External Links


Play online using Parchment
Adrift 4 game - do not play Adrift 4 games with an Adrift 5 interpreter as the game may then appear bugged when it isn't.
Play this game in your Web browser.
escape.taf
Requires an ADRIFT version 4 interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
escape.gmp
Map in GUEMap format
GUEmap file. Requires the GUEmap viewer - visit http://www.cjmweb.net/GUEmap for information.
escape.pdf
Map in PDF format
To view this file, you need an Acrobat Reader for your system.
readme.txt
documentation
walkthru.txt
solution

Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

Playlists and Wishlists

RSS Feeds

New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page

Escape to New York

by Richard Otter profile

Historical
2005

Web Site

(based on 4 ratings)
2 reviews

About the Story

Your name is Jack Thompson and you are, for want of a better word, a thief. On your latest adventure you have managed to acquire Johnson's 'The Willow Tree', which is worth more than you will be able to spend in a lifetime. With a buyer in New York you need to get there by Thursday 18th April, and as this is 1912 you have booked passage on a ship due to sail on Wednesday 10th April. All being well you should get to New York in plenty of time.

Unfortunately, someone must have squealed on you and before you can get to the ship the police arrive; luck being on your side you just managed to escape. You allow yourself a small smile at the good sense you had to send the 'goods' onto the ship by mail. Your parcel will now be sitting safely in the mailroom of the ship.

Deciding not to go directly to Southampton, as it must be crawling with police, your plan is to try to get over to Ireland and catch the ship there. It will be a close run thing but you should be able to do it. Once again luck is on your side and you just managed to board the ship before it sailed from Queenstown (Ireland now called Cobh) at 2.00pm. The date is Thursday 11th April.

With an uneasy feeling that someone followed you onto the ship, you have been hiding in your cabin as much as possible. Now it is Sunday 14th April 10.30pm and you finally work up the courage to leave your cabin, at this time of night fewer people should be about.

Objectives? Get 'your' painting out of the mailroom, avoid capture and leave the ship as soon as possible. So, the first thing to do is work out how to find your parcel and then how to get it.


Game Details


Awards

11th Place - 11th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2005)

3rd Place - InsideADRIFT End of Year Comp 2005

Tags

- View the most common tags (What's a tag?)

(Log in to add your own tags)
Tags you added are shown below with checkmarks. To remove one of your tags, simply un-check it.

Enter new tags here (use commas to separate tags):

Member Reviews

5 star:
(0)
4 star:
(0)
3 star:
(2)
2 star:
(2)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 2
Write a review


5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Enjoyable, if plain, September 26, 2008
by George Shannon (Pittsburgh)
Related reviews: IF Comp 2005

I've had a hard time enjoying Adrift games, either because the parser seems trained for a particular kind of game, or there simply isn't enough weight to the story-bits to create any interest. I realize it's unreasonable prejudice, but I just get a sense of laziness when playing Adrift games.

Escape to New York, fortunately, avoids a lot of those problems. There's a lot of detail, and only a few times did I stumble on unique verbage. It comes with a straightforward map (which can even be displayed in the interpreter!), and its walkthrough does not cause a furrowed forehead, just a few moments of "OH, of course." (I do tend to use walkthroughs a lot.) For what it is, it's fun to play.

I do think that more showing, rather than telling, would help the game itself. There's a lot of stylish details in the room descriptions, but it's as if it's a cataloging, rather than vivid descriptions intended to draw me in (at times, similar problems with '1893'). You can also accomplish some thieving during the game, which is fun, but comes off a little too straightforward at times, it's just a matter of finding things. Most of these problems aren't annoying, really, they're just moments where some good hooks should have been placed. If the author writes another game, I'd love to try it out. And I won't even mind if it's in Adrift.

(Edit: I should note I'm playing through old competitions, and just noted the author does have other games in later compeitions. Looking forward to it!)

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A theft game set on the Titanic, June 22, 2019
by MathBrush
Related reviews: about 2 hours

This game is set on the Titanic, and borrows a small bit from that show. There's no romance, but you play a thieving character who must hide from the law on the ship, including using an axe on metal and having a special painting.

The game is huge, but it comes with a very helpful map.

The main puzzles are fairly well clued, but there are a host of other puzzles. The fussy mechanic of opening and closing the suitcase, as well as the maze-like map, is fairly frustrating, though.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

Escape to New York on IFDB

Recommended Lists

Escape to New York appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Crime and Heist games by MathBrush
I've played a lot of these recently, so I'm making a list. A contrast to my Detective and Mystery games list and similar to my Espionage and Spy game list, where I put Spider and Web, for instance.

Polls

The following polls include votes for Escape to New York:

Games with accurate (present or historical) settings by Emily Short
I'm looking for works in the general spirit of The Fire Tower or 1893: they can be puzzly or not, have a story or not, but they should attempt to represent a real-world setting as accurately as possible, and in some detail.

Nautical IF by Felix Larsson
I know there was a couple of commercial high-sea text adventures. Now I am on the look-out for ‘modern’, post-commercial IF with a nautical theme. As far as I can tell, there is a definite shortage of bucaneers, boatswains, able seamen...

Historical adventures. by Rovarsson
I love historical novels, no matter what time period they're set in. They do have to be accurate though. Can you suggest IF-games that are also like that? (In short: no magic.)




This is version 15 of this page, edited by Richard Otter on 8 March 2024 at 6:26am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page