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My Experience
Escape Simulator is quite good, although I wouldn't say it reaches the heights of Escape Academy, which has an overarching story and more creative puzzles. If you've played any cooperative escape room games, you likely know what you're getting into - closely examining everything in the room, keeping an eye out for patterns (hmm...there are five slots here and five objects of different colors over here), etc.
I initially thought that the rooms would be relatively easy, as these are easily the smallest escape rooms I've ever seen in a game. I wondered how developer Pine Studio would even fit any red herrings in these rooms to try and mislead players. While there are indeed few red herrings in the first few rooms you play, the developer does manage to include more in later levels.
One funny aspect of the game is the inclusion of a "trash can" in each room. Usually, there is at least one object in a room that can be smashed into pieces (a vase, etc.). Rather than have these pieces clog up the floor, you can instead throw them one by one in the trash can. Not only was this a great way to keep the floor clean, but it's also a nice meditative task to take on while you're waiting for inspiration to strike during a particularly difficult puzzle.
Although I found the initial Egyptian levels to be somewhat uninspired, I loved the levels within the "Adrift in Space" set. While the puzzles were certainly more difficult, it was a more intriguing space (pun not intended) to spend time in. If I'm remembering correctly, one of our favorite levels was the Santa-themed holiday level. It was nice to see such polish on what was essentially a random seasonal bonus.
If you enjoy cooperative escape rooms, I feel sure you'll enjoy Escape Simulator. There are many rooms available in the base game, and even more can be experienced with community creations or the purchase of DLC. Pick Escape Simulator up, and you too will become fixated on hearing that satisfying chime that plays in the game on puzzle completion.