Escape Simulator 2 – Every Room Ranked

I played “Escape Simulator” a few months ago and was impressed by its quirky and thorough approach to escape rooms. The puzzles could be genuinely challenging, and the creativity was impressive.

“Escape Simulator 2”, however, is even better than the original. It’s only 12 rooms compared to the original, but these rooms are longer and are much more creative. How would I rank them all?

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

12 – Cargo Hold

Usually when I do any ranking on this blog I split the entries into Tiers such as “Good” or “Amazing”, but that didn’t feel appropriate this time around. All of the rooms are good, and I had a tough time separating them.

The least good room was probably “Cargo Hold”. It’s a visually striking room in that there’s a large alien object hovering in the middle, but the rest of the room is quite barren for some reason.

The best “puzzle” was more of a hide and seek with four invisible spy drones. The rest of the puzzles were a bit forgettable.

11 – Bridge

I get what “Bridge” was going for, but it wasn’t for me.

The push-pull tool is severely underused, and the energy-distribution tool – the main gimmick of the level – was alright but not great.

What ranks this level above last place, however, is the fact that the individual puzzles such as the constellations and the mathematical code were pretty good. It’s just the overall package I had a problem with.

10 – Sweet Dreams

I like the mirror puzzle in “Sweet Dreams”. I like how a full landscape is rendered in the distance, and you have to use that to solve another puzzle.

The other individual puzzles, however, were some of my least favourite in the game. The bird puzzle was both too hard to intuit and too easy to solve once you worked it out, and other puzzles like the birdcage were far too simple.

9 – Pirate Ship

“Pirate Ship” is a cool set piece – a kraken is attacking the ship, and you need to solve puzzles to fire cannonballs at it.

Premise aside, there’s nothing of note going on in this room. The Captain’s Quarters had some fun puzzles like the duelling box, but the steering wheel puzzle at the end of the level was unbelievably pointless.

8 – Into the Unknown

Easily the weirdest room in the game, but “Into the Unknown” had some fun individual puzzles like the plant puzzle – I especially liked how open the room was, where you could tackle the puzzles in any order.

What I didn’t like, however, was the final puzzle. I spent ages trying to work out where I went wrong, only to look up the answer and find out I didn’t get it wrong – the symbols just have to be inputed in a specific order for some stupid reason! A sad end to a great room.

7 – Courtyard

Normally the first levels in puzzle games feel undercooked compared to the later, trickier entries, but I actually feel that “Courtyard” holds up as a really solid escape room.

There are no dud puzzles (there are actually some really great ones – some of the most solid in the game), but the room wasn’t hard enough to truly challenge or engage me.

6 – Hideout

Now let’s talk about the last room in the game – and in many ways “Hideout” is the hardest level.

There are some really devilish snake puzzles, and the final puzzle where you had to work out the order of deaths was reminiscent of “Return of the Obra Dinn” or “The Case of the Golden Idol”. Which are never bad comparisons for a game to draw.

5 – Tavern

From the moment I heard the jaunty tunes and saw the living skeleton at the bar, I knew “Tavern” would be a fun room.

The beer pouring minigame really scrambled my noggin, and I still don’t really understand the portrait puzzle, but the swashbuckling vibes were great all-round.

4 – Island

There was a similar “Island” bonus level in the first “Escape Simulator”. While that one focused more on treasure hunting, this one is much more puzzle focused – and slightly better as a result.

Every puzzle here was great – the final gunpowder puzzle was fairly straightforward but it ended the level with a bang.

3 – Feast

“Feast” introduces a new concept to the series – a mini escape room / puzzle to start the level, separate from the rest of the level that comes after. An amuse bouche before the grand meal, so to speak.

There’s a twisted family tree, a twisted spot the difference and a twisted weapon puzzle. Basically, nothing about this “Feast” is homely and welcoming.

2 – Hibernation Pods

A lot of the space-themed rooms ranked lower on my list, but one room stood head and shoulders above the others – “Hibernation Pods”.

The first half involves curing your body of an alien disease, and the second half is all about unlocking the captain’s room and tracking the crew’s whereabouts.

I was tempted to put this at the very top … but that audio splicing puzzle to end the room was too finicky to be truly great.

1 – Crypt

The Dracula-themed levels went for a morose and gloomy atmosphere, and nowhere was this exemplified better than “Crypt”.

This room has my favourite puzzle in the whole game – the lens that lets you see symbols within paintings, then using those symbols to solve a logic puzzle. The other (“cryptic”?) puzzles, like the coffin and sorting the skulls, were also excellent. I can’t think of a single low moment – everything about this room hit all the right notes.

Aaaaand that’s my list! You can check out some of my latest blog posts below: