Garbage mechanics bring down a pretty promising escape room game.

Virtual reality (VR) games have come a long way.

We’ve moved past teleportation and snap turn only movement, created mixed reality games, made guns feel more realistic with each pull on the controller’s trigger, and even added the ability to use your hands in lieu of a controller.

Yet, more often than not, it seems like developers out there are willing to take a game with a good idea – and add in the worst possible mechanics. This overall design choice may pay off if it’s done right, however, you may end up with a situation similar to Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded.

And really, who wants another disastrous dumpster fire like that?

While not every VR game hits the mark upon release – with many being sent out into the world with a promise to make it better down the road – it’s disappointing when it seems like lazy decisions end up bringing down something that could be great.

Created with bad choices is how Escape Simulator, developed by Pine Studio, ended up after its Oct. 10 release on Quest headsets.

Now, the overall idea for the game – including the themes and puzzles associated with each room – are done very well. Things look pretty great in headset, the puzzles are a mix of goofy, fun, and exciting, and there looks to be more on the way with DLC and community created rooms.

The problem here is not the content, or even the aesthetics… it’s what can be boiled down to as point and click mechanics.

Yes, you read that right. With all the improvements made over the years when it comes to VR games, Escape Simulator – which should easily have been a homerun – has some of the worst interactions possible. In fact, when comparing it to other similar titles like The Room VR, The 7th Guest, and Rooms of Realities, this game ranks the worst because of how you interact with the world.

Now, the games listed above are pretty good, but they do have their faults.

The Room VR, for instance, doesn’t allow you to move freely around the space. Instead, you can teleport between puzzles and physically move within a limited space. The 7th Guest, has too many repetitive and annoying puzzles that really bring it down, while Rooms of Realities has lower graphics, a lot of janky control issues, and is too small – being comprised of three different scenarios and no word on future rooms being added via updates or DLC.

While those issues can carry varying degrees of annoyance, what all the aforementioned games do not implement are lazy and uninspired interaction mechanics. Grab items properly, turn dials and knobs, and actually push buttons to interact with the world around you. These are things that VR games being released today should include.

These are also things which are essentially not applicable in Escape Simulator.

Now, before we go any further with discussing the ridiculous system, it should be noted that there are in fact buttons with which you can interact by pushing them. However, these are the settings and inventory buttons on your wrist. Every button within the puzzle world MUST be pointed at with the cursor on your hand and clicked via the grip buttons or triggers.

The game itself is fairly straightforward, there are currently four different themes: Egypt, space, mansion, and corporation. Each of these themes has five different rooms and more themes look to be on the horizon.

Upon entering each room, a 15-minute timer starts ticking down, giving you the added challenge of making it out and receiving a meaningless trophy. Each room has puzzles which fit the theme, and while they’re not difficult by any means, you’re really meant to pay attention to the little details. Picking everything up is ideal as well, since anything can hold a clue – or be hiding “tokens” which have no real value besides giving players something extra to find.

You are able to hold items in your inventory via the push of a controller button, this is useful to an extent, but honestly it’s not completely necessary since so few items have any value. The rest of the options available – like pointing at something – is pretty useless since why would you need to put a marker on something for a teammate, when you can just use your words.

As mentioned before, the interaction mechanics here are absolute trash. Whomever decided this would be the best way to play has either never played other – and better – VR escape room games, or they’re just lazy as hell.

Your hands are basically just there for show in this game. Anytime you try and interact with something in the room, you need to pay attention to the cursor that changes colour if you want to turn a dial, push a button, or pull a lever. It can get annoying fairly quickly when you are trying to set a code, only for you to input the wrong thing.

Thanks whomever decided to implement this!

Because of the terrible interaction methods here, you don’t actually have to touch items to grab them, with things telekinetically jumping into your hand – or being dragged around the room if it’s too large. While this is alright for those who may not want to bend and move, this is a massive step back for VR gaming as a whole.

What’s worse with the interaction of items is trying to hold a book or open an item. Because you’re not properly holding an item due to telekinesis, you will probably need to finagle it with both hands until it’s properly oriented – lest you have your useless hand popping through the page of a book. Want to open something? Better be careful and point your cursor carefully before pulling the trigger, otherwise you’ll just be grabbing that same item with a different hand.

Having to play a game with interactions like this, in VR, is probably one of the worst experiences of late. It’s not only cumbersome to have to play with such poorly thought out controls, it’s downright offensive for the VR enthusiast who expects something that’s quality.

In fact the only thing saving this game – aside from the $19.99 price tag to content ratio – is that the puzzles are fun. With more than 20 rooms currently – and community rooms available for free – there’s more than enough to do here whether you’re playing solo or in a co-op group. Plus for $1 per “official” room, one could make the argument that it might be worth the cost.

It’s really not worth it though, and the high rating on the Quest store is just proof of fake reviews – or people accepting of crap mechanics.

If you’re considering picking this up, keep in mind that if you’re looking for more immersive controls – or are coming from one of the better escape room games – this is probably going to be a letdown. Escape Simulator can be a fun game if you forget – or get use to – the piss poor control system, but it’s definitely going to take a while.

Here’s hoping that Pine Studio releases a patch down the road and overhauls the stupid decision of this interaction method. As of right now it definitely one of the lowest ranking VR escape rooms out there, and it’s all because of the single decision to have a control scheme such as it is now.

If you’re truly interested, in this game wait for a sale or at the very least, keep your expectations low – and patience in check.

Escape Simulator, was reviewed after purchasing from the Quest store at full price.