I first played Disney Dreamlight Valley back when it first released in 2022. I had heard some people talking about it and decided to check it out. I wasn’t expecting much, but I quickly became obsessed with it and even started a YouTube Let’s Play. This was huge for me because I am not a Let’s Player. But I really enjoyed the game and was playing it via Xbox Game Pass as initially, Gameloft had promised the game would go free-to-play so I held off on buying it.
A year into early access, Gameloft changed its mind about going free-to-play, so I stopped playing because I didn’t want to buy the game lol. Sounds dumb, considering I probably spent more on Game Pass to play it than I would have if I had just bought the game in the beginning but it was the principle of the thing.
Cut to a few years later, and one of my best friends decided to pick up the game on Xbox Game Pass (yeah, it’s still on there). So I decided I would join her on the Dreamlight train. Truthfully, I wasn’t planning on it, but the more she told me about her valley, the more I got a bit of FOMO and decided to dip back into the game. While I didn’t miss the game after I stopped playing and had no desire to go back, now that I have played it again, I am once again obsessed.
I have been meaning to write about this game for ages but I just haven’t done it. So here we are today.
I decided last month to try out some console gaming – and by that I mean I decided to take a look at what Xbox Gamepass had to offer. I am strictly a Nintendo gamer, ever since I discovered Animal Crossing that is where my love lies. I also play a lot of Sims which is PC but would never say I’m a PC gamer lol.
But my boyfriend has an Xbox and I bought him a year’s worth of Xbox Gamepass for Christmas and so I decided to see what was going on there since he wasn’t using it. And it had been a long time since I had played anything new so off we went.
I discovered Escape Academy right away. It was the first game I took a chance on and I’m so glad that I did. Escape Academy is basically just an escape room game, you go to the academy and work to solve escape rooms. Sounds good, could also be terrible.
I mean my fear with games like this is that the puzzles could be too easy and then you’re done in five minutes and not sure where to go from there.
Thankfully though I did not have that experience with Escape Academy. I was hooked on this game from the get-go. I really enjoyed solving the puzzles and I liked the little breakdown of the rooms at the end, as someone who tends to think logically and sequentially that pleased me a lot.
One thing I will say though is because I am a Nintendo player, I kept mixing up my X and Y buttons so I was using the odd hint when really I was trying to get into my inventory…I was able to work on that over time but was annoying as it impacted my overall score.
Aside from that though, controls are pretty straight forward and the puzzles I would say are just the right amount of difficulty. I don’t know what it’s like to play in co-op mode but playing solo I was able to complete all the puzzles myself. That being said, there were a couple of times when I needed just a little extra time. Which I think is perfectly fine, especially when in a real-life escape room you have multiple people but on your own, it’s a whole task.
But yeah I just really enjoyed the game and wanted to make a little post to talk about it, I finished the game within a few days and even made a couple videos on it, so if you are interested in seeing how terrible I am at escaping then check them out haha.
I swear when doing the other rooms I was not struggling as much, I just happened to choose to film two “levels” which required more thought than others.
Still, I am super excited to see what the future of the game holds. I know they are gearing up to release some DLC at the end of this year so I will 100% be on that as soon as it comes out.
And so if you’re looking for something new to check out potentially for free if you have Xbox Gamepass (though the game is only like £16 elsewhere) I would highly recommend Escape Academy! Also if you love escape rooms I think it’s a great emulation of them.