At Summer Game Fest 2025, we faced a slew of “unannounced” appointments, which can be a bit of a risk. Fortunately, one of my slots turned out to be *Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School*, and the series has been a blast so far, so I was eager to dive into the newest installment. I first experienced the original *Escape Academy* at Summer Game Fest 2022, so it felt nice to maintain that tradition.

Initially, I was teamed up with a stranger, which can complicate co-op puzzles, but they didn’t arrive. Instead, I had the opportunity to enjoy a solid 30 minutes of *Escape Academy 2* with none other than CGM’s editor-in-chief, Brendan Frye. We settled down with an early section of the game, equipped with pen and paper, and engaged in some playful bickering throughout the entire session—not much has changed.

As we entered the first room, our objective was to uncover the names of the school’s founders to make our escape. While rummaging through walls, drawers, and boxes for clues, we encountered combination locks, an overhead projector—I hadn’t seen one of those since high school—and a machine to input names as we discovered them. It was a fairly typical escape room, though *Escape Academy 2* introduced jumping, which was an exciting twist.

### “Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School is completely open world, bringing an entirely new level of adventure to the franchise.”

There were a few minor quality-of-life concerns, such as being unable to navigate between one of the desks and the teacher’s desk, along with numerous items in the room that weren’t related to the puzzles. Naturally, that’s meant for misdirection, but I think I clicked on the same apple water bottle around 20 times while inspecting the desks. A handful of clues might still require clearer hints during development, but these could become more evident as you experience the game, considering we were only given a brief segment to explore.

Typically, I might suggest, “Why not create new levels instead of a new game,” especially since *Escape Academy* isn’t particularly old. However, Coin Crew Games has completely redesigned the entire map, and *Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School* is entirely open world, introducing a fresh sense of adventure to the series. If you’re like me, you may have no idea what an open-world escape room entails. Fortunately, I’m here to share that!

Essentially, it’s akin to attempting to move from Point A to Point B in your home as a busy mom with a bunch of children. You can’t simply traverse the house. First, you need to locate someone’s missing sock, unlock three doors, grab a snack, and complete a multitude of tasks before finishing the one at hand. More specifically, before we could access the headmaster’s office, we needed to locate our locker (which involved a puzzle), navigate to the bookstore (which entailed several puzzles), and purchase our books (which, of course, necessitated another puzzle). I think you understand the gist.

### “For those who appreciate a slow burn or genuinely love puzzles, Escape Academy 2 will undoubtedly fulfill that need.”

For those who appreciate a slow burn or truly enjoy puzzles, *Escape Academy 2* will undoubtedly satisfy that desire. Every aspect presents a challenge—and that was just the journey from the original room to the office. Upon arrival, some familiar characters appeared, along with a few newcomers. The game offers a brand new narrative and an explorable campus, so the volume of content in this latest version should be abundant. We were also interrupted by various side quests that we skipped for time’s sake—but that simply means there’s even more content for players to anticipate.

Brendan and I played in couch co-op mode, of course, but the game will also provide online co-op. Coin Crew Games and publisher iam8bit have done everything possible with *Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School* to deliver fresh content, innovate over the original, and ensure that playing with friends is as straightforward as possible. Although there’s no release date announced, I’m eagerly looking forward to heading back to school (truly, not having a September release date—even in 2026—would seem like a major oversight here!)