Escape Goat 2
2014, Magical Time Bean

There's a really popular indie game about goats that came out this year. It's a glitchy, open-world mess of a game. And Escape Goat 2 isn't it. Instead, Escape Goat 2 is an amazing puzzle-platformer with tight controls, excellent level design, an old school sensibility, and gorgeous HD visuals. Also, it has a mouse that wears a hat. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's slow down and take a look at this excellent game.



The original Escape Goat was released in 2011 for PC, Linux, iOS and XBLA. It gained a cult following, which of course, is why the sequel was created. While the original game was top-notch, absolutely everything about the sequel is amazingly an improvement.

In Escape Goat 2, you play as a goat who must (get this...) escape from each room in a castle. To do so, you'll need to use various tricks. You've got your typical double-jump, and you've got a dash move, but most importantly you've got your little mouse buddy. Set him running into a hole too small for you to fit in and he can hit a switch for you, or you can plop him down on a switch that needs to stay depressed to keep a door open for you. Heck, if you find him a magic hat you can even switch spots with him on the fly. It's a really cool mechanic that feels simple to learn, but later requires lots of thinking to solve some of the more difficult puzzles.


A nice feature in this game is the ability to utilize the map screen to progress as you wish. At any given time, you might have two or three levels opened up for you to choose from. This is a big plus, as some of them can be really frustrating and you might want to take a another route to try and open up other parts of the map; and you will continually open the map up. It seems as though every time you think you may be close to the end, another section of the map is revealed to you. Though you don't actually have to complete all of the levels to get to the end credits, it's nice knowing that there's so many levels that you can continue to play as post-game content. Attention speed-runners, this is the game for you!

Visually, the game looks excellent in HD. Sure, the original game's sprite work was charming, but there's something that's just so easy on the eyes in the sequel. The music goes hand-in-hand with the experience. It's a sort of baroque-electronic mix that is actually something worth listening to outside of the game.

For those of you who like physical feelies, you'll be glad to know that Escape Goat 2 has received the deluxe treatment via The Indie Box. If you go that route, you'll receive the DRM-free version of the game on a thumb-drive, along with the soundtrack on CD, a gorgeous full-color manual and some bonus goodies.

Permalink | Comments [5] | Digg This Article | Tweet