Art Heist is the fifth entry in the Adventure Escape Room series by M9 Games: Sotano, Vereda, Alumni and Subnet. Each of these games are better than the last. Each moves the storytelling forward, giving each escape adventure a real sense of place and storytelling. Art Heist moves the series forward even more. While Subnet had voice acting, Art Heist has voice acting for the protagonist as well. There are NPCs standing around, and intricate cut scenes. For example, the opening is a helicopter flying towards an island villa for the unveiling of a painting. Get inside the villa and there is an NPC standing around asking for your invitation. Find the invitation and a cut scene is shown of several NPCs at a painting unveiling. Next you are in your room and you get a phone call the painting has been stolen and the villa is on lockdown.
It is here that Art Heist really begins. You go from room to room solving puzzles by finding the solutions hidden about. If you get stuck, in most cases there is a hint button you can click for help, which is a new addition to help for people like me. I have nothing much to say about the game play, its the tried and true standard formula the series is known for. Nothing else really to mention other than that if you like this style of game play, you’ll love this game.
My only complaint about Art Heist are the noticeable bugs. At one point, the hint and puzzle reset buttons vanished and then I got stuck on level geometry. Then, later on, for some reason the game acted like I had loaded a save, asking me if I’m sure. I was confused and clicked yes, setting me back a significant ways. If the bugs didn’t exist, I might have even given this a Must Play. As it is, I’ll just give a Recommended. Anyways, I think that if the Adventure Escape Room series continues, it’ll bloom into full fledged adventure games, I can’t wait to see where M9 Games goes from here.
Overall: Only the noticeable bugs hold back Art Heist, a truly sophisticated escape room game.
Verdict: Recommended
| Platform | Nintendo Switch |
| Release Date | 9/28/23 |
| Cost | $7.99 |
| Publisher | M9 Games |
| ESRB Rating | E |
