We were pretty much sold on The Artful Escape once we heard that the prolific Annapurna Interactive (Last Stop, I Am Dead) were on publishing duty. But then we delved deeper, took in a preview and discovered the reason why they had got involved – what Beethoven & Dinosaur have created here in The Artful Escape is nothing short of a musical delight. And its something you should be playing right now.
Available to purchase and download on Xbox and via PC, or playable for free for all Xbox Game Pass subscribers, The Artful Escape focuses its eyes on one Francis Vendetti, a musician who is right on the eve of his very first live performance. This teenage prodigy does however have a few issues, and it’ll be up to you to help him traverse a multidimensional journey through the psychedelic, all in order to keep up his stage persona.
Priced at £16.74 unless you utilise Game Pass, The Artful Escape looks brilliant, sounds brilliant – mostly thanks to voice artists of the calibre of Michael Johnston, Caroline Kinley, Lena Headey, Jason Schwartzman, Mark Strong, and Carl Weathers – and plays brilliantly too. And if you don’t believe us, give our full review of the game on Xbox Series X a play to find out why.
If you do then decide to give this a go, you’ll discover a game which is full of musical jams, the chance to chat and converse, to craft personas and, most importantly, to shred your way through the multiverse. And c’mon, admit it, that’s what you’re really here for.
The full key feature set works as follows…
- A story about great expectations, towering legacies, aliens, folk music, guitar solos, making stuff up, and living your dreams like memories.
- Musical jams. They’re visceral. They traverse dimensions.
- Craft your own stage persona from the sci-fi beginnings of your backstory to the trim on your moonboots.
- Converse, consult and chill with all manner of beings: disenchanted publicans, nostalgic villagers, lumbering alien wildlife, and reality-defying behemoths.
- Shred, soar and dance across the multiverse. Traverse landscapes made of sound — composed by your movement — as if the world itself were an instrument.
As the third in a trio of new Xbox Game Pass titles hitting the scene today, there’s absolutely no reason to miss out on what The Artful Escape has to hold. Get yourself over to the Xbox Store immediately.
Game Description:
On the eve of his first performance, Francis Vendetti struggles with the legacy of a dead folk legend and the cosmic wanderings of his own imagination. In an attempt to escape the musical legacy of his uncle, a teenage guitar prodigy embarks on a psychedelic journey to inspire his new stage persona, searching for who he isn’t in an adventure spanning stolen opera houses, melodic alien landscapes, and the impossible depths of the Cosmic Extraordinary. Starring voice performances by Michael Johnston, Caroline Kinley, Lena Headey, Jason Schwartzman, Mark Strong, and Carl Weathers.
