Don't Escape 3

By Scriptwelder

If the first Don't Escape was some nebulous time in the past, and Don't Escape 2 was vaguely in the present day, then that means the only place left for Don't Escape 3 is to go... In space!

Don't Escape 3 has you playing as a pilot aboard a spaceship known as the UEFS Horizon. You've woken up in the airlock with a nasty headache, and that's only the start of your problems. Something's happened to the crew, there's some weird crystal that was brought aboard on your last mission, a lot of the ship's systems are down, and you're going to run out of breathable air in an hour. Now you need to get to the bottom of things, and hopefully not asphyxiate along the way.

At first glance, you might think that Don't Escape 3 has a more limited setting, taking a step back from the rural town of the last game to one measly spaceship. On the contrary, though, the UEFS Horizon is a pretty big space to fumble around in, and by my count there's about the same amount of interactable scenes. There isn't any travel to account for, but the time limit is tight, and there's even more tasks to try and manage into that time.

This is also the very first Don't Escape to have much of an actual story. The last two were mostly just pure strategy and puzzling with lots of flavor and panache, but Don't Escape 3 is a full on point-and-click mystery waiting to be unravelled. It's probably the most well remembered of the three, and for good reason.

On the other two Don't Escape games, I've mentioned that you can buy all three as one game on Steam for five dollars. What I haven't mentioned, though, is that on Steam you can also find another Don't Escape game, known as Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive (or, y'know, Don't Escape 4). It's a proper commercial indie game, going for $14.99. I haven't played it myself, but if you play all the original Don't Escape games in order, you'll notice that Scriptwelder really managed to hone their craft over the course of the series. A full-length Don't Escape entry is almost definitely worth a try.