Just Don’t Go [Dragon Age: Origins]
The best way to avoid prison? Just don’t get caught in the first place. One of the few games that gives you this option is Dragon Age: Origins. While on a secret mission to save a Queen, your party busts into a manor house and battles the henchmen of a devious aristocrat. At the end of the mission, you’re pitted against almost impossible odds — if you lose, you’re captured. But if you somehow win, which is genuinely one of the most difficult fights in the game, you’ll be able to skip the prison break entirely.
Not that it’s a bad prison break. While in prison, you can contact your allies on the outside and arrange for them to help you escape — but only if your relationship rating is high enough. You can even get locked up with a friend and work together! You can escape solo, or call one two of your companions to attempt to save you. It’s a fun little system that uses the choice inherent to RPGs to make you really feel incarceration… and the sweet release of escape.
BEDROOM [Resident Evil 7]
Here’s an entirely different “prison” escape. Instead of being locked up in jail, you’re trapped in a delipidated southern estate ruled by a family of psychopaths. In the BEDROOM scenario of Resident Evil 7, the deranged mother of the household keeps you locked up in the bedroom, constantly visiting to feed you rancid food while you try to find a way to escape.
It’s a modern twist on the escape room concept. To escape, you have to search the room for clues and use items to finally break free — all while listening for footsteps so you can return the room exactly how you left it. Your captor returns often, and if she sees anything is amiss, it’s a quick execution for you. This is probably one of the most clever prison escapes on our list — and it’s a weird DLC bonus thing for RE7.
Execute your master escape plan with more prison breaks on the next page.
