The game may feel visually odd at first. The art style isn’t immediately inviting, but after some time it becomes clear that this is a deliberate and cohesive artistic choice. You slowly grow into it, and combined with the game’s third-person perspective, the visuals start to work strongly in favor of immersion rather than against it.

The level of attention to detail is impressive. It’s not just footprints in the sand - it’s autumn leaves scattering as you walk, subtle turbulence when moving through smoke, and many small environmental effects that make the world feel genuinely alive rather than static.

The open world is dense, multi-layered, and richly packed with points of interest. It’s an excellent experience for players who enjoy exploration for its own sake, not just following quest markers from one objective to another.

Combat is heavily defined by weapons. It feels like each weapon type - and possibly each individual weapon - has its own moveset. This is especially noticeable with different variants of dual daggers and magical staves, which play distinctly and encourage experimentation.

The crafting and progression systems are refreshingly non-exhausting. You can reliably work toward specific items instead of destroying hundreds of useless pieces of gear in a gacha-like attempt to get a lucky roll.

Resource grinding for crafting is generally satisfying, but it would benefit from alternative options such as automation or expedition-style systems. No matter how well-designed the grind is, doing everything manually will eventually become repetitive.

Co-op is another strong point. It’s well implemented and allows players to go through the entire campaign together from the start.

There is, however, one major downside at the moment: extremely unstable FPS. In my case, performance fluctuates between 40 and 160 FPS depending on the location, often without any noticeable difference in scene complexity or visual effects. This inconsistency stands out sharply against the otherwise high level of polish.

I love games where you roam around, loot stuff, bring it back to your base, craft something new, or just toss it all into storage. But I prefer doing all that at my own pace - without pressure or the risk of losing everything.
Initially, I thought Escape from Duckov wouldn’t be for me because of the extraction mechanics and the storm timer. Surprisingly, the game turned out to be pretty chill and never actually forces you to rush. There’s no real risk of losing anything irreplaceable, no wipes, no mandatory figting.

What you do get are endless quest and upgrade chains, secrets, and the joy of exploring every corner of each location. It’s a great experience overall, though it could have been even better with a more polished UI. Thankfully, mods fix most of that.

Subnautica, Astroneer, and Half Life combined into a masterpiece. What a find!

I was genuinely impressed by the first episodes - the animation, story, and voice acting had me fully engaged up til the end of Episode 6. At that point, I feared the plot was slipping into the same tropes that made me stop watching many modern superhero shows and movies, leaving me disappointed with today’s screenwriting despite the amazing work of animators, actors, and everyone else behind the scenes.

But then, surprisingly, during my first playthrough of the final two episodes, the game delivered exactly what reminded me why the superhero genre is worth keeping alive. Some may call it unrealistic or fairy-tale-like, but it’s precisely what I want from superhero stories.

10/10

Played the game with my wife and finished it in a bit over 3 hours. Some of that time was lost to disconnects. The built-in voice chat also doesn’t save the microphone mute setting (we prefere to use Discord), so we had to mute it manually after every restart.

Another noticeable issue is the camera movement. Even with a stable framerate matching the monitor’s refresh rate and V-Sync enabled, the camera produces visible jitter when moving and turning at the same time. Turning off camera smoothing helps a bit, but the problem never fully goes away.

This camera jitter alone is enough for me to give the game a thumbs down.

Overall, the game might still be worth picking up if you specifically want a co-op escape room experience and don’t have better alternatives.

I can see the idea of an extraction horror game here, but in practice I didn’t feel it. No game, no horror - and honestly, I’d rather stay down there with the monsters than go back to the goblins. I wouldn’t even be surprised if that’s the intended experience.