You mostly skid down ramps while shredding the blues. When jumping, tapping X again will grant you some extra height with a leaping riff, while Y slams the guitar down and B launches you into a knee-slide. I often just stood still and listened to the music, and I never do that in video games. If you hold down X, Vendetti’s electric guitar wails as he wanders, and it never sounds like it’s repeating. The difficulty in the platforming changes from ‘Easy’ to ‘Easy, But You Might Need A Second Try At That One Jump’ at points, but it’s not really about the platforming anyway. The parts that actually are a game - as opposed to being a good story told through excellent dialogue and fantastic visuals with superb musical licks - are split between platformer and Simon Says. It’s probably the most I’ve enjoyed being absorbed by a game all year, save for maybe New Pokemon Snap, which professional photographers even decided I was the best at. The Artful Escape is a phenomenal game because of how it makes you feel when Vendetti’s blistering guitar solos ring out across an ancient alien nation founded last Tuesday by a school of tuna. I haven’t really talked about the gameplay yet - that’s because there’s not very much to speak of. Lena Heady’s character is a god with a summer sky for a face, which should give you a rough idea of what this game is all about. Instead the whole thing plays out like one of those cool sci-fi novels you picked up in school but put down after 20 pages because you didn’t know what LSD was yet. It never tries to give you realistic rope physics, ray-traced puddles, or horse testicles that actually shrink.

It’s not realistic, but that’s to its credit.

The adventures you embark upon are gorgeous, and some of gaming’s most visually spectacular yet. The marriage between music, colour, and art style is phenomenal - everything moves like well-oiled Disraeli Gears. It’s here that the game really begins, as you’re whisked off to an array of tragically gorgeous worlds that all look like prime shooting locations for The 13th Floor Elevators’ greatest hits album cover. In the middle of the night, you are visited by aliens and astronauts who take you on a journey through the stars, transforming you into the Hendrix/Billy Skwovington figure you were born to be.

The artful escape review download