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Escape the Past Giveaway
$9.99
EXPIRED

Game Giveaway of the day — Escape the Past

Collect all the pieces of the letter to remember who you are!
$9.99 EXPIRED
User rating: 22 42 comments

Escape the Past was available as a giveaway on March 28, 2020!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$9.99
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What will you do if you are stuck on the mysterious island? There is only one thing in your mind – escape as quick as you can! What about the secrets hidden there? It’s high time to check if you are brave and smart enough to overcome all the obstacles! Collect all the pieces of the letter to remember who you are and discover your past in the game Escape the Past!

System Requirements:

Wndows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8/ 10; Processor 2 Ghz or better; 1 Gb RAM; DirectX 9.0

Publisher:

MyPlayCity

Homepage:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/486120/Escape_The_Past/

File Size:

117 MB

Price:

$9.99

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Comments on Escape the Past

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#1

Escape the Past

In Brief

An adventure HOG with a selection of language options (English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish - i.e. at least the Steam version I've used to check this game out. I've not downloaded the MPC version yet.)
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Introduction:
Stuck on this island, you have only one thing in your mind... Escape ! It's time for you to uncover the secrets of your life. Fight what you created and accept its consequences. Are you ready to escape your past ? In this new escape game, try to solve all the enigmas through several oneiric (dreamy) landscapes.
Edited reference accessed HERE. 10th Nov 2017
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The Game:
Escape games, are really simple beasts. Click things until you find them all, assemble the puzzle pieces, and then proceed to the next level. But when I started to think of it outside the box, using my experience of running an IT help desk for years, it started to become clear to me. This won’t be hard at all.........Weird, right?
I mean, what does a help desk have to do with an escape game, or any game really? Well, the answer is simpler than you would imagine. You see, you can get almost anyone to fix your computer, or you can even use your powers of Google-fu to fix it yourself. The biggest selling point of a help desk (other than not having the overhead costs of hiring your own IT department) is the experience. At least, that’s what our help desk measured its success rate on customer satisfaction. If the customer experience is rubbish, but your problem was still solved, you wouldn’t give high customer sat scores. On the contrary, if your issue wasn’t solved, but the customer service was still fantastic, your experience may be awesome.
So how does this relate after all? Well, simple. Many escape games are alike. Actually, alike is too soft a word. Most escape games are identical. Typically the graphics leave something to be desired; the puzzles are “meh” quality, and they just get boring over time. Escape the Past makes a solid attempt at addressing these problems, which to be fair isn’t the easiest thing with such a saturated and imitated genre.
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For starters, the artwork is on point. Most escape games are pretty generic looking. Escape the Past is different, in that each scene, each turn of the ‘page’ makes you feel as though you’re in a piece of art. The scenes literally look like paintings, and the best part is, the clues aren’t just shoved in. They are tastefully placed, and the artwork for the items matches the background. Sure helps make it harder, and I can’t say it didn’t make me swear once or twice while I was searching for stuff.

Frankly, compared to all the other escape games I’ve played, I’d be comfortable calling this visually stunning, or at least beautiful.

Escape the Past also does well trying to tell a story. You find pieces of letters that attempt to provide context as to why you’re clicking on static images looking for pieces that move or make sense. Speaking of clicking, there is one pet peeve that I have in escape games, and that is the fact that there’s no sustainable mechanic that prevents you from clicking a million times all over the screen in an angry, frustrated, and emotionally compromised fashion because you can’t seem to find the next clue (voice of experience…. or something like that). Unfortunately, this is not addressed here either. There’s nothing stopping you from clicking like mad all over until a new clue pops up. It would be great if there was a click tracker that told you how many times you were blindly hoping for luck, or perhaps even a hard limit approach that only lets you have X amount of interactions with each panel to solve the puzzle.
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Speaking of puzzles, they’re not easy, which is good.
But, they’re also not so challenging that they don’t make any sense to us non-Mensa folks. See, puzzles need to make sense, as well as tell a story. They can’t just be hard for the sake of being hard. If that were the case, people would like math class, and then who would play football? It’s hard to describe some of the puzzles I enjoyed without spoiling part of the game, so I will refrain. But, I can say that I was impressed with the thought process that went into some of these scenarios.

I suppose my biggest pet peeve in the game would be that the several chapters of the game do not continue after each other. I mean this from a strictly mechanical point. Once you complete a level, you need to back out all the way to the main menu and remember which level you just played to select the next. Sure there’s only a handful, but I can’t imagine it would have taken too much trouble to place a next button that started the following scenario at the end of a level.

The Verdict - Overall, I’d have to say I’m rather pleased with Escape the Past. If you enjoy escape-themed games, this really won’t disappoint. To tie in my help desk example at the beginning, sure other escape games will allow you to strain your brain and solve puzzles, however, the experience here is what sells it. I suppose if I could change one thing, I would add more levels, as there are only currently four chapters. It certainly left me wanting more.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by Dizzyjuice on 22nd Sept 2016. Originally reposted by Whiterabbit-uk 10th November 2017.
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Other Reviews and Videos of Escape the Past:
You can see Steam community reviews of Escape the Past HERE There are several in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and links to several other walk through videos HERE.
Conclusion:

My verdict. Definitely some interesting puzzles, though I'd disagree on the graphics being stunning. They are okay, but I've seen much better over the past 20 or so years. Still, this is an excellent brain teaser that should bring a few hours of fun for HOG lovers. Also, it's not your usual HOG.
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There are now five games free over on Epic Games these include Paladins: Champions of the Realm Bundle, Drawful 2 (also still available free via Steam), World War Z, Figment and Tormentor x Punisher. Next week we will be getting Gone Home and Hob. Over on Steam you can play the excellent city building game Cities Skylines all weekend for free (also 80% off at the moment). Hellion has also just been offered for free as well. Check Delenns threads over in the forums for details of more free games HERE (e.g. Between Two Castles); (thanks for keeping me updated on those Delenn as always very much appreciated.

Reply   |   Comment by Whiterabbit-uk  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+21)
#19

The 1st time I installed I couldn't get it to play in English. I selected English on the opening screen but after I chose chapter one all the text was in some other language. Maybe German?? I uninstalled it and reinstalled it 2 more times and both times all the text was replaced with "%%text %text " etc over and over. I uninstalled. Not worth the trouble!!!

Reply   |   Comment by judy  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

judy, When you start the game, click on Chapter 1, then click on the flag at the top right corner. The next flag that appears is a supposed UK flag. That changes the language to English.

Reply   |   Comment by Mick  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#18

I played chapters one through three with a little help from the walkthrough. Even though it's in French, it was still helpful enough. However, in chapter 4, when I picked up the cable clamp, it said that "this looks like the hull of the boat". When I checked the walkthrough, there was supposed to be a pile of boards there, AND the cable clamp. So now I can't fix the generator, and continue the game because it thinks I have the hull of the boat and no cable clamp. I uninstalled and downloaded the game again, reinstalled, same thing. No pile of boards. Very frustrating. Any advice for me?

Reply   |   Comment by OldBAM  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

OldBAM, I uninstalled it again, then went straight to My Play City and downloaded it from there. Same problem. No pile of boards.

Reply   |   Comment by OldBAM  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

OldBAM, Reinstalling won't change anything, the problem will be in your Save file. If you go into the options (Gear button on Home screen), you can delete your save file. It means you will need to start again (possibly only the chapter as I think they may be able to be done in any order).

Reply   |   Comment by jb  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

jb, I downloaded and installed it on a different ( Windows 7) machine. Same issue as my Windows 10 machine. No pile of boards.

Reply   |   Comment by OldBAM  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#17

It seems like there are some problems with this game. I have some answers and workarounds:

- Language: On the main screen with the Chapter choices, there is a Flag in the top right. For me it was the Union Jack (English). If you clock on it, it cycles through the different language options by showing the flag of the major country with that language.

- Exit the Game: While playing, there is an 'Home' button at bottom right (icon of a house). This takes you back to the main screen after you confirm you want to exit. There is no exit or quit on the main screen but you need to get to it before exiting so it will save your progress. To quit the game press ALT-F4.

- Saving progress: As I mentioned above, you need to exit to the main form for it to save your progress. Once you finish a chapter, if you go back to it then it will do a new game for that chapter. If you go back to the same chapter and haven't finished it, it will continue.

- Chapters: It seems like each Chapter is treated like a separate game within the game. When you start a new chapter it has New Game instead of Continue. This starts the chapter, it does not undo what you did in the previous chapter. It may not even matter what you did in the previous chapter (I'm not far enough along yet to tell).

I hope that helps.

Reply   |   Comment by jb  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+10)
#16

Enfin un jeu en Français ! MERCI !

Reply   |   Comment by Goupil  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#15

I don't see any way to change the language Does anyone know how? I remember one game when someone posted how to go into the workings of the game and change it to English, but I don't remember how to do it Any help would be great

Reply   |   Comment by Marilyn Chappell  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)

Marilyn Chappell, When you start the game, click on Chapter 1, then click on the flag at the top right corner. The next flag that appears is a supposed UK flag. That changes the language to English.

Reply   |   Comment by Mick  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#14

I hate it when a game doesn't give the choice of a language and comes in French, as this game does. I didn't take French in school, just Spanish, lol! The game is lost to me, this way.

Reply   |   Comment by Marivan  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#13

As a BIG fan of HOGs, I didn't find this game engaged me when it was given away three years ago, so much so that I couldn't be bothered trying to finish it!

Something about the gameplay felt just … dull. The hidden items were, for me, just that bit too difficult and annoying to find, even with the walkthrough; and though the puzzles were interesting, I increasingly felt I couldn't care less. And having to remember which level you want to play wasn't exactly polished.

It's certainly, as others have said, very different from the usual HOG and maybe it will suit your style but, and it's rare I say this, it wasn't for me; but please do try it for yourself and see what you think!

I vaguely recall that exiting the game required either an Esc key or just Close it from the Windows Taskbar, as it's obviously a port of a game from a smartphone (isn't it?!!) where the concept of "exiting" doesn't really exist. I hope that helps anyone wondering how to "exit" the game!

Reply   |   Comment by Cad Delworth  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#12

Hey Wabbit,

I was gone all day yesterday. We had been cooped up in this small apt for over 2 weeks so we took a drive along Lake Erie. Never got out of the car but for gas but needed some fresh air. So now I am playing catch up...

.I hope I got them all..There are so many...If the links don't work for some reason..Search for the game on Steam.

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/618140/Barro/
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And for Android and iPhone and iPad....

Lara Croft GO free on Android and iOS

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Same have been saying you need to look it up yourself on the app store to find the free version

Be Safe, EVERYONE!!! And HUGGLES

Reply   |   Comment by delenn13  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#11

"If that were the case, people would like math class, and then who would play football?"

Laughed my head off at his comment (I majored in math in college). Loved the review. I usually don't like this type of game, but this comment alone makes me think I should try it. Thanks!

Reply   |   Comment by Brian  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#10

There should be an "Quit" option (as seen on Whiterabbit's screenshots) on the chapter selection page but it does not appear on my computer.
I have found that if I use Alt+Tab to show running programmes and use the "X" to exit the game, it will exit and save the progress so far.
A bit of a messy workaround but it works OK.

Reply   |   Comment by George  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#9

Got through to part 3. Pickaxe wouldn't cut the crystals. I went through the walkthrough figuring I'd done something wrong, but it's working fine in the walkthrough; alas, not for me. Not worth messing with it anymore. Uninstalling.

Reply   |   Comment by auroranova  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#8

There is no icon for the desktop included that I could see.

Reply   |   Comment by Lynne FitzGerald  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#7

Was so excited for another HOG, BUT:
1. Can't figure out how to exit the game.
2. After finishing Chapter One, and not finding a way to exit to come back later, I clicked Chapter Two, but it only gives me a choice to "New Game". But if I click Chapter Three, it gives me a choice to "Continue". It's as if it thinks I finished Chapter Two, but I only finished Chapter One.
3. I like that there is a bit of difficulty here, but the "hints" just takes you to a listing of French walkthroughs, which are still helpful but a drag as opposed to a normal hints system.
I really was enjoying this game, but without the ability to exit mid-game, and with no way to access Chapter Two, I'm stumped. If anyone has some suggestions, I'd love that!

Reply   |   Comment by neme  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)

neme, Re your point 2:

I saw some comments in the Steam community site about bugs in the game regarding not being able to finish Chapter Four (Final Chapter), but also some comments about saved games screwing up, which MIGHT be relatd to your problem.

Unfortunately the answer was: uninstall the game, then go to C:\Users\yourusername, type appdata\localLow into the Explorer Address Bar (overwriting what's there), then delete the game's files from there too. I haven't installed the game today so I can't be specific about precisely what you need to find and Delete; but I would guess you're looking for either 3DDUO, the game's developer, or EscapeThePast. THEN re-install the game.

I hope that's some help, neme!

Reply   |   Comment by Cad Delworth  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

neme, After I exited the game via Alt/Fel/Ctrl my progress was saved.
There is antoher English walkthrough, bit it also are video's: .gameanyone.com/game/PC/151088.html

Reply   |   Comment by tiscrea © - The Netherlands  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

All you have to do, (if you are on the Windows OS system) is hit the "Windows" button on your lower left side of your key board, next to the "Alt" key. This will shrink the game down to the task bar at which point you can left click on it and close it.
What I don't like is the game story and such is in the French language, which I didn't take in school, ugh! I hate that when it happens!

Reply   |   Comment by Marivan  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

neme, Just click "New Game" and you get to do chapter two. Each chapter said "New Game" unless I quit out of it and went back in. Then it said "Continue".

Reply   |   Comment by OldBAM  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

neme, 1. You can close the game with alt+F4
That's all I've got for you. Hopefully someone else will get the others figured out, but probably not.

Reply   |   Comment by Scott Wright  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

Thanks for the suggestions! Turns out, the reason Chapter 3 said "continue" was some screw up in the game, as it thought I'd played halfway through Chapter 3 when I hadn't. Even with the walkthrough, I couldn't figure out how to proceed from where it left off (it had the wrong colors poured into the tank---again, not by me), so just moved from 3 to 4. But with the other comments here about the issues with chapter 4, plus the idiocy of not having an "exit" button but having to press alt-F4 (not mentioned anywhere in the game), and the stupidity of having to delete game files, etc., just deleted the game. Enjoyed the few minutes up til then, but really offering such buggy games is really doing no one favors (directed to the developers, NOT to GGOTD).

Reply   |   Comment by neme  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#6

Was given away previously on November 11, 2017. Read the comments here:
https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/escape-the-past/

Reply   |   Comment by Trying 2 B Helpful  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)

User name checks out.

Reply   |   Comment by Jerry  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

Jerry, Huh?

Reply   |   Comment by Trying 2 B Helpful  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#5

Installed on Win 10 64-bit with no problem. The game comes up in French. I don't see where to change that. Had to hit Ctrl and Esc to actually close the game down. Any suggestions would be great. Thank you.

Reply   |   Comment by Sunnie  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

Sunnie, When you start the game, click on the flag at the top right corner. The next flag that appears is a supposed UK flag. That changes the language to English.

Reply   |   Comment by Mick  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

Sunnie, u can change language from top right

Reply   |   Comment by Asif  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

Sunnie, I clicked on the French flag, then it became the British flag and the game was in Engelish

Reply   |   Comment by tiscrea © - The Netherlands  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

Sunnie, if you go to the right hand corner and click on the flag, you be able to click on the British flag to change it to english

Reply   |   Comment by Kimberly  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

CG's comment from the last time this was given away:
"I downloaded this game and it installed with all the words on the game once you started in French. You have to select the level and on the very next screen click the flag in the upper right screen and click to select the language. I picked British to get an English language because there was no USA flag."

Reply   |   Comment by Jerry  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

Sunnie, you have to click on the country banner to change.

Reply   |   Comment by Iris Benz  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

Thank you everybody for letting me know how to change the language. I did get it changed. I played for a little while and then closed the game down. Had to Ctrl and Esc, then close window from the bar. Opened it later and it did not save any of my play time!

Reply   |   Comment by Sunnie  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#4

Hi,
How do you exit the game?
Wie beendet man das Spiel?

Reply   |   Comment by Peter Freund  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)

Peter Freund, I am wondering the same thing. Now I am using Alt/Del/Ctrl, but is that what you're really supposed to be doing?

Reply   |   Comment by tiscrea © - The Netherlands  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)

Stephen's comment when this was given away before:
"There is NO quit button. I suggest to quit the game you Alt-Tab, then close the game down from the taskbar by hovering over the games icon to make the game's thumbnail appear, then click the top right corner of the thumbnail image where you should see the X (to close the game)."

Reply   |   Comment by Jerry  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

Peter Freund, You can close the game with alt+F4

Reply   |   Comment by Scott Wright  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#3

It tells me 'Fail to launch the program' hmmm....???

Reply   |   Comment by ceili  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#2

downloads fine, says registered correctly but the installation is corrupt. I redownloaded it and it did the same thing again. hope to get it cleared up i'd love to have this set

Reply   |   Comment by Sarah Chadwell  –  4 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
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