Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School Preview: An Entire World of Puzzles & Mystery

At Summer Game Fest 2025, we had a pile of “unannounced” appointments, which can be a gamble. Luckily, one of mine ended up being Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, and the franchise has been a lot of fun so far, so I was excited to check out the latest version. I first played the original Escape Academy at Summer Game Fest 2022, so I felt good keeping the tradition alive.

I was originally paired with a stranger, which can make co-op puzzles a challenge, but they didn’t show up. So instead, I got to play a solid 30 minutes of Escape Academy 2 with none other than CGM’s own editor-in-chief, Brendan Frye. We sat down with an early section of the game, armed with a pen and paper, and proceeded to bicker publicly for the entire appointment—not much has changed.

Jumping into the first room, we were tasked with finding the names of the school’s founders in order to escape. Between searching walls, drawers and boxes for clues, there were combination locks, an overhead... Read more