"The hellish landscape seems vast and unending... but you are driven to rescue your girlfriend by love, guilt, and the fact you paid big bucks for this game and you want to get your money's worth. So your adventure begins..."
Escape from Hell is a 1990 CRPG developed and published by Electronic Arts about escaping from Hell. And along the way, you find allies who will join your party like rogue demons, Hamlet, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Genghis Khan, and Josef Stalin. It's a bizarre game.
Richard goes to see his friend Alan, but instead finds a mysterious note. When his girlfriend Alison asks about it, he tells her what the note said…and she disappears. Richard gets a call from the "Divine Phone Company" saying that he cast a powerful incantation, and Richard accidentally says it again, sending himself to Hell as well.
Now he needs to find Alison and Alan and escape from Hell!
This game provides examples of:
- Action Girlfriend: After rescuing Alison, her stats reveal she has a surprisingly high Rocket Launcher skill level.
- Alas, Poor Yorick: You can find Yorick's skull and give it to Hamlet, which leads him to say the classic monologue and regain his memory and offer to join your party.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Only two party members can accompany Richard.
- Celebrities Hang Out in Heaven: In Hell, but otherwise you'll find a surprising number of historical and fictional characters.
- Celestial Bureaucracy: The first layer of Hell is a bureaucratic nightmare of waiting your turn to be processed.
- Circles of Hell: You travel through three of them.
- City of the Damned: Several, especially the City on the Edge of Eternity where souls wait to be processed.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: The copy protection in the manual mentions "favorite punishments" including bubble baths, eating custard, and shelling peanuts.
- Damsel in Distress: Alison. Rescuing her is the point of the game.
- Digital Piracy Is Evil: The manual begins with a story about Dick who put several small companies out of business by copying the game and sharing it with friends.
- Dirty Communists: Played with for Josef Stalin, who will join your party after giving you a "Capitalists for a free Hell" button.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Instead of defeating Satan with a holy cross, you can just have everyone shoot him with anti-tank rifles.
- Hellgate: The destination at the end of the game, which says "Come again soon".
- Hell Has New Management: Hitler's goal to overthrow Satan.
- Holy Burns Evil: Your Holy Cross can instantly destroy any enemy, including Satan himself.
- No Fourth Wall: Within the first minute of being in Hell, you'll find a copyright notice, a dedication to the real-life Alison (now the creator's wife), and the page quote about being motivated by the fact that you paid big bucks for this game.
- Only Six Faces: Lots of character portraits are reused as a result of the game needing to fit on 5¼” floppies. Even Satan himself uses a generic monster portrait.
- Regenerating Health: You heal over time. The manual even suggests finding a safe place and putting a weight on your spacebar to get back to full health.
- Self-Insert Fic: You play Richard trying to rescue Alison with the help of his friend Alan. The game was designed by Richard Seaborne, whose wife is Alison, and the art was by Alan Murphy.
- This Isn't Heaven: Played with for a Holy Man who followed his faith's doctrines blindly and is still convinced that he's in Heaven."This must be heaven. Boy, the brochure sure was misleading!"
- Those Wacky Nazis: Yep, Hitler is in Hell, and his goal is to overthrow Satan and take it over.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Trying to leave Hell without Alison results in the game asking if you missed the whole point of the game.
