YMMV / Don't Escape

• Alternate Character Interpretation: In the third game, is the crystalline lifeform genuinely malicious or just considers humans a threat to itself because they began mining it? Mind that we are talking about an alien entity, which runs on Blue-and-Orange Morality.
• Awesome Moments: In the fourth game, if Barry is alive during the bandits scenario while unarmed and they get into the house, Barry will take out an armed bandit using nothing but his own fists; mind you, the bandit possesses a gun and Barry still gets killed.
• Awesome Music: Long Nights from the fourth game, during the events and when David is rushing to turn the sleeper pods' power back on, being equal parts intense and pleasing to listen to, keeping the player on edge as they read how their defenses worked in their favor.
• Even Better Sequel: Each game is pretty fantastic in their own right with Serial Escalation of each installment. But 4 Days to Survive is definitely the deepest of the bunch with a very robust consequence system, multiple events for each night, and engaging story.
• Fridge Horror: Sidereal Plexus apparently exists in the world of Don't Escape 2. Just how responsible are Sidereal Plexus for the events and problems of that game?
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The reveal of Don't Escape 3, where the player character under the influence of the crystal goes on a murdering spree around the spaceship without being detected due to wearing a space suit, plays out quite similarly to a certain game that took the world by storm.
• Inferred Holocaust:
  • Long-term the good ending of the first game is actually far worse than the bad ending. While you may have avoided bloodshed, the protagonist is still a werewolf and with coming of the next full moon, he'll have to restrain himself again. Ecentually he's going to run out of options and end up killing people anyway. Compared to this, the bad ending is actually better. The werewolf might've killed many people but the monster hunters took him down for good.
    • The endings in between are even worse. Not only has the werewolf managed to escape, he also bit one villager, who will join the werewolf ranks with coming of the next full moon.
  • In Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive, you don't actually go back in time, but go to a different timeline at an earlier point. All those people that died, including Sarge and Razor, will still die and there's absolutely nothing you can do to save them. You meet different versions of him, but they are nonetheless different people. In addition, it's implied you overrode the "soul" of your body when you go back in time, erasing the "you" that existed in that timeline. Cate briefly addresses this, but does not elaborate as the moon is about to implode. The only possible exception to all of this is Maggie, who may or may not have entered the dream realm on her own and escaped.
    • On the other hand, Cate specifically says that you "merge" with your other self and when you transfer your mind, you almost always end up in a your own body in another world: the Golden Ending implies that everyone remembers what happened without completely overriding their "other selves". Furthermore, in the dream dimension, your mind is connected to all the different versions of you, but you can't really access it without technology. It seems like the continuity of this game and the other games scriptwelder made have some connection via this dream world that hasn't been revealed yet.
• That One Achievement:
  • Don't Escape 2 has two.
    • Lone Wolf. You can't get help from Bill, Jeremy, or Father Bernard. Setting up the defenses solo takes a lot longer than with help. If you were sloppy with your travel or forgot even one thing, game over.
    • Doubly so if you make the mistake of giving Bill the painkillers. Because of the game mechanics, Bill counts as becoming a friend the moment you do this (despite the implication in the plot that you've known each other for awhile) and regardless of never getting his help before killing him (being necessary in order to survive and could be seen as disposing of Bill without use), the achievement will not unlock, forcing you to go through that whole tedious path again. Bonus points for still showing the same ending that Lone Wolf normally nets for extra confusion.
    • The Shadow. You can't use the gun, even in the ending cutscene as you're fighting the zombies. Since the only other way to get Jeremy's glasses and recruit him is to literally break the shovel over a zombie's head, you're left with a Sadistic Choice: Forgo recruiting Jeremy completely, slowing down any tasks where he would otherwise help; kill the zombie with the shovel ASAP, leaving you unable to dig a pit trap and forcing you to use the axe to stir the mortar, which takes more time; or zig-zag all over the place to dig your trap and make the mortar before killing the zombie, wasting a lot of time and making recruiting Jeremy all but redundant.
  • 4 Days to Survive has "Mostly Walking", which requires you to never use the truck. Days 1 and 2 aren't too bad, especially if you manage your inventory carefully to minimize your trips. Day 3 is made worse by the addition of the office building and the cabin which are severe distances apart, and in the bandit encounter, you also have to waste two hours upgrading the rifle. Day 4 adds the trip between the rocket facility and the office building, which takes 135 minutes on foot. When you have only twelve hours each day, you really have to manage the game's clock super well.

---