Francis Vendetti can’t help but live in his Uncle Johnson’s shadow. The young bespectacled budding rocker awaits his first headlining concert in the town of Calypso, Colorado, stressed by pre-show jitters and remnant insecurity about the surname he shares billing with on the flyer. He sees no other choice but to find a new moniker to dispense with Johnson’s folk past and gaze towards the psychedelic rock future which Francis prefers. Publisher Annapurna Interactive’s The Artful Escape, developed by Beethoven & Dinosaur, seems less about cathartic reinvention on the path to creation - apparently, Francis hasn’t even started invention just yet.
The Artful Escape has been in development for six years now, a slow-brewed musical platforming adventure that’s underwent a few release date shifts since the original announcement in 2015. Annapurna Interactive took on publishing duties later on, and the game has gotten some incredible voice talent on the way, including Lena Headey (of Game of Thrones fame), Jason Schwartzman, and Mark Strong. That star power shines alongside the game’s lead creative director, singer Johnny Galvatron of rock band The Galvatrons.
The Artful Escape seemingly places its narrative front and center in a way that distinguishes it from some of its forebears. In our time watching Johnny Galvatron screenshare his way through select sequences, the primary gameplay featured platformer-like navigation and some simple dialogue choices. Much of the music-input mechanic looks centered around the “boss” encounters, kaleidoscopic duels or duets with alien creatures who Francis must sufficiently impress with his guitar.
For its visual presentation, The Artful Escape generously blends divergent color and bustling movement, with strong contrast as the autumnal hues of Calypso give way to more psychedelic sci-fi-tinged locales. The gameplay remains on a 2D plane, but each background and setting is multilayered and overflowing with animated dreamlike imagery, bizarre alien creatures, and laser light shows that run in tandem with the player’s button-pushing guitar strumming. The visual themes mix the acid-drenched fantasyland of The Yellow Submarine and the Vishnu adaptation of Jimi Hendrix and the Experience on the cover of Axis: Bold As Love, all run through an intergalactic rock concept. Seeing the game in motion is its premium sell, and it does so with aplomb.
On zooming in closer during quiet scenes, though, the “paper doll” qualities of the character animations are a little more noticeable. Arm motions and head-lolling gesticulation makes all The Artful Escape’s human characters appear more like marionettes than anything else - albeit highly detailed and nuanced marionettes - and it’s a stylistic choice that’s going to sit better with some folks and not others. Once zoomed out as a massive alien writhes in ecstasy over a burgeoning guitar solo while laser fountains explode on sonic cue and this style is much less conspicuous, but it was still somewhat distracting, a weird flatness standing out among the 3D-modeled backgrounds.
It’s a nitpick, and part of that nitpick originates in how little of the game we’ve yet to even see. For this preview, Johnny Galvatron played through the opening section, where Francis meets Violetta (portrayed by newcomer Caroline Kinley, channeling something of a sardonic Kat Dennings), and musters the notion that he needs to craft a new rock identity from whole cloth. We get to see Calypso and its folk music denizens, as well as a number of dialogue options for certain conversations, though most seem functionally identical and it’s doubtful that any lead The Artful Escape to significantly branching paths.
Then its off to Lightman’s environment and finding the Cosmic Lung, a kind of spaceship which Francis will use to travel the musical multiverse. Even The Artful Escape’s purported sound-sampling mechanic was not shown off during this session, so any music creation mechanics remain unclear. The preview ended with a deep dive into the a slew of unlockable cosmetics for sale in town, a cute and probably essential addition for a game about developing a rock persona, but hardly exciting on its own.
The slide-heavy platforming sections seem of negligible challenge at the moment, pushing The Artful Escape into possible walking sim (or, specifically, rocking-walking sim) territory. That’s not a mark against it, but it means that the quality of the story will be paramount to its success, as the gameplay just hasn't garnered center stage in available previews. Fans of the music and startling visual style of The Artful Escape will surely scoop this up, but it’d be nice to know more about how the game plays. We’ll all find out soon enough, as The Artful Escape finally arrives to a cheering arena on September 9.
The Artful Escape releases on September 9 for PC/Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and iOS devices. Screen Rant was invited to a preview presentation for the purpose of this article.