Xbox Live Arcade is no stranger to puzzle games, but THIS puzzler is nothing like anything else you'd buy at Marketplace
User Rating: 7.5 | Exit X360
I own a PSP but never played this game. In fact I hadn't even heard of it until just recently. I assumed the game didn't sell so well, and it was probably why I never heard of it or seen it. But after playing the demo on XBLA, I was surprised how much I liked it. It's fairly different from the other games on Xbox Live Arcade. A first look may lead you to believe this is just a simple side-scrolling platformer. In someways it IS, but there's nothing simple about it. I say this in a good way though, because each level forces players to carefully plan things out first. The game is clearly a puzzler, but it also blends some other things. While pushing boxes, flipping switches, riding elevators, and avoiding falling debris are just a few things you'll do, you also need to rescue people, and in some cases, you'll need to co-operate. You might have somebody stand on a button to open a door so you can run through, or move big bulky things. It's weird but the game really reminds me of the old side-scrolling Oddworld games. It doesn't have the humor from those games or the cool characters, but the gameplay itself is a bit similar. Each level has a time limit for you to rescue everybody, clear a way to the EXIT (hence the name) and then escort the people outside. It's never that easy though. At first, there isn't much to worry about, but the difficulty increases as you go. You might have to put out a fire blocking your path, but you'll either need to find an extinguisher, or turn on a water sprinkler thing. Luckily, you don't need to do EVERYTHING per se, but you might have to tell one of the survivors to go pick up an item, unlock a door, or throw down a rope ladder (from above you) so you can climb up. This usually works quite well, and you can even swap items if you need an item they have. But sometimes it doesn't work well. Sometimes, they may not do what you tell them to do. The AI is sometimes too stupid to figure out how to get somewhere, or get back with you. Sometimes this doesn't make sense at all, because you could be in the exact same situation later, and not have any problems. Sometimes if you want to make somebody go somewhere, and they can't figure out how to get there, you might have to do this in "steps". This gets frustrating sometimes, especially if the time limit is almost up, or you have to manage more than 1 other survivor. Some of the missions get REALLY hard sometimes too, and you may need to play them several times through trial-and-error until you figure out how the level works, and how to get out. Gameplay-wise, this is really my only other gripe. Since there's usually only ONE way through, the game is pretty linear and doesn't really let you get creative. Items are pretty helpful, but you usually can't finish the level unless you pick up every single item. Some items are WAY out of the way, but you'll need to backtrack a bit and grab them if you want out.
The rest of the game is fairly good. You can't tell by looking at the screenshots shown here, but the game actually looks pretty cool, especially Mr. ESC, aka Mr. Escape. Alot of levels look the same, but they mix it up as well. 10 of these levels make up the 22 situations, which are like chapters. In the beginning, you're dealing with fire, and saving people from burning buildings, but later, you might be in the ruins of a collapsed building, or a frozen hotel. Clearly the graphics were never meant to be high-tech (say, like Halo 3). Instead, the graphics and art are pretty stylish, and the game's appearance could be described as a comic book. In fact, between Situations, Mr. Esc gives a monologue at the start of each situation to fill out the story. While these monologues appear like comic panels, and put the story together, it really isn't necessary. There's certainly nothing wrong with it, but since this game isn't a big fancy X360 game or anything, you probably won't care much. The audio (most of it anyway) was the thing that bothered me most (even more than the questionable AI). ALL the survivors seem to only have 1 or 2 lines of dialog, and they repeat it over and over. Just about all these irritating lines continuously rape your ears, and will slowly drive you insane. Luckily you can mute these loudmouths in the Options menu, but this mutes other sound effects too, some of which you might need to listen to. The music isn't terrible, but it certainly isn't great either. The game is fairly slow-paced (which is fine) but the music seems too fast, and would be better in a fast-action game. It wasn't really distracting me, but sometimes it made it hard to think and strategize how I was going to tackle the mission (this IS a puzzle game after all). I would have liked to hear some calm, laid-back tunes. You can ALSO mute the background music if it starts to get irritating; I just recommend listening to your own tunes so you have it however you like.
Somehow, despite having a few problems, this game is a great puzzler, and isn't like anything else on Xbox Live Arcade. The missions are all very clever and have a nice bit of variety. Some of these (especially in earlier levels) are very short, and easy, but the difficulty rises nice and smoothly, and levels get fairly elaborate and lengthy. There are 220 or so missions to play, some of which you can't play initially until you unlock them. That's a hell of a lot of game, and it'll probably take months (or longer) for me to clear the whole game, let alone get all the achievements (although there aren't a lot). For the amount of levels and variety, this is a sweet value, and for only 800 Microsoft Points (around $10 or so), you'll likely agree. 
