Escape From Paradise City Review (PC)

You're not going to find Escape From Paradise City on any of the game of the year lists, and despite the repetitive nature of the missions and game play it offers a simple and sometimes satisfying gaming experience. Released by CDV Software Entertainment Escape From Paradise City contains both single and multiplayer game modes which contain elements of both real time strategy and role playing game genre.

Game Specifics

• Publisher: CDV Software Entertainment
• Developer: Sirius Games
• ESRB Rating: "M" for Mature
• Genre: Role Playing Game
• Theme: Crime
• Pros: Good skill tree and character development; Visually game looks good.
• Cons: Terrible AI; Repetitive enemies and boss battles.

Overall the game play and storyline for Escape From Paradise City is fairly basic. Players control three main heroes named Nick Porter, Angel Vargas and Boris Chekov all of which do not have the most lawful backgrounds but alas they are still hired by NSA agent Walker Kovacs to clean up crime infested Paradise City, neighborhood by neighborhood. This is accomplished by fighting various thugs and criminals until you locate the neighborhood's boss and his safe house. Once players have gained control of a neighborhood they simply move on to the next, battling increasingly difficult henchmen and bosses.

There's a fair amount of game play in Escape From Paradise City spread across 16 chapters and despite the seemingly basic story and game play there is a more in-depth character development aspect to the game. Each character has different strengths and weaknesses but there's not really one better than another and there's no decision on which to choose as players will play each of the three at different phases of the story. Like many role playing games, experience is earned for each successful battle and task, earn enough and you increase your level. Leveling up earns you attribute points which are used to increase your character's attributes such as agility, concentration and others. In addition to attribute points, your character earns skill points each time a neighborhood boss is defeated. These skill points are then used to develop each character's special skills/abilities.

There are a few noteworthy characters that you'll interact with regularly. The first one is know as the Coach. The Coach is basically a skill trainer, once you've earned enough points for a new skill you need to pay the Coach for the skill to appear in your skill bar. Henchmen are also an important aspect to Escape From Paradise City as many times you'll find yourself fighting too many enemies at once. Henchmen however need to be recruited and can only be done if you have the personality skill/trait, so this is an important skill to try and get early on in the game.

The game controls and mechanics for Escape From Paradise City are quite simple. There are two basic camera/game modes; strategic and action modes. Strategy mode is played from the top down view and characters are controlled by right clicking to move to a location and/or attack. Action mode is played in a third person view using the standard WASD keys for movement. Both modes can be awkward at times; rotating the camera in top down can obstruct enemies or your character while action mode doesn't always give you the best perspective on the battle and location of enemies. Most of these however issues won't cause you as much head shaking as the game's AI or rather lack there of.

Escape From Paradise City does not measure up to some of CDV's other titles such as the Codename Panzers and Blitzkrieg series of RTS Games. In Escape From Paradise City, battles are overly repetitive and the AI is very basic and doesn't provide much of a challenging gaming experience. With that said however, Escape From Paradise City does come away with some good role-playing elements with it's character and skill development. Visually the game looks good, character models are nicely done and the neighborhoods have a tough urban look to them.