$14.99APE OUT Escape loud, escape violent
Smash through every captor between you and the exit while a live jazz drumline keeps up with the mayhem.
Is APE OUT worth it?
APE OUT is worth it if…
- you want a game you can finish in an evening but keep coming back to
- you like fast, twitchy arcade runs where every attempt plays out differently
- you care more about feel and style than about story or depth
- you enjoy games that are brutally hard and know it
Screenshots
Grab, smash, throw
You have exactly two moves and they are enough. Grab a human and he becomes a shield that soaks bullets, or a projectile you hurl into his colleagues, or a thing you press into a wall until the wall wins. You can throw one person at another and watch both of them go. That is the whole arsenal: no powerups, no healing, no guns of your own. You take about three shots before a run ends, so every grab is a decision: hold this one as cover, or spend him now and run. The violence is cartoon-flat and brightly colored, which makes it funny right up until it makes you flinch.
Jazz that plays along with you
The soundtrack is not a track, it is an instrument. Drums and cymbals react to what you do: a cymbal crash when someone goes through a wall, the tempo tightening as more enemies crowd into view. Levels are presented as albums, each with its own setting and soundscape, so a run feels less like a stage and more like a track playing out. The music builds with your momentum and falls apart when you do, which is a very honest way for a soundtrack to treat you. Combined with the bold, flat colors and the top-down view, the whole thing feels like a violent picture book set to a drum solo.
How long does it take to beat?
Is it too difficult for a casual player?
It is difficult, but in short bursts. A run lasts a couple of minutes, dying sends you back quickly, and the controls are two buttons deep. You will die a lot at first, mostly to gunfire you did not see coming, but each attempt teaches you to grab faster and hug walls. If bouncing off a hard game repeatedly sounds miserable, this will feel that way. If it sounds like a rhythm you want to crack, it is.
Do the levels ever repeat?
Never in the same layout. Every level is generated fresh each time, so you cannot memorize a route: the corridors, open rooms and dead-end mazes come out differently on every attempt. What you learn instead is judgment, how to read a new map in a second, when to rush and when to bait enemies around a corner. Practice makes you better at improvising, not better at remembering.
Is there a story?
Not one anyone will explain to you. You are an ape, you are captive, you want out, and the settings themselves do the rest of the talking: cages, labs, rooftops, places that make no particular sense and do not need to. If you want a plot with characters and twists, this is not that game. If you want a premise so simple it disappears, leaving only you, the door and everyone standing in front of it, that is exactly what it is.
