If you didn’t know, Escape Simulator is a game made by Pine Studio and released last year; it’s a puzzle game that you can play by yourself or with friends, and it has you go through a bunch of rooms and try to escape them by solving puzzles.
Just today, they announced an official update to the game: a crossover with Valve’s Portal franchise dubbed Portal Escape Chamber.
I probably don’t have to explain what Portal is, considering the mind-bending first-person puzzle game was one of the most influential games of all time and just a super great game on its own.
This DLC looks like it’s taking a bit from Portal and Portal 2 but primarily takes aspects from the first game while bringing its unique spin on things.
What’s in the DLC?
In this trailer, we see many new test chamber rooms added to Escape Simulator, borrowing some mechanics from Portal, like placing specific cubes on switches or using tubes and portals to make a cube fall forever.
Where the majority of the content comes from, however, is the numerous original mechanics they’ve implemented in the Aperture style.
We see a tube get opened by stepping on plates that swap letters whenever someone moves on them, a pneumatic vent delivery minigame where you have to get a heart through the vents from one side to the other, an orange-colored core waking up, and a cube placed on a pressure plate to let a laser go through, all brand new mechanics.
We even see the use of a crowbar to pry a container of turrets open, and while it might be a stretch, that’s probably a Half-Life reference.
At the end of the trailer, we see the Portal Gun getting presented; while this is a great hook to end it on, I doubt we’ll be able to use it, as it looks mounted to the ground.
In Portal, there already were stationary portal guns that just rotated and shot on a timer, and I believe this will be another one of those. Though it would be great to use the portal gun, it doesn’t seem like any puzzles are designed with portals in mind (ironically), so I wouldn’t get your hopes up.
After that, we see the Escape Simulator characters dressed up as Aperture Science researchers, which are the outfits they’ve had in this trailer, and you can use them in-game.
Portal Escape Chamber is releasing for free on September 7th. As a funny aside, the description of this video had to specify that Aperture Science is not real, which is just funny.
Overall, this DLC looks to be an excellent time for any Portal fans and a great reason to play Escape Simulator if you’ve got it and want to hop back in.
It looks like it’s taking a more unique approach to the established Portal universe and game mechanics. I’m excited to see what they do with it and happy Valve is giving their blessing to indie devs.
Further Reading
If you’d like to hear more about some great puzzle games or just some of your favorite indies, stick around for more.
Our Favorite Indie Game Projects From GMTK Game Jam 2023
Viewfinder Review: Making Sense of The Surreal
Dredge Legendary Fish Guide: I’ve Got a Nibble
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