Ever wanted to play Hole In The Wall in real life? Ever wondered why the man in the Exit signs always looks in such a hurry? Introducing ExitMan Deluxe, a fun little game that’ll keep you playing as long as you can keep your focus on the main gameplay.
The main premise of ExitMan Deluxe is that the sky is falling, and you have to manoeuvre your character into the gaps in the wall, or it’ll crush you. The short summary of this title is that it’s a fun game for as long as you can stomach its repetitive gameplay, which I did for a few short hours, including the AI, 1v100, and multiplayer modes.
It’s most definitely worth the small asking price, but issues with the controls mean that this game stumbles out of the gate. Playing local splitscreen is nothing like fun when your character seems to wander off, which is fatal in a game reliant on instant reactions like this. Long story short, if you can get past the control issues, ExitMan Deluxe offers a nice few hours of gameplay, or an evening of splitscreen fun that’s mostly worth a buy, seeing its low price.
ExitMan Deluxe describes itself as an “instant avoidance game”, and that it most certainly is. You’ll need quick reactions and fast hands in order to move your character into the often small spaces in between the floor and the rapidly closing ceiling. It’s most definitely fun, and the sound effect you get if you manage to successfully “exit” by getting your character into the exact centre of each space between floor and ceiling is incredibly satisfying.
The animations that accompany each exit are also satisfying, with your character becoming the ExitMan the game is named for.
Each successful “exit” gives the player a coin, which is then increased to two coins after ten successful exits. These coins can be used for new skins, and there’s a whole range of them to unlock. In the shop, skins can be bought for a number of different prices, as well as a lucky wheelspin for certain other skins. It serves as a good enough progression marker to keep you playing past when the game would normally become tedious if you’re a completionist, but besides that, the game keeps you ticking over by offering a number of other modes to play.
There are a fair few modes included in ExitMan Deluxe. There’s the classic mode, where it’s the regular ExitMan gameplay as the time before the ceiling falls becomes shorter and shorter. There’s the 1v100 mode, a sort of battle royale type mode where you’ll compete against 100 AI bots in order to become the last ExitMan standing. This is more of a one-and-done kind of mode, because it gets you a fair amount of Xbox Gamerscore after winning once, but as it’s played against AI bots, it feels exactly the same as the classic mode.
Moving on, there’s also a challenge mode, which offers a few different types of modes that become increasingly harder the more of them you complete. This is actually pretty fun, and kept me playing long after I’d unlocked all the achievements and nabbed the Gamerscore that was possible to get from completing them. There’s even an AI ranked mode available, and it’s here that you really get into the meat of the ExitMan Deluxe experience.
ExitMan Deluxe is a better game when it’s played in a 1v1 environment. This is true whether it’s against the surprisingly good AI opponents, or against your friends in a local match. The AI mode comes with rankings, and you’ll have a great time trying to get to maximum rank, as you repeat matches and climb the levels.
The local multiplayer mode is also great fun, and very competitive. I spent an enjoyable evening testing the local multiplayer mode with my partner and can confirm that it works just as well as any other mode in the game – in fact, extra players makes it even more fun.
Unfortunately, however, it’s here where the positives of ExitMan Deluxe end, as the sometimes crippling control issues lead to an uneven experience that can be more frustrating than fun.
When ExitMan Deluxe’s controls work, it works. When those controls fail, the game becomes unenjoyable. In a game that relies entirely on twitch reactions and precision, the controls need to be exact and accurate. Occasionally while playing ExitMan Deluxe, I felt that the character downright disobeyed what I told it to do. In fact, this isn’t even an occasional issue, it’s a frequent one. I tried switching controllers, unplugged the Xbox itself, and reinstalled the game, but the issue seems to be a fault with the game itself, not my hardware. It’s a shame, because without these frequent issues, ExitMan Deluxe would be easy to recommend.
Unfortunately, however, I’m forced to give it a much lower score in order to take these issues into account. Local multiplayer doesn’t quite hit the same note when your character wanders off and promptly gets crushed, and these issues are far worse in the AI mode, where losing actually matters and the AI bot isn’t suffering from the same issues.
All in all, ExitMan Deluxe is a perfectly adequate game for its low asking price. When it works, it’s a fun, reaction based game that’ll stir your competitive spirit and keep you entertained for a fair few hours. When it doesn’t, it’s a frustrating experience that’ll make you grit your teeth – and not in the “I’m concentrating” way that most competitive game players can attest to.
The amount of content here does add up to a game that’s most definitely worth the price, just be aware of the issues that are present. If you can surpass them, you’ll almost certainly enjoy your time with ExitMan Deluxe.
ExitMan Deluxe is on the Xbox Store
