Escape Simulator 2 Review: A Confident Sequel With One Infamous Flaw

Escape Simulator 2 had a specific job to do: take the co-op puzzle formula that made the original a fan favourite and make it bigger, sharper, and more capable, without losing what made people fall in love with it in the first place. Developed and published by Pine Studio, it launched to an overwhelmingly positive reception, 92% positive across 1,912 reviews, with a 20-review English-language sample that reads like a genuinely happy fanbase working through one specific, widely shared frustration.

A Confident, Polished Leap Over the Original

The clearest throughline in the sample is that this feels like a proper sequel rather than a reskin. One reviewer's bullet-point breakdown sums up the consensus: "Bigger Maps (you don't feel claustrophobic anymore)," a more "Realistic art style" with lighting that "looks absolutely incredible," and "Great performance" even on modest hardware. Another reviewer who put in over 20 hours framed the shift more poetically, describing the original as seeing the world "through the eyes of a child," colorful and easy, against the sequel's "eyes of a grown-up" feel, with longer levels, harder puzzles, and tougher-to-find secret tokens delivering "a more mature flavor of the same great room escape recipe."

Real Value for a Rebuilt Engine

Reviewers are unusually consistent about value for money. One reviewer specifically called out that Pine Studio "remade the game in a new engine, with better fleshed out opportunities" while charging roughly what three DLC packs for the original would have cost, framing it as "a very confident game that's exactly what the fans were looking for." A newer lobby system and a reworked token-collection system with real incentives to find every one also draw specific praise, with one reviewer whose jaw "literally dropped" at launch calling it "unlike anything else I played." That same reviewer pushed back on players who were review-bombing the game over bug reports rather than actual design flaws, arguing the underlying content and presentation deserved to be judged separately from launch-window technical hiccups. The level editor also carries over and expands on the original's, with one early reviewer calling it "robust" while noting it currently lacks some props compared to what the community eventually built for the first game, something they expect to be addressed as fan-made content grows.

VR Support That Holds Up

For a genre that lives or dies on physical, hands-on interaction, VR carrying over well matters. One detailed review, tested on a Meta Quest 3 during the VR Open Beta, reports the mode "feels almost like an officially supported VR title," with full locomotion, smooth or snap turning, comfortable seated play, and a steady 90fps on high-end hardware. The same reviewer found only one minor issue, a black screen triggered by backing into an in-game tree, resolved simply by moving away, and rated the overall experience as an easy recommendation for anyone who enjoyed VR support in the first game.

A Puzzle Design Shift That Splits Opinion

Not every change lands universally. Several reviewers note the sequel leans more heavily on standalone math and logic minigames, compared to the original's more collaborative, environmental puzzle design. One reviewer specifically contrasts a pipe-routing puzzle to "rotating puzzle from Resident Evil 4," arguing it "has nothing to do with the escape room" and can effectively be solved by one person good at logic puzzles rather than requiring genuine two-person searching and clue-sharing. That reviewer still recommends the game, but frames the shift as a real step down in the specific kind of co-op problem-solving that made the original stand out.

The Puzzle Everyone's Talking About

The sample's single most consistent complaint targets one specific late-game puzzle. A detailed, mostly positive review describes it as "not a difficult puzzle" and "not an impossible puzzle either," but one built around knowledge "so obscure and irrelevant to the game" that solving it without external help is effectively impossible for the vast majority of players. Their conclusion, after building anticipation through the whole campaign toward this moment, was blunt: "Good luck. Have fun. Yes for the levels leading up to the conclusion. No for the conclusion." A developer response appears directly on that review in the sample, suggesting the studio is aware of and actively engaging with the criticism.

Multiplayer Bugs Undercut the Social Experience

Given this is fundamentally a game about playing with other people, sync issues carry outsized weight. One reviewer reports being kicked from an in-progress session with a "wrong version" error after a couple of hours, forcing the group to restart a section and lose all accumulated inventory. A separate reviewer flags a bugged "Get All Trophies" achievement that refuses to trigger despite completing every theme, jigsaw, and secret temple in the game, stating plainly they would upgrade their review to positive once it's fixed. That same reviewer listed their completion in exhaustive detail, every theme finished in under 45 minutes, every token obtained, every dark puzzle cleared, treating the achievement bug as the one thing standing between a fully completed playthrough and formal recognition of it. Neither issue appears to be universal, most of the sample reports smooth co-op sessions, but both point to rough edges in the online layer that a puzzle-focused co-op game can't really afford.

Final Verdict

Escape Simulator 2 mostly delivers on the promise of a proper sequel: bigger, better-looking rooms, meaningful VR support, and a level of polish and content that reviewers consistently say outstrips its price. What keeps it from a stronger score is concentrated in two specific, well-documented spots: one genuinely poorly designed final puzzle that breaks the game's own social contract with players, and multiplayer syncing bugs that occasionally undo real progress. Neither is disqualifying, but both are exactly the kind of specific, fixable issues worth knowing about before diving in with a group expecting a completely smooth ride.