Escape From Playtime was sent my way by Mob Entertainment. Thanks to my daughter, I know way more about Poppy’s Playtime than I would like, and when I saw this, I thought, finally, one of their games I would actually like to try, even though I own and have played as few.
I won’t lie, I have heard the rumors that most of the team was laid off earlier this week. That won’t affect my review or my recommendation for this one. Yes, this is either a sign of my ethics or a sign of what is to come. If you don’t know, keep reading and find out; if you do know me, keep reading and find out if I actually have ethics.
The concept of the game is sound. It fits naturally with the world and the lore. It is just you and your friends (or solo, but it is meant for co-op) trying to survive in the Playtime universe in places like the warehouse or classrooms while being hunted by the hungry dwellers. This all sounds great, and all for $10. So where does it break down?
It really starts to fall to pieces when you download the game. At first, unless you had a friend or joined a Discord or group, there was no way to play with other people. It was strictly password-only. Eventually, they did add matchmaking, and this made the game only slightly better. I say slightly because it didn’t really become easier to find people to play with. It could still take a decent chunk of time if you picked a bad time to try, and never if you picked a worse time. (There are fewer than 300 people as I write this.)
The controls also aren’t great; there are maybe one or 2 enemies that matter, so any decent team is fine, and worse, most of the items are either useless or so overpowered that finding a few breaks the game anyway. The biggest sin this game commits, however, is that it doesn’t do anything. In a world with a ton of things going on that could have been placed in this world to make it different from the 20 other games that follow this same pattern of explore and collect items, it did not do any of them, or even invent a new one. It did not even try to fake it. At $10, this 4/10 early-access title is going to have to stay there for a long time before I can recommend it. With a multiplayer aspect that barely works and very little to do once it does, don’t waste your time with this one. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
- Escape From Playtime Steam Review
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