I really enjoy this type of game, and if you like Virtual Villagers, you will too. This game seemed a bit more friendly to me than did Virtual Villagers, but it suffers from the same problem that VV does -- the AI is a tad dumb. When you have a fair number of tribesmen, it's a bit tedious to have to go around to all of them to make sure they're not hungry/thirsty/tired. If I wanted that sort of game, I'd play a Time Management game. They really need some way of saying, "If your thirst bar gets here, then go take a drink, dummy!" instead of the guy working until he's parched and getting unhappy because of it. However, I love the advancement, research, resource gathering, building, and puzzles that this game (as well as Escape from Paradise and all the Virtual Villagers games) includes. While there wasn't enough different from the first one to be a true sequel (more like an expansion), it was a great game. Highly recommended!

This is a fun strategy game. Your hero starts off on an island with fogged areas around it, and you must play your way across the islands. It takes a bit of time to figure out what you are supposed to do and how to do it, but there's a helpful monkey who guides you to important spots. You gather resources, build huts, and increase your workforce by letting new tribe members join your crews. You have to keep everyone busy, and make sure you rotate people among activities. The game is similar to Virtual Villagers, where you are trying to figure out and complete the overall mission while performing individual tasks and games. Some are harder than others, but all are manageable. You can build up players' strengths by playing the mini-games over and over. There are some hidden objects to find and catch, such as birds and fish - the monkey is the one who does the work here. The only negative is that some of the game mechanics are not easy, such as moving to specific locations. You may need to move your hero around a bit to get it to the place you want. You don't get emotionally involved with the hero because they don't "talk" to you much, although the monkey is quite likable. I like that the players don't keep working while you are away like some games do. I haven't replayed it yet but it may be more fun the second time through, since you know what to do. I really enjoyed it, and if you like Virtual Villagers, you will find this not quite as good but fun in the same way. I think it is definitely worth playing and owning.

I like both this and the first edition of the game.

I loved the first Escape from Paradise with real people so was really looking forward to a great sequel... NOT FOR ME! Escape 2 is WAY TOO FRUSTRATING for me to complete. What I hated most: o Mini-game instructions were lacking but was able to complete the M3 & HOS (mostly because I play a LOT of them). o All tribe members appeared to be male and the masks were not enough to differentiate between them. I spent way too much time in the character tab trying to figure out who to send where to do what. o Current activity was not listed on the character when reviewing in the "Character" tab. Sounds just don't compare with visual. o Dragging the monkey around in order to play the mini-games, find hidden items and catch fish & birds was a real pain and waste of time. o Determining skill levels was very confusing. Order of skills on Character tab, feathers and bubbles were not in sync. (Example: building was first on the bubbles, 2nd on the feathers & last on the skills list.) o Several of my tribe seemed to get "stuck in a rut". It's possible that their needs were just too low and that's why they wouldn't move but there should have been some indication to that effect. Even with a walkthrough I gave up trying to get all the fish, birds, tikis & jewels. I managed to complete 82% of the game but gave up with no stars on sudoku or the farm, 5 of 6 stars on tri-peaks, and missing 4 tikis & 4 jewels. I am one of those people that rarely doesn't finish even BAD games but I just didn't want to waste any more time on this one. Not sure that the demo will really give you a taste of what this game is REALLY like but definitely do "try before you buy"!