The Escapists - Duct Tapes are Forever

I've spent enough time reverse-engineering The Escapists' daily schedules to know that the base game's formula lives or dies on the quality of its escape routes, and Duct Tapes Are Forever is a genuinely clever riff on that formula rather than a lazy reskin. The setting swaps orange jumpsuits for a tuxedo and drops you into a high-tech underground lair run by a Blofeld-adjacent villain, with every inmate name quietly winking at a different Bond actor. Walton, Piers, Mourn, Lazeeboi, Blonde - Mouldy Toof committed to the bit in a way that rewards players who actually read the dialogue instead of skipping it. Mechanically, this is one of the tighter maps in the first game's DLC lineup. The absence of tower guards sounds like it would make things easier, but security cameras are everywhere, metal detectors are dense, and smuggling contraband from one wing to another requires either a crafted contraband pouch (tin foil plus duct tape) or the discipline to dig storage tunnels beneath your own desk. The three-part escape sequence is the real draw: you need to assemble a Voice Recorder from a Memoir Tape lifted off a guard and a Tape Player hidden behind a red-locked door, craft Weak Fingerprints from Blue Putty, Talcum Powder, and Sticky Tape by cycling through the Woodshop and Metalshop jobs, and finally forge a Keycard before the lair's launch sequence will cooperate. That multi-chain crafting logic is exactly the kind of decision-layering that makes The Escapists worth taking seriously as a strategy game rather than dismissing as a casual time-management toy. The honest caveat is scope. This is one map with six achievements and a leaderboard. Completionists with a guide in hand can clear it in under an hour. Without a guide, the camera placement and contraband detection create genuine friction that stretches a first run to two or three sessions, which is honestly the better experience. The spy-themed audio and artwork are noticeably more polished than some of the base game's blander prison environments, and the James Bond references land because they are woven into the map's actual character names and item design rather than slapped on as set dressing. For strategy-minded players who have already finished the main prisons and want a concentrated, theme-tight challenge before committing to The Escapists 2, this DLC makes a sensible case for itself. It will not teach you anything the base game did not already cover mechanically, but it applies those mechanics with more personality than most of the other map expansions. Go in blind, ignore the achievement guides for the first run, and let the camera-dodging and crafting chain figure themselves out organically. That is the version of this DLC worth your time.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

Be the first to comment on The Escapists - Duct Tapes are Forever.