Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - Hier 03:18

Avenue Escape – Review

Just last month, we took a look at Double Mizzlee’s Tiny Biomes, and the developer is already teaming up with EastAsiaSoft again to bring another puzzle game to the masses. Said game, Avenue Escape, immediately comes across as being more ambitious in scope than its predecessor. We weren’t particularly impressed with Tiny Biomes, mostly because it was lacking in challenge. Is Avenue Escape the road to Double Mizzlee’s redemption? Story Oh, we’re sorry. Were you under the impression that there was going to be time to tell a story here? Don’t you know that traffic is congested? There’s no time to waste here! Get out there and start regulating the flow of traffic! In all seriousness, Avenue Escape skips story content altogether and doesn’t bother with adding narrative elements. Fortunately, the context for the puzzles is self-explanatory, and we didn’t mind the absence of a story altogether. Graphics Although Avenue Escape’s visuals are more about functionality than detail, there is still enough substance to the cartoon art style to appreciate how the game looks. The top-down street views are simplistic, but also clean and readable, with a very minimalistic UI. It’s clear at a glance what’s supposed to represent what, whether that’s a car, a pedestrian or a building. There is no visual clutter, and animations are simple but smooth and effective, allowing you to focus on the puzzles themselves without getting distracted. One gripe we did have was that, on the Switch 2 at least, the game’s visuals were slightly blurry in handheld mode. We’re not entirely sure whether this is an issue with upscaling from the OG Switch, and it didn’t bother us enough to stop playing, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless. A little more environmental variety also would have been welcome, but given the overall scope of the game, this wasn’t an absolute necessity. Sound If there is one thing that got on our nerves during our playthrough of Avenue Escape, it’s the music, without a doubt. Granted, the single musical track isn’t terrible in and by itself, but it gets repetitive really quickly. The remainder of Avenue Escape’s soundscape is nothing special, comprising just basic sound effects, so you’re not missing out on a whole lot if you decide to simply turn off the audio and listen to something of your own choice instead. Gameplay Over the course of 50 increasingly complicated puzzle stages, Avenue Escape tasks you with a straightforward goal: clear the streets of traffic. In each stage, there are a number of cars, with an arrow on their roof marking where they want to go. Tapping a car causes it to go forward. The difficulty lies in moving the cars in the right order, so that they all can reach their destination safely. Moving vehicles in the wrong order or messing up your timing can have disastrous consequences, such as cars colliding or hitting pedestrians. The mechanics are simple enough in and by themselves, but the puzzles have been carefully designed. Early stages act more as tutorials, introducing the game’s different mechanics like traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. These were deceptively easy, because by the time we got to the mid-to-late game puzzles, we found ourselves facing some real head scratchers. More complex levels require careful timing when you “launch” a car, to avoid running a red light, for example. Most modern-day puzzle games reward you with a star score, depending on whether or not you were able to complete a puzzle within a specific number of moves or within a certain time limit. That isn’t the case in Avenue Escape, as your “moves” are simply limited by the number of cars. You need to clear all of them and once they start moving, they don’t stop. As such, you’re given a number of lives instead, with each mistake costing you a life. While the idea is to complete each stage with three lives remaining, restarting a stage is quick and painless, so there is no real punishment if you need a few tries to figure out the solution to a puzzle. Some of the later puzzles really require you to think ahead several moves instead of tackling them one car at a time, triggering chain reactions as you try and bring them to a good end. Clearing all 50 stages took us around two hours, although your mileage may vary depending on your puzzle-solving skills. While we’d say Avenue Escape is definitely more on the casual side, it’s still a couple of notches above Tiny Biomes in terms of complexity. Now, two hours isn’t very long, but this is reflected in Avenue Escape’s price. The game can be picked up for a surprisingly affordable €3.99. Admittedly, the game is lacking in replay value, but if you’re looking for a way to kill a few hours, we can think of worse ways to do so, especially for the price of a pint of beer these days. Conclusion There is nothing groundbreaking about Avenue Escape, but this little puzzle game does feel like a step up for the developer. The game strikes the right balance between accessibility and challenge. While we wouldn’t label it a must-have title, this is a cheap little palette cleanser or an enjoyable way to tickle those logic muscles. Here’s hoping that Double Mizzlee keeps up the pace of improving with every one of their future puzzle games.