that this isn’t an issue in every other sport!
There’s simply no good purpose to let me seize one other little bit of the entrance of the gun that doesn’t do the factor that grabbing the entrance little bit of the gun is meant to do.
And that’s not a main difficulty in any respect!
But it surely’s a constant one.
And that’s simply it:
Exit Situation One has numerous small, constant points that add as much as a gameplay expertise which requires quite a bit of endurance and charity on the a part of the participant.
Oh God.
Each time I dig into an indie sport like this I all the time consider the small groups who put their souls into their work and the way they’ll in all probability learn my overview and I’ll break their valuable hearts and I’m sorry, Damon Poole! I’m sorry and I really like you!
If I had a robotic pal in actual life I’d want his voice to be half as soothing as what I’m guessing is yours!
Nonetheless, you possibly can’t simply throw portals into your sport willy-nilly with out the physics engine to again that up!
However what about the puzzles?
Escape rooms are all in regards to the puzzles, child!
And on that entrance Exit Situation One does fairly good.
Solely as soon as did I contemplate the answer to a puzzle to be annoying or unfair.
In any other case I discovered puzzles to be inside an affordable problem window; urgent my problem-solving abilities—forcing me to reassess—with out ever completely beating me.
PRESENTATION
Not a lot redemption right here, people.
The visuals are by no means distinctive; principally acceptable, and generally lower than that.
Quite a lot of animations are stiff, uneven, or simply plain buggy. Some textures are muddy. And the few humanoid character fashions look actually newbie.
The sound design is tiresome.
The identical few noises repeat time and again no matter variance in velocity, pressure, distance, or anything in a means that feels simply dated.
Let’s simply swing the hammer already, we could?
VERDICT
Is Exit Situation One a digital escape room or is it a videogame?
I feel that should inform how we measure it and whether or not or not it is best to play it.
In brief:
In case you’re searching for an escape room expertise and don’t thoughts doing it solo, Exit Situation One is an immersive supply at a very good worth; all baked up with novel sci-fi tech that actual life simply can’t replicate.
However – if it appears like a videogame and quacks like a videogame then it’s in all probability a videogame.
And whereas, from that angle, there are some positives I’ve but to notice—like its replayability-boosting easter egg hunt or its constant and easy frame-rates—total, Exit Situation One is just too slowed down by the mire of its flaws for its bevy of toys to shine by.
Out-of-the-box pondering right here is crippled by a sheer lack of assets to have these massive attention-grabbing gameplay concepts realized.
So for all its ambition, it will get a kudos.
However for its execution, Exit Situation One will get a 4/10.
Scoring & Rubric
Scores are out of 10, the place 10 is a masterpiece, 1 is unplayable, and 5 is simply common.
Gameplay has a heavier weighting towards the general rating.
Gameplay – 4
Immersion – 5
Visuals – 3
Sound – 3
Efficiency – 6
Replayability – 3
Picture / video credit score: Auganix / Exit Situation One
Kierkegaard as soon as mentioned that the artist is like one caught inside Phalaris’ brass bull, which burned up its victims and—as a result of formation of its apertures—made lovely music from their anguish.
The critic, he mentioned, is rather like the artist besides he does not have the anguish in his coronary heart nor the music on his lips.
A lifelong gamer primarily based out of Vancouver, Pelé disagrees with Kierkegaard.
