The Artful Escape

Nintendo Life

Roland Ingram·Jan 31, 2022

Critic80/100

Agreement—

The Artful Escape is a thrill. It's true that the most joyous bits of action are underused – in terms of both playtime and what they could give the story – and some scarce but present graphical issues on Switch are a shame. Overall, though, the strengths are major, the niggles minor, and it will strike a chord with any pipe-dreaming rock star.

Push Square

Graham Banas·Jan 25, 2022

Critic70/100

Agreement—

The adventure does ultimately end up being a worthwhile one, with interesting characters, an incredible art style, and great music. But if there were more to the gameplay, the game – and its world – could have offered so much more.

Eurogamer

Christian Donlan·Dec 14, 2021

Critic80/100

Agreement—

A lurid and generous trip through the iconography of seventies rock.

PC Gamer

Rachel Watts·Sep 17, 2021

Critic75/100

Agreement—

A dazzling intergalactic rock opera.

GameSpot

Andrew King·Sep 14, 2021

Critic80/100

Agreement—

Rock opera and space opera meet for some artful escapism.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Matthew Castle·Sep 8, 2021

Critic—

Agreement—

One man’s musical mission in The Artful Escape is an audio visual delight, but there’s not enough room for expression or mastery.

Game Informer

Jill Grodt·Sep 8, 2021

Critic85/100

Agreement—

The Artful Escape is a gorgeous experience that makes you feel like a star, but challenge-seekers may need to look elsewhere.

GamesRadar+

Alyssa Mercante·Sep 8, 2021

Critic90/100

Agreement—

The Artful Escape is a short but oh-so-sweet platformer that will have you bopping to its impossibly catch beats and transfixed by its beauty

Pure Xbox

Daniel Hollis·Sep 8, 2021

Critic80/100

Agreement—

It's also worth mentioning there are some substantial performance issues. The frame rate dropped considerably fairly often, pulling us out of its gorgeous world. There were also a few occasions where dialogue on the screen was not voiced, which felt very odd. However, these issues aside, The Artful Escape is absolutely an adventure worth taking. It contains some magical moments, an engaging narrative and the best soundtrack in a game all year. It doesn't always hit the mark, but when it does, it smashes it out of the park.

IGN

Tristan Ogilvie·Sep 8, 2021

Critic80/100

Agreement—

There hasn’t been a guitar-based adventure as excellent as The Artful Escape since Bill met Ted.