REVIEW: The Artful Escape, find yourself in a space opera

The Artful Escape, the developer's debut game Beethoven & Dinosaur and published by Annapurna Interactive, is an unexpectedly powerful experience, with a coming-of-age story and a search for identity with touches of fantasy. All this packed with the best soundtrack and art direction of the year so far. Few games have caused me this specific kind of joy, in fact, playing The Artful Escape reminded me of the first time I watched the movie. Quase Famosos, an almost autobiographical feature by the filmmaker Cameron crowe, which follows the misadventures of a teenager covering the tour of a rising band in the 1970s. Of course, without the game's doses of visual fantasy.

And this feeling becomes even stronger when the game's creative director, Johnny Galvatron (from the Australian band The Galvatrons) described it as:

"David Bowie traveling from London on an interstellar voyage to create Ziggy Stardust".

History

The Artful Escape tells the story of Francis Vendetti, a musician who is about to play his first concert in his small hometown of Calypso. The place breathes admiration for Francis' uncle, called Johnson Vendetti (clear inspiration from Bob Dylan), a folk legend who died at a young age. Both elements put great pressure on Francis.

The protagonist is crestfallen and feels the weight of being a shadow of a great artist, something that happens to many who dare to follow the same career as a relative who marked history. In the first minutes of the game we can explore the city of Calypso, during the walk we see posters, and all kinds of advertisements that always make a point of remembering that Francis is in the background. Some townspeople support Francis, but most just want to know if he's going to be a new Johnson Vendetti.

But Francis is a young man who, despite liking folk, is a science fiction enthusiast and prefers to solo with a guitar in a tube box rather than repeating chords on an acoustic guitar. He knows what is expected of him and also that he wants to be more than that. Whereas, on the eve of his first performance, he is still a musician with no identity.

The turning point in the narrative that leads us to the unfolding of the game takes place when, the night before his debut as an artist, the protagonist is surprised by a series of unexpected events. Invited by a mysterious figure, he boards a spaceship inhabited by a host of aliens who are there to see the greatest shows the cosmic extraordinary has ever seen, and it's up to the player to deliver them just what they're asking for.

Transformation

The Artful Escape manages to unite a cinematic narrative with the interactive language of a game. This is fundamental for us to understand and be an active part in Francis' maturation. And it all starts when, the night before the performance, Francis is visited by a guy named light man, an intergalactic musician who invites the young man to be his performance number. Now it's up to the player to deliver the aliens a show as amazing as the visuals we're about to visit in the game. From there we lived high adventures, full of sound and light, worthy of the most absurd lyrics of progressive rock bands of the 1970s.

It is curious to see that all this whirlwind of incredible environments and beings are “excuses” to help Francis create this artistic persona that he had so desired. That's why it makes sense that the game chooses a representation so focused on alien elements: who the protagonist is as a musician is so far from the folk universe that, for his uncle's fans who see him as a continuation of his legacy, the sound that is This feat could very well have been the result of another world.

Gameplay

Evaluating a game is very different from making a review of film, after all simple controls and with little - almost none - challenge should be, as a rule, as serious as a messy montage in a feature film. However, The Artful Escape's experience proposal is effective and the challenges are not found in the gameplay, nor with the player, but internally with Francis, who perfectly matches the narrative.

There are no enemies on the screen as we walk through the cosmos, in fact, by holding a button we are soloing during our walk through spectacular places. The closest thing to a traditional video game segment would be the moments where we have “battles” with some bosses. We must repeat the sequence of colors through the control buttons. But don't think of anything that requires as much skill as a Guitar Hero. These sequences are closer to a memory game than a guitar simulator.

Art direction

Speaking in 2021 that the scenario indie delivering art-directed games as grand and beautiful as AAA millionaires is not absurd. Still, it's important to note that if it didn't have such an impressive visual, The Artful Escape, as good as it is, could have fallen into oblivion.

The gigantic landscapes, Francis' poses as he solos his guitar and the cameras in these visually stunning moments, zooming in and out, creating scenes worthy of Roger Dean covers (artist responsible for the covers of legendary albums by progressive rock bands), are fundamental part of the experience proposed by Johnny Galvatron, with the addition that he lived some incredible experiences as a musician.

Audio

Speaking Galvatron, there is an interesting context in scoring in the game's soundtrack, which was composed by the game's creator. The musician stated that he was inspired by the legend “Dark Side of the Rainbow“, the name given to the experience of giving play on the album “Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd at the same time as the third roar of the MGM lion at the beginning of the movie “The Wizard of Oz”, when the works talk in a timing Perfect.

To reach a similar result, Galvatron composed a song that remains in the same chord, so, throughout this track, dozens of layers of guitars were recorded, which were cut, edited and then built piece by piece what would sound good in certain parts. about the game.

In other words, Galvatron's compositions were not precisely thought of in each scene or action by Francis, but in the marriage of the inspiration of the art direction, for what was recorded by the creator and the experience of those who are playing. This means that if I go soloing around in the game, and another player prefers not to open the button so much while walking, we will have a completely different experience in relation to the game's soundtrack. That said, it is clear that Galvatron and the team at Beethoven & Dinosaur managed to achieve their goal, resulting in a soundtrack as powerful as surprising as the visuals, in a marriage worthy of musicals.

Subtexts

I quoted the movie above Quase Famosos and in The Artful Escape we have something very similar in terms of showing through fantasy what it's like to mature. Unlike Cameron Crowe's movie, in the game we can have these more graphic analogies. The scenes in which Francis travels, for example, are used to hip hop montage (editing technique, accelerated, with quick cuts, that became popular in the film Requiem for a Dream, in the scenes in which the characters were taking drugs) implying that these travels by the protagonist could just be an experience with hallucinogens, something common by artists of the time. But it is good to point out that the game, at no time is explicit or makes an apology for the use of illicit drugs.

the bands The Who e Pink Floyd released the movies Tommy e The Wall, respectively, with the idea of ​​turning their albums into experiences that go beyond music. Although none of the works take place in space or feature aliens, the narrative structures, based on rock operas, are very similar to space opera, which at the time was financially unviable. Johnny Galvatron, with The Artful Escape, finally gives nostalgia for the 1970s, through video games, the long-awaited space opera packed with guitar solos, aliens and an explosion of color across the cosmos.

It's nothing new, but other references to the narrative are intrinsic to the story of notable figures in music, ranging from Francis's uncle, Johnson Vendetti, who visually resembles the Bob Dylan, but with the story of early death of many idols of the 1960s and 1970s.

In addition to our protagonist, who represents the figure of the legacy that carries with him this responsibility just for existing. Among the many relatives of legends, I highlight Sean lennon, son of John and Yoko, who always loved to make psychedelic music (including a declared fan of the Brazilian band Os Mutantes), but saw comparisons with his father as a barrier. He spent years flirting with the psychedelic sound, but only managed to overcome the barrier after a decade and focusing on the underground scene.

Conclusion

The Artful Escape is a good video game and a spectacular experience. That said, it is clear that this is not a title for all audiences, but if you like music, cinema and don't mind giving up challenging gameplay for an experience, do like Francis, fall head over heels on this cosmic adventure.

The Artful Escape is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series S / X e PC in the amount of R$74,95. For subscribers to the Game Pass, the game can be downloaded free of charge on all available platforms.

See also:

So, are you interested in the game and also like music? Did you know that there is a social network dedicated to recording everything you hear? See more about Last FM in this report!

Source: Polygon | Xbox.com