Meet Lil and Laarg. Lil is tiny but scrappy. Laarg is...well, large. Both of them have awoken in a jail of some sort, and together they're going to escape...with your help.
Escape Plan is a stylish 2D puzzle game that wonderfully shows off the non-traditional control options possible on Sony's new handheld. In the build that I played at Gamescom, virtually every interaction was handled via the touchscreen, the rear touchpad, or tilting the Vita. The only action I saw that used regular buttons was the ability to zoom the camera in and out with the analog sticks, but the Sony representative demoing the game suggested that may not exist in the final version.
The Gamescom demo began with the simplest of puzzles. Lil laid asleep in bed, and I had to tap the screen to wake him up. To make him walk toward the exit of his empty cell, I swiped the screen from right to left. Lil bumped into the locked door comically. I tried scanning the room for a means of unlocking the door, but as it turned out, I was overthinking things. With a tap on the screen, I knocked on the door and it flew open.
Subsequent puzzles ramped up in difficulty quickly. My introduction to Laarg had him unceremoniously freed from a large cage and standing near an electrified trap on the ground. A minion stood across the room. These evil jerks shoot Lil and Laarg on sight, so I had to figure out a way to take him out first. By tapping on the rear touchpad, I made noise along the wall that drew the minion forward to investigate. Luckily he wasn't very bright and slowly wandered right onto the trap.
Along with frequent automatic death traps lining the walls, floors, and ceilings of the mysterious facility housing Lil and Laarg, minions sometimes operate some horrifying instruments of torture. In one room, I sent Lil moving forward only to stop him quickly (with a quick tap on the touchscreen) as an oversized mallet went crashing into the doorway that was my goal. A trickster minion above pulled a lever to bring the mallet back up, leaving a window just long enough for Lil to escape.
Beyond touchscreen puzzles, some challenges will require navigating a dangerous area by tilting the Vita. I walked into one room where Lil stood near a lever and a gas pump, and Laarg rested nearby on a platform. I tapped on the lever to get Lil to flip it, which sent Laarg's platform climbing upward at a snail's pace. I used the pump to fill Lil full of gas so he could catch up to his big buddy.
When Lil is in this mode, players can tilt the Vita to control his direction or tap him to unleash a fart that sends him rocketing forward. I maneuvered to avoid some gears that could easily crush Lil and used three swift farts to get him to the exit.
The one element of Escape Plan that I've ignored so far in this write-up is death, but there's a justifiable reason for that. Given the many cunning traps filling the game world, death comes fast and often, but it's more a part of the fun than a major frustration. Lil and Laarg comically explode into giant black blots whenever killed – no matter how innocuous the means of death. Reloads come fast, and the game even provides a constant rather silly reminder of how many times you've died thanks to the large numbers printed on Lil and Laarg's shirts.
Thanks to its bold black-and-white art style, its self-explanatory control scheme, and its focus on highlighting what makes the Vita unique, Escape Plan is an easy choice as one of the handful of projects that has me truly excited for Sony's new handheld. The 2D puzzle-solving and over-the-top death scenarios definitely recall classics such as Oddworld or The Lost Vikings, which just makes me more interested in seeing more. Unfortunately, it's still unclear when we'll be able to play through the further adventures of Lil and Laarg, as Sony is not ready to discuss a release date for Escape Plan. We'll keep you informed as we find out more.