Even though the entire trilogy is available for free on Armor Games, I chose to purchase this game series on Steam because that's how amazing ScriptWelder really is. The Deep Sleep and Don't Escape series were some of the first PC games I ever played, and I have ScriptWelder to thank for making my early experiences so magical. I have followed each and every game you have published on AG, hunted down every achievement, set of choices, and walkthrough I could find... simply, because every single second I spent in any of your games was one of either awe, wonder, fear, or curiosity.

There are very few games that can produce fear in me, but these stories... while simple, they are masterfully narrated and paced (especially in Don't Escape 3), giving you only as much information as you need to work with, bit by bit, until it all comes together at the end. The flashback/hallucination-esque visions that surface as you uncover more of the story are a beautiful touch.

I absolutely loved exploring these games, and it was truly a unique concept to invert the classic escape-the-room formula into locking yourself within as best as you could, to protect everyone else from the wrath you could produce, if given the chance. There is a sort of poetic somberness to it, don't you think? Being noble enough to try to protect others from the evil you fester?

Perhaps my nostalgia is carrying me far beyond the actual scope of these games. After all, they are point-and-click games with pixel art as the graphical backdrop. But I would still consider each of them individual masterpieces, both as products of their time and as games in their own right. Playing these games again (the first installment after nearly a decade) still feels as crisp and chilly of an experience as it was the first time around. Even though I knew all the nooks and crannies to explore, the feeling of curiosity resurfaced as the child in me had his fun again.

I wish I had the chance to know you myself, ScriptWelder. I wish I could have told you then, all those years ago, how much these games meant to me. Unfortunately I didn't. Fortunately, I will now. From the bottom of my heart, ScriptWelder, thank you. For all that you have created. I sincerely wish you the best and hope you go on to do much more. I'll be waiting ;)

As the world record holder for the Any% (and sometimes 100%) speedrun of these games, I have played the free web versions of these games more than most. I have spent hours grinding over and over, staring at the same pixel-laden screens, routing out effective mouse movement and optimal clicking.

So why did I buy this game the moment it came out?

Because scriptwelder is a master of his craft. He deserves every bit of my time and money.

Thank you for everything scriptwelder.

This review may contain spoilers

The Don’t Escape Trilogy is an engaging point-and-click dressed in a cloak of horror and mystery. Unlike in developer scriptwelder’s successor trilogy Deep Sleep, which I have also reviewed here if you are interested, there is no continuing narrative that develops with each episode. Instead, here we have three completely different stories thematically connected by our ability to solve-puzzles, use and craft items, explore our surroundings, adapt to our environment, and survive. Similar to my review for the Deep Sleep Trilogy, I will analyze each episode individually based on their predominant strengths and weaknesses.

Episode 1 is by far my favorite story. Not only is it thematically the most interesting because it alludes to witchcraft and pagan folklore, but it is a subversion on the classic escape the room trope in horror. Here, as the title suggests, you are not solving puzzles to escape. In Episode 1, we play a werewolf who is trying to lock himself up before dawn so when he inevitably transforms, nobody in the nearby village gets hurt. The environment is eerie and isolating. It takes place in a remote cabin in the woods where you must use your wits to turn the cabin into a bunker so cannot escape. There is a great sense of foreboding of chaos to come – I’ve chained myself, barricaded the doors, nailed shut the windows, and followed a witches’ recipe to poison myself. All of will help deter the beast, but by how much? How many people will die if I let this beast escape?

Episode 2 is a well-executed sequel that builds on the strengths of its predecessor while adding new mechanics. We switch now to the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Even though this context may seem tired for some, I urge you not to judge a book by its cover. Here, we must barricade our temporary fortress from an impending zombie invasion. But there’s problems, we have an infected among our ranks, we lack a wall, traps, or weapons. Unlike Episode 1, here there are multiple solutions to all the mentioned problems which will award you multiple possible endings. I enjoyed the non-linear, multiple logical solutions to the many problems encountered because it incentives players to explore, have fun, and think outside-the-box. In addition, Episode 2 introduces time constraints – travelling to different locations and performing certain tasks will cost you time, a resource that if depleted, will trigger the zombie invasion.

Episode 3 was interactive and entertaining, but it was my least favorite one because it felt like it worsened mechanics introduced in Episode 2, and because it dragged on for too long. Here, we are in space, and with all of the crew dead and no recollection of what happened, we must figure out the truth behind our macabre context. The puzzles in Episode 3 were arguably the hardest. The items and processes are more technical, and so is the environment, with a lot of computers and monitors to interact with. The story seems simple at first, but as you collect and read the logs it all becomes somewhat more convoluted. The time constraint introduced in Episode 2 is substantially shortened, making certain decision-making unduly burdensome with no room for error, which for a game like this, incentivizes me to explore less, be less creative, and just accept whatever ending I get. Admittedly, however, this is the spookiest game of them all, with a lot of the horror left to the unknown and a few soft jumpscares to get the blood going.

Ultimately, much like the Deep Sleep Trilogy, the Don’t Escape trilogy is a brief episodic point-and-click horror, with decision-making, puzzle-solving, exploration, and item use and crafting elements worth playing for and affordable price.

This is a marvelous bundle of the original trilogy of the Don't Escape series, and I must say it is WELL worth the money. Granted, anyone who knows how it works can easily blow through it all, but it's still fun nonetheless. 10/10

How it all began. “Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive” became one of my favorite games in 2019, and will definitely be in my top of the best games at the end of the year. Innovative, witty, inventive, offering simply incredible gaming experience, the game literally burst into the list of my favorites. So Armor Games decided to release the “Don't Escape Trilogy” bundle from three games from the scriptwelder developer, which had been released for quite some time and were the forerunners of this masterpiece game. It was here that all these developments were forged, style and manner were developed here, all those things were born here, which then came together in such a result.

The game presents us with 3 stories, and even in their presentation one can feel the creativity of thinking that became so noticeable later. If the usual task for us was to protect ourselves from any danger using the most various methods for this, then in the very first story we protect people from ourselves. Why? Yes, because we play as a werewolf, the full moon is ready to look at us with his pale huge eye, and our task is to do everything to restrain ourselves and to avoid as many human casualties as possible. And you understand that already in the very first story, no matter how short it may be, the game gives you some new sensations, tries to invent something interesting, and it’s wonderful. The second episode plays on the zombie apocalypse field, and in the third we go to dead space to explore an abandoned space station. If the first episode is not so long, then the second and third already take up much more playing time, they also include the familiar mechanics of useful time management, the use of teammates, the possibility of non-linear fulfillment of the survival task and other things. And the Steam achievements also pushes us to discover in general all possible variations of the passage of stories, forcing the player to strain his brain even more.

Each episode is very different, each has its own face, its own atmosphere, it’s even difficult for me to choose my favorite, because each one has some incredible things. The action is very smart, variations in the walktrough motivate you to constantly think, constantly seek out some new ways. For the player there are so many intellectual traps, both large and small, that you will definitely fall into, rest assured, but after overcoming them there is a feeling of real triumph. And it is here, precisely in these small games, that you most clearly feel how the scriptwelder learned to create that incredible sense of explorer, true discoverer that makes his games something big (this especially applies to the third episode, which already feels like a full story) . Therefore, I can confidently say that the game will be interesting even if you have not played “Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive” (why haven’t you bought and played it yet??!!), they perfectly cope with the task of satisfying the gamer hunger on their own, once again proving that a talented person does not need millions of dollars for 1080000p visual picture and other trinkets, just a creative mind and good story. Amazing thing.

The "Don't Escape Trilogy" is a collection of three short first-person point-and-click adventures with static screens (no camera movement, no scrolling). The games share a creepy atmosphere and a few gameplay mechanics, but are otherwise unrelated. In the first game, you play a werewolf trying to lock himself away before a full-moon night, so that he won't kill anyone when he turns. In the second game, you're trying to barricade a house and protect yourself from a zombie horde. In the third game, you're the only surviving crew member on a spaceship and need to stop "something" from getting out.

While the games are light on story, the settings are interesting and enjoyable. The core mechanic are inventory-based puzzles: You explore between 6 and 20 screens (depending on the game), look for items to pick up, and use those. Some actions (like digging a trap for zombies to fall in) take time from an in-game counter, and since your available time is limited, you may not be able to do everything you want. Several puzzles have more than one solution, and several items have more than one use (which sometimes destroys the item). You therefore face interesting decisions throughout the game, as you try to figure out the most effective use of your resources to achieve each game's goal.

Typically you try to "prepare" in the best way you can, and then end your day. The game then goes through each of your preparations and tells you how successful they were. For example, the second game will tell you in this final stage how many zombies showed up, how many were held back by each of your protective measures, and whether you survived. You'll probably die in your first attempt, so then you start a new game and try to do better. The second and third game also offer achievements that encourage you to replay the games with different strategies and shifted priorities.

Graphics are very crude and pixelated, but get the job done, though some items are hard to recognize. Sound and music are serviceable. The UI is rather plain, but provides sufficient functionality and doesn't get in the way. All games are controlled exclusively with the mouse. Unfortunately it's not always clear whether a hotspot will start an interaction with an object or move you to a different screen, which can be a bit annoying.

I recommend the "Don't Escape Trilogy" to fans of puzzle games with an eerie atmosphere, provided that they don't mind the crude presentation. The games are pretty short, but engaging and enjoyable, and the price is more than fair for the experience they provide. If you find that you like these games, I suggest to also take a peek at the "Deep Sleep Trilogy" from the same author.

The horror-inspired point & click escapades of the Don't Escape Trilogy were originally released as a series of free-to-play flash games, all created by one person. Due to the original unpaid nature of these titles, a good portion of the content within utilizes free resources; such as audio from Incompetech and fonts from royalty-free creators. With that being put out there, know that this bundle contains the same exact free-to-play counterparts that are still widely available around the web, and that spending the $5.69 CAD to own it on Steam is only going to support Scriptwelder, an indie developer who has put a lot of time and effort into his craft. The best way to review this collection is to break it down per game, as each title offers something different in terms of story and gameplay.

Don't Escape 1 - The reason why these games are called Don't Escape; you are a man who has a lycanthropy affliction, and you are forced to try and find a way to keep yourself from escaping a small cabin in the woods on a full moon night. There's not much to this entry, and the story is sparse, but the atmosphere in both visuals and audio is rich. Either you will succeed, or you will end up escaping the cabin; there are a few endings to obtain and enjoy.

Don't Escape 2 - Your typical zombie apocalypse scenario; you've survived, but just barely, and your friend Bill has been bitten. There's not much time before he turns into one of the living dead, and you need to secure your base before nightfall. This is the first instance of the Don't Escape trilogy that includes an in-game timer. The timer doesn't pass in real time, but simply from doing various tasks in the game itself; whether that's travelling from one area to another, chopping down trees, repairing a fence, or other duties. Enlisting the help of other survivors that you find helps to cut the time of these tasks down substantially, making your odds of living through the night all the better. There are at least five or six endings that can be found, depending on how you choose to play. The story still isn't entirely fleshed out, but being able to interact with NPCs and having a "choose your own adventure" play style really helps to bring the game to life, more than the first entry.

Don't Escape 3 - You've watched Alien, right? Well here's your sci-fi game to complete the trifecta of this trilogy. It's not entirely the same as Alien, but something has invaded your ship. You wake up in the airlock, mere seconds away from being sucked out into the abyss of space, with absolutely no recollection of what's going on. You have to explore the ship, raid the bodies of your dead companions for their data logs, and find a way to stop whatever it is from escaping. This is the first time that Scriptwelder really put any deep work into creating lore, and it works well here. Reading the scattered data logs helps provide a bit of backstory as to why you're in space to begin with. Carrying over from the second episode is the in-game timer, this time in the form of the amount of air that you have left. More air can be found throughout the ship, but you'll have to expend it to complete tasks that will help you finish your main goal.

In short, the Don't Escape Trilogy is a prime example of how a series of no-budget indie titles can still harbor fantastic atmosphere and chilling settings. Scriptwelder did an amazing job picking and choosing the music to use with each game, and the sound effects aren't too bad to boot; although the annoying hissing of the spacesuit in episode three could've been a lot less aggressive. The pixel graphics are, for the most part, great at completing the unsettling ambience of all three games, although the graphics in episode two could've used a bit more work in all of the areas; it simply sticks out like a sore thumb, as a different approach and technique was used. The puzzles are somewhat straight-forward, though at times they can be a bit complex and hard to follow. Anyone used to point and click adventures shouldn't have a problem completing all three episodes and all of their achievements in 2-3 hours. As mentioned at the beginning of this review, you can still try all of these releases out for free on the web, but if you want to support a fantastic indie developer, then don't hesitate to throw down the money for this one.

The Horror Network Curator | Group Click for Gore

5 people died because I forgot to lock the window. 10/10

Don't Escape Trilogy is a collection of three flash games where the main goal is not to escape.

Story:

Each game in the trilogy has a different story so I'll go through them quickly. In Don't Escape you play as a man who will turn into a werewolf at night and has to lock himself away before that happens.

In Don't Escape 2 you play as a man during a zombie apocalypse and with a massive horde nearing your location you have to find a way to barricade yourself and wait for it to pass.

And finally in Don't Escape 3 you play as an astronaut. You awake and find the entire crew has been murdered and you're the only survivor and you must uncover the dark secrets to find out what happened.

The first two games are pretty light on story, there's bits and piece of dialogue and story telling at the beginning and at the end, but part 3 actually is pretty story heavy, with a lot of written logs and cutscenes that explains what happened. The stories overall are decent, but 3 is the definite standout of the three as the story is actually pretty interesting and finding out what happened is really cool.

Graphics:

I stated this multiple times and even in the devs other game Deep Sleep trilogy, that I'm a huge fan of pixel like graphics. Something about them really clicks with me and these games are no exception. Each game has it's own pretty distinct style considering the wildly different settings.

However like Deep Sleep, these games also suffer from the, pixel hunting syndrome where some items blend into the background. This is a big problem in the first Don't Escape game, because a few of the items are brown color and the color of the walls and floor of the cabin you're in are also brown. It's not that big of a problem in the other two games, but it really sucks in the first one.

Audio:

While I wasn't entirely sure if the soundtrack for the first game was royalty free, I'm pretty much a 100% certain most music in all three games are royalty free. It's pretty generic creepy tracks you hear in the scary creepypasta reading videos or just scary topic videos on youtube. While the tracks do a good job setting the mood and considering these are free flash games I don't mind it too much.

Gameplay:

These games are essentially classic adventure games, you go around, pick up items and use them somewhere else to solve puzzles, however there's a twist. Unlike most games where you usually end up being stuck in a place and need to get out, in Don't Escape you are not stuck, but actually want to make yourself stuck.

In each game the reason for you not wanting to escape is different and you will go about different ways to contain the situation. In each game you have limited amount of time, in the first one it's until you reach nightfall, in 2 it's until the horde reaches your location and in 3 your oxygen constantly drains. You have to really think about your choices.

Each time you do a puzzle the game will tell you how much time you will lose doing it, so the big thing is rationing the time you have to get the perfect outcome. Another thing is different story outcomes, there's plenty of different paths for you to take and each time there's a slightly different ending depending on how well you managed to contain the situation.

You can also mess up and run out of time which will give you a bad ending which always keeps you on your toes. So now lets talk about the puzzles. These are actually pretty difficult and require a lot of thinking and the perfect amount of strategy. Each progressing game, gets more complex with more stuff thrown at you and much more complex puzzles and these get from really simple to actually head scratching, especially in Part 3.

I loved figuring out the perfect path to get the 100% ending and actually felt rewarded when I managed to figure out how to get the best ending, especially considering how fun the puzzles are.

Verdict:

Just like Deep Sleep, you can play all three games for free in the flash format, but I wanted to support the dev and not to mention wanted to preserve these classic adventure games. Overall for the price these games give you a great time for roughly 2 hours to complete all three games 100%. Also not to mention there's a part 4 that is expanded even further and is a fully fleshed out game. As far as it goes, this game is definitely worth it if you like time management games and adventure games.

Final Rating;
8.5/10

Pros:
+ Interesting concept
+ Great puzzle design
+ Part 3 has a great concept and execution

Cons:
- Short
- Time management could get frustrating

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