![]() As one manic-pixie laser-light artist tells him, “You dress like a drifter but you sound like a space opera.” With pressure mounting from his small-town neighbors to take up his uncle’s mantle, Francis escapes his childhood bedroom into the night, where a brain-in-a-vat alien meets him outside his home to escort him to the cosmic extraordinary, a dreamlike acid trip to the “gray matter between the lobes of the universe.” To the public, he’s the ghost of a folk legend, but privately Francis rocks. On the evening before his first show, a celebration of his uncle’s greatest hits, Francis encounters a series of intergalactic beings who force him to confront his own mundanity, but also his own prodigiousness. Francis is a small-town sci-fi geek whose uncle was a folk music legend. ![]() In the vein of David Bowie and his cosmic alter ego Ziggy Stardust, The Artful Escape follows the inception of protagonist Francis Vendetti’s psychedelic stage persona. ![]() You actually do all of these things in the game, but they’re also all metaphors, man. It’s like sliding down an endless tree branch in a magical forest. The Artful Escape is like riding an elephant-sized moth toward the setting sun. ![]() But The Artful Escape is also a game about free association, so let’s indulge in some. Never have I played a game like the intro to a Parliament record: Partying on the mothership / I am the mothership connection / Gettin' down in 3-D / Light year groovin'.įunk isn’t a perfect comparison for The Artful Escape, a game specifically about rock ‘n’ roll and a young prodigy’s journey to guitar stardom. Some are like playground dodgeball or an after-school fight club behind the McDonald’s dumpster. Others are like slot machines, ding-dinging serotonin receptors with random victory. Some games are like Skinner boxes, parceling out rewards for pulling the right levers.
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