Choose Starstruck: Hands of Time
Choose Starstruck: Hands of Time if you want a RPG and Casual experience. On Steam, it's the newer release (2024) and ships with the modern feature baseline. Starstruck: Hands of Time launched in 2024.
Starstruck: Hands of Time vs The Artful Escape
Starstruck: Hands of Time and The Artful Escape both land in Action, Indie, Adventure on Steam, which is why they keep getting compared. The comparison below is built from each game's Steam metadata — release year, genres, categories, Steam Deck status, price, and review score — refreshed daily by imho.run's scraper. Headline differences: Both share Action, Indie, Adventure on Steam. The Artful Escape (2021) is 3 years older than Starstruck: Hands of Time (2024). Both sit near 92% positive on Steam (Starstruck: Hands of Time: 197 reviews, The Artful Escape: 813). No login or purchase needed — scroll for the full table, the verdict FAQ, and links to ranked similar games for both titles.
Which should you pick?
Choose The Artful Escape
Choose The Artful Escape if it matches what drew you to this matchup. The Artful Escape launched in 2021.
Both Starstruck: Hands of Time and The Artful Escape sit in Action, Indie, and Adventure on Steam, so either pick lands in the same broad neighborhood. Steam reviews are nearly tied (91.9% vs 91.4% positive), so genre fit is the cleanest tiebreaker — scroll the table for the feature-by-feature view.
Side-by-side comparison
 Starstruck: Hands of Time |  The Artful Escape | |
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024 | 2021 |
| Genres | Action, Indie, Adventure, RPG, Casual | Action, Indie, Adventure |
| Platforms | Windows | Windows |
| Steam Deck | Deck Verified | Deck Unsupported |
| Price | 19.99 USD | 19.99 USD |
| Steam reviews | 91.9% positive (197 reviews) | 91.4% positive (813 reviews) |
| Multiplayer | Single-player only | Single-player only |
| Developers | Createdelic, LLC | Beethoven and Dinosaur |
Side by side
- Both share Action, Indie, Adventure on Steam.
- The Artful Escape (2021) is 3 years older than Starstruck: Hands of Time (2024).
- Both sit near 92% positive on Steam (Starstruck: Hands of Time: 197 reviews, The Artful Escape: 813).
- The Artful Escape is currently ~0% cheaper on Steam than Starstruck: Hands of Time (19.99 USD vs. 19.99 USD).
- Steam Deck: Starstruck: Hands of Time is Deck Verified, The Artful Escape is Deck Unsupported.
Starstruck: Hands of Time vs The Artful Escape — FAQ
- Which is better, Starstruck: Hands of Time or The Artful Escape?
- On Steam reviews the two are nearly tied: Starstruck: Hands of Time sits at 91.9% positive (197 reviews), The Artful Escape at 91.4% (813). The choice usually comes down to genre fit and the platform features each one supports — see the comparison table above.
- Should I play Starstruck: Hands of Time or The Artful Escape first?
- If you want chronology, The Artful Escape (2021) came out before Starstruck: Hands of Time (2024). If neither is a sequel to the other, order doesn't really matter — start with whichever fits your current mood, since both share enough on Steam to make either a reasonable opener.
- Are Starstruck: Hands of Time and The Artful Escape similar?
- They overlap on Action, Indie, Adventure on Steam, so the catalogue groups them together — but "similar" depends on the specific mechanics. Use the genre + category rows above to decide whether the overlap matches what drew you to the one you've already played.