Great rooms, shakier campus
Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School sits at 84 on OpenCritic and 73 on Metacritic before it has even launched, and both numbers are telling the truth. The puzzle rooms win nearly everyone over; the open-world campus wrapped around them is where the scores start to slide. This is a roundup of published critic reviews and aggregate scores, not a GearChamber playtest: we haven’t played the game, and everything below is credited to the outlet that said it.
The sequel from Coin Crew Games and iam8bit Presents arrives on Thursday 5 November 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, according to OpenCritic. Our headline number is OpenCritic’s Top Critic Average of 84, with 80% of critics recommending it. Both aggregates are early: OpenCritic lists five critic reviews, Metacritic’s 73 (‘Mixed or Average’) is also built from five, and neither site has player ratings yet. Expect the numbers to move once more outlets and players weigh in.
Why 84 and 73 can both be right
Metacritic’s 73 is the lower figure, and the gap is mostly a story about who is in the sample. Only two outlets, Video Chums and TheGamer, appear on both sites. OpenCritic’s other three are TechRaptor (9/10), SmashPad (4.5/5) and Pizza Fria (7.9/10). Metacritic’s other three are GameSpew (80), covergeek (60) and Insider Gaming (60). Those two 60s pull Metacritic down, and nothing on OpenCritic’s list scores below 7.9 out of 10. Metacritic lists all five of its reviews under PlayStation 5, while TechRaptor played on PC.
| Outlet | Score | Listed on |
|---|---|---|
| TechRaptor (PC) | 9/10 | OpenCritic |
| Video Chums | 8.3/10 (83) | OpenCritic, Metacritic |
| SmashPad | 4.5/5 | OpenCritic |
| Pizza Fria | 7.9/10 | OpenCritic |
| TheGamer | 4/5 (80) | OpenCritic, Metacritic |
| GameSpew | 80 | Metacritic |
| covergeek | 60 | Metacritic |
| Insider Gaming (PS5) | 6/10 (60) | Metacritic |
| Noisy Pixel (PC) | 7/10 | Neither list as captured |
The rooms are the draw
Even the lower scores start from praise for the puzzles. Insider Gaming, which gave the game 6/10, says the puzzles are ‘simply better’ and feel ‘more varied’, citing everything from entertaining a chicken to climbing a clocktower with moon-based conundrums. TechRaptor, which scored it 9/10 after about eight hours on PC via Steam, says each room sets a clear objective and walks you through it step by step. Noisy Pixel counts fifteen escape room sequences against the original’s twelve and calls them still ‘the highlight of the experience’.
Co-op, with one pair of glasses
Insider Gaming ‘HIGHLY’ recommends playing with someone else, and TechRaptor agrees that a friend makes it better: the whole game can be played in co-op, locally or online with a shared friend code, and online players can toggle split-screen at will. TechRaptor’s one real gripe is a story item, a pair of filtered glasses that reveal secrets, which only one player can wear at a time. That leaves the other player with little to do on some puzzles. TechRaptor’s summary line: ‘Co-op is a blast, but it does routinely leave one player out of the fun.’ Noisy Pixel played solo and says nothing stops a solo player from clearing the rooms with a little extra patience; Insider Gaming found the timer stays the same alone.
The open world is the weak link
This is where critics split. Insider Gaming says exploring the school was one of the most-requested pieces of feedback and that it is ‘implemented…but not well’. Its reviewer tested on PS5 and writes that ‘the performance and frame rate are shocking’ outside the school, with lag and slowdown that freeze the game for several seconds. Noisy Pixel saw the same kind of trouble on PC: frame drops across open areas on a rig above the recommended specs, even after dropping a resolution tier, but none in the dedicated escape rooms. Its verdict: ‘the risky move of creating an open and explorable world doesn’t entirely pay off.’ On Metacritic, covergeek calls the game ‘a hard sell in its current state’ while its technical issues remain, and GameSpew’s 80 allows that ‘some performance issues’ keep it from being its best.
Others like the campus more. TechRaptor says the open world ‘works really well’ for the game, and Pizza Fria’s review, which is written in Portuguese, says the open world and narrative surprised the reviewer most despite ‘various problems’. Insider Gaming also says it was told known bugs are being addressed, so the launch build may differ from what reviewers saw.
Our take: puzzles first, campus second
We think 84 is the fairer headline and 73 the fairer warning. Insider Gaming, TechRaptor and Noisy Pixel all praise the puzzle design, and the complaints concentrate on the open-world performance and visuals, which is exactly the part you’d least want to gamble on at full price before launch-day reports land. If you’re deciding on PS5, where Insider Gaming and the Metacritic-listed reviews played, we’d wait for post-launch performance reports. PC readers have a 9/10 and a 7/10 to weigh, and the 7/10 reports frame drops.
For comparison with other recent roundups, there is our Belmont’s Curse roundup, which covers an 83, and OpenCritic currently lists The Wolf Among Us Remastered at 85, which we covered in our Wolf Among Us Remastered roundup.
- Buy if you like escape rooms and have a friend to share them with (TechRaptor, Insider Gaming).
- Buy if you can live with a rough open world for the sake of fifteen handcrafted rooms (Noisy Pixel).
- Skip or wait if technical stumbles break your immersion (Insider Gaming, covergeek).
- Skip if you’d planned to play co-op and hate sharing one key item (TechRaptor).
Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School launches on 5 November. Sources checked 4 November 2026: OpenCritic, Metacritic, TechRaptor, Insider Gaming and Noisy Pixel. Scores can change as more reviews arrive.
