The demo for the game Escape The Beach presented me with an enigma wrapped in a mystery. All set on a beautiful tropical island. But things are far from peaceful in this tropical paradise as you’ll soon find out in this short demo.
The Backstory of Escape The Beach
The game opened with me on a beach. When I looked towards the water, old school square television sets began to fall from the sky and land in the water. They had ominous words on their screens like “Eternal Vacation” and “Conform for Life”. What on earth?
The next thing to happen was that a disembodied woman began speaking to me. She had a lovely voice, but she said some mighty scary things. She said I was on the island not to have fun and experience peace and quiet, but instead I was here to suffer, to be miserable, to feel despair and hopelessness. Gulp.
She said she was once a prisoner of this beach, and she will guide me. But she stated it in a vaguely threatening way, which did not reassure me at all. She is not my friend. She told me that my solo objective is to escape the beach. Gulp again.
The Gameplay of Escape The Beach
The game is a 3D walking simulator. The gameplay (at least in the demo) consisted of me walking, the narrator speaking to me, and me finding unusual objects. The game is aware that it is a game, something that I always love! For example, after I’d played for a little while, some objects fell from the sky. They were all instructing me to like the game and to wishlist it now. The narrator noted that I “seem to be receiving some rather annoying messages”. Ha!
At another point, a bunch of laptops fell from the sky. The narrator mentioned “the person that’s currently controlling you might be doing so on their very own laptop”. At this point, the feeling of the game was a bit ominous, but scenes like this lightened the mood for me.
In Escape The Beach, the only area I was able to walk in was the sandy beach, although I could go into the water a little bit. I could only enter the tropical forest if there were something in there for me to interact with. That happened once in the demo. There were pillars of red light in the distance, and I kept following them. I’m not sure what they signify. I guess that’s another mystery to solve.
Generally, I was looking straight ahead, but when something of interest appeared, the camera would turn me towards it, so I knew to go there. Then it would turn back towards where I was walking. I thought that was very effective. There is a day/night cycle but I don’t think it changes anything. There is no energy requirement or timers; it’s just walking and walking and walking.
The mood and feeling of Escape The Beach
The island itself is really beautiful, with an ocean on one side and a lush tropical forest on the other side. The palm trees sway gently in the wind; it would seem to be a peaceful vacation spot but looks can be very deceiving.
When I first landed on the beach, I could hear the soothing sounds of ocean waves. As I played, I would occasionally hear some music in the background, but mostly it was the waves and the narrator. As I mentioned before, this is a 3D open-world game. When I first began walking, I chose to go to the right and kept heading towards the pillars of red light.
This is a really short demo, and I finished it in 15 minutes. After it ended, the narrator said I could play agai,n and maybe I’d see something different this time. So I did. This time I went to the left. Turns out it was the same gameplay and same narration no matter which way I went.
The narrator asked me a series of questions. She said she didn’t really care what my answers were; she said she really didn’t care about me at all. But it was protocol to ask these questions. (rude!!) When I played the second time, I chose different answers, but I don’t see that it changed much in the end. Perhaps choices will matter more in the full game.
Mysteries in Escape The Beach
At one point, I was directed to look in the forest. There was a chair there. The narrator stated that maybe the chair could be helpful to me. She said maybe I could disassemble it and use the parts to build a raft. I don’t carry a bag or anything, so it isn’t clear to me how I will use this chair. There are many mysteries in this demo.
At the end of the demo, the narrator tells me that what I just did was an incomplete experience. I was not meant to escape during the demo. But the next time I am there, my experience will be markedly different. Another bunch of televisions fell from the sky as the credits rolled. They had messages for me like “I already miss you” and “Thanks for playing”.
Final Thoughts on Escape The Beach
This demo left me wanting more! What is going on with objects dropping from the sky, often having messages for me on them? What is going on with the narrator? I love her voice, but I don’t think she’s going to be very helpful to me. The Steam page clearly states that this demo is not part of the full game; it’s a short standalone game. However, I have to believe the full game will be similar in style and gameplay.
I need to point out that this game had one swear word in the text. It was the “S” word, so use caution when playing with children. The game is not rated for adults only, so I hope that will be the only incident.
The demo for Escape The Beach is available on Steam. I played with a controller, and it worked great. The final game is set to release sometime in 2026. It was developed by antonitium, I believe it’s their first game. This game is a surreal experience, it’s compelling, and I can’t wait to learn more.