The Escapists 2 is the Numbered Sequel to The Escapists. Like its predecessor, it is a prison break game developed by Team 17 and Mouldy Toof Studios. It was released on August 22, 2017 for Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, and Xbox One, January 11, 2018, for the Switch, and January 31, 2019, for iOS and Android mobile phones.
Like the first game, it is played in a top-down perspective and you control a prisoner attempting to escape. However, unlike the first game, there is the option to play co-op with up to 4 players, or a Versus mode in which two players go head-to-head and attempt to escape. Also unlike the first game, now there are dogs to contend with as well as SWAT guards.
There are a total of eleven story-centric prisons and six DLC prisons to break out of.
The Escapists 2 features these tropes:
- Angry Guard Dog: Dogs are a new addition to the game. They're fast, they're furious, and they're angry. They can sniff out contraband and will attack the player if they incited a lockdown. And they can't be stopped.
- Air-Vent Passageway: Like the first game, there are still air vents. Now, however, they can span multiple floors.
- The Alcatraz: Explicitly averted. Every prison has one way or another to escape.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: One of the escapes has you pretending to be a camera crewmember and walking out of the door with them.
- Breakable Weapons: Averted for items used in actual combat, but basically any item useful for escaping the prison, from cutting tools to pouches that hide your stuff from contraband detectors, has a limited number of uses and will vanish at 0%.
- Captivity Harmonica: In some of the Social rooms, there are harmonicas. Interacting with them will show a short animation of your character playing it.
- Character Customization: Escapists 2 adds a number of hats, accessories, hairstyles, and more that you can mix and match for each character, including NPCs.
- Commie Land: "The Glorious Regime" DLC.
- Cutlery Escape Aid: Like the first game, you can use plastic knives, spoons, and forks to cut open, chip, or dig. Unlike the first game, however, it is monumentally slower (plastic utensils break in 5 hits, and each chip only drops 1% of durability.) Better bring a lot of cutlery if you want to chip out.
- Easily Forgiven: Attacking an inmate or a guard will quickly sour them on you to the point where they may just attack you on sight. But it's easy enough to win back their trust by gifting them random (non-contraband) items lifted from other inmates or their desks.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Dogs can sniff out contraband - this will cause your heat to reach 100% instantly. However, they do not attack unless a lockdown is present.
- Fade to Black: Averted, unlike the first game. Being knocked out will result in a medic taking you to the infirmary.
- Great Escape: The entire point of the game, of course, but Escapists 2 bumps it up with a number of level-specific escape conditions that harken back to famous escape schemes of old,
- The Gulag: Fort Tundra qualifies as this. It's a prison set in the Siberian tundra and it's perpetually snowing.
- Invincible Minor Minion: Dogs. They are released at the 2-star and 4-star Security Level, but they move faster than inmates and cannot be attacked. The only person being attacked is you.
- Item Crafting: Oh, so very many. There are nearly 70 items to craft!
- Lock Down: Reaching 5 stars on the Security Levelnote will immediately prompt a loud alarm and flashing red sirens along with the lockdown music, release of SWAT guards, and dogs.
- Luxury Prison Suite: Center Perks 2.0. As well as being an obvious Continuity Nod to Center Perks from the first game, it has polite guards, good food, and a social area.
- Mad Scientist: The warden in the "Wicked Ward" DLC.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: Like the first game. However, the mechanics have been completely revamped. KO'ing someone brings up an inventory UI where you can choose to loot items off of them, but you have to be quick - once the medics pick them up, they're back to the infirmary. Likewise, if you're knocked out, you will simply faint and a medic will carry you back to the infirmary.
- Outside-the-Box Tactic: One of the biggest obstacles to digging your way out is that the dirt has to go somewhere, and it can't go in your tunnel. The easiest method to dispose of unwanted things, including dirt, is to flush it down the toilet, but if it the toilet gets clogged, the guards will find what you tried to flush, and if it's contraband, they'll bust you for it. So the best way to dispose of dirt is to flush it down other people's toilets. As long as you're not seen doing it, it doesn't matter if the toilet gets clogged: the guards will get angry at the other guy!
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Wearing Guard or Infirmary outfits will allow you to snoop around drawing only minimal suspicion unless you stay in the guards' line of sight for a LONG time. Despite that it's just a shirt-and-pants combo that makes no attempt to hide your (often vibrantly flamboyant) face.
- Prisons Are Gymnasiums: Every prison (except for player-created ones) will have at least one gym for the player to work out.
- Prison Ship:
- Air Force Con is a giant airplane that also serves as a prison. The ending cutscene reveals it was transporting the player to Fort Tundra.
- The HMS Orca can be considered a literal version. It's a giant ship with prison cells. You aren't allowed to go anywhere outside of your cell, while the ship moves towards doom.
- The USS Anomaly is a prison space station.
- Santa's Sweatshop: Similar to the DLC "Santa's Sweatshop" from the previous game, "Santa's Shakedown" is included for free in this one, and has you as an elf trying to escape Santa's complex.
- Secret Compartment: Each desk has a hidden compartment, which hides contraband from guard searches, and cannot be accessed by other players in multiplayer. However, guard dogs may still retrieve missing keys from the hidden compartment.
- Timed Mission: Alongside prisons where you can take your time to escape, some levels are out of the ordinary holdings where you have to escape from within a time limit, often from something transporting you somewhere else. Unlike prisons, these levels have no wanted level or schedule and guards attack on sight if you're not in your cell, encouraging the player to work quickly.
- Title: The Adaptation: The iOS and Android versions are named The Escapists 2: Pocket Breakout.
- Wanted Meter:
- Each prison has a Security Level ranging from one to five stars, which increases if guards discover evidence of prison damage, or if the player is unaccounted for during their routine and decreases when things stay quiet long enough. Each level deploys more security forces.note
- If the Security Level reaches 5 stars, the prison goes into lockdown.
- Missing roll call or being caught out of bed after Lights Out will trigger a Lockdown.
