by We've got our first Xbox Game Pass addition of the week today, and it arrives in the form of Escape Simulator, which is joining Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Premium (along with PC Game Pass) for Series X and S, PC and cloud.
To be totally honest, we hadn't come across this game before, but it actually first released for PC back in 2021, and the reviews on Steam for Escape Simulator are "Overwhelmingly Positive" based on almost 9,000 user ratings.
We've only found a few reviews on Metacritic for it, but they're all good too — it has an 82 average rating on there for PC.
KeenGamer (9/10)
Escape Simulator is fun. It's just challenging enough to make the puzzles satisfying, without being so obtuse you're certain the creators are just trying to show off their wasted university degrees. With free DLC and player created options, there's a ton of replay value. It feels good to poke at multiple puzzles at once, just for one to unlock the key to one of the others and so on.
Buried Treasure (86/100)
I have found my happy place! Escape Simulator is such a lovely thing, a first-person simulacrum of escape rooms, built in 3D, with realistic physics. It is, as its title suggests, a simulation of attending a real-world escape room, in a way that almost all room escape video games are not.
GameByte (8/10)
Aside from some minor technical hitches, though, Escape Simulator is absolutely worth your time. If you and your mates have been craving some escape room action throughout the pandemic, then Escape Simulator is a sure-fire alternative that won’t leave you disappointed.
Screen Rant (7/10)
Overall, Escape Simulator is a great way to experience an escape room without leaving the house. The smooth gameplay and realistically solvable puzzles make for an enjoyable experience. Player-created rooms will undoubtedly only add to the value and make Escape Simulator an easy purchase for puzzle fans.
Impressive stuff, then! Escape Simulator will be live on the Xbox Store at some point over the next few hours (no specific time has been revealed), so look out for it on Xbox Game Pass later today!
We'll leave you with some screenshots for the game down below.
First-person puzzler you can play solo or in an online co-op. Explore a set of highly interactive escape rooms. Move furniture, pick up and examine everything, smash pots and break locks!