Review: Exit (PSP)

There's a farmer with a dog, a chicken and a bag of grain trying to get across a river on a little boat that can only hold two of them at a time. Only the farmer can pilot the boat, and he cannot leave the dog alone with the chicken, nor the chicken alone with the grain, else they'd get eaten. How do they all get across the river? Answer at the bottom.

Mr. ESC - expert escape artist - knows the answer, and many more besides; that's just a warm up exercise for him. You see, in his line of work, he has to take into account more than who eats who. Hired for rescue missions, including getting people out of exploding factories, earthquake-damaged hospitals, and snowed-under buildings, each of the one hundred stages in the game contains mind-bending logic puzzles in the style of the one above. Mr. ESC can push boxes, but children can't; yet they can crawl through tight passages. Adults cannot climb more than metre-high obstacles without the help of two others to pull them. You can instruct companions to move and pick up items and keys, but only once you reach them. You get the idea - throw into the proceedings a mix of doors, elevators, pulleys, switches, ropes and ladders, and the potential avenues for ingenious puzzles are extensive.

And ingenious it is. There's a lot to remember in Exit - sometimes too much, and the solution to a level may only reveal itself through trial and error - but once most of the rules are learned, your mind will start to contemplate different approaches and formulate solutions. Gamestyle had many moments when a head slap was in order for missing something so obvious in hindsight. You have to keep on the ball, and never let your concentration slip. Drop down to a lower level and get stuck; use a fire extinguisher on the wrong fire and get trapped; that handy 'retry' button will be getting a lot of use, that's for sure. You can just imagine some deranged level designer laughing maniacally at his increasingly devious creations.

It's worth noting that Exit is not primarily an action-focused game; despite its obvious platformer roots (think Prince of Persia style controls), it shouldn't be treated as such. It's very slow-paced, and most of the challenge comes from figuring out the route, not actually executing it. Mr. ESC and co. are elegantly animated (the cel-shaded graphics look tremendously stylish), but each laborious animation has to finish before you can move on. Heaven help you if you accidentally descend a long ladder and have to climb back up again. This slow pace feels at odds with the fact that every level is set against the clock (5 - 10 minutes, on average), but it's a lazy sort of pace that you grow accustomed to easily enough, and there's always plenty of time left when you reach the exit.

Yet at times the game forgets this and throws nasty challenges at you. There's a ridiculous conveyor belt level, three quarters of the way through, which will infuriate many, as well as a dubious design decision for the tenth and final scenario. The running jump (clears three metre gaps) is a nightmare to pull off without madly hammering the X button and hoping for the best. Exit could have done with a lot of tightening up in certain areas. The path-finding of the companions, for example, is absolutely appalling. They'll follow you automatically just fine, but point them towards somewhere that isn't in a direct line of sight, and they'll wander off in the wrong direction unless you signpost every step for them.

Context-sensitive controls also cause the occasional problem: pressing up on the directional pad makes you climb over boxes, but push a box next to a ladder and you'll only be able to climb the ladder, not the box. It's not something that happens frequently, but it's an issue nonetheless. Aside from this, the controls are mapped intuitively: the d-pad controls Mr. ESC, whilst the analogue nub moves the pointer around for directing companions.

Exit has a fairly forgiving structure, so that you can skip a level if you're stuck, and go back to it later. You can't access every level right from the start, but more become unlocked ahead of you as you progress. Even if you finish every level (which is no small task), you can play them again to perfect your score (do it in less time, with less errors). Although if that doesn't appeal, you can download brand new levels from the Internet, completely free, directly onto the PSP. These are small files as they're created using the same building blocks as the rest of the game. They're categorised by mental and physical challenge levels and there are already a fair few to choose from, so longevity is definitely assured. This is a far more pleasing approach for the consumer than buying a full-priced sequel twelve months down the line.

If you can overlook the one or two annoyances in Exit (and the really grating character soundbites), this is one hell of a puzzle game that will keep you challenged and your brain ticking over for a very long time. It's very refreshing in style and premise, looking like a cross between a comic book and an emergency instructions diagram. As for the solution to the above conundrum - it's easy:

The farmer takes the chicken in the boat with him and crosses the river. He returns to the original side on his own and and then takes the dog across with him. He then takes back the chicken and returns to the original side again. Then he takes the bag of grain over and leaves it with the dog. Finally, he returns for the chicken and carries it across.

Rating: 8 / 10

Words by Daniel James