Palindrome Syndrome: Escape Room Review (Bainen)
I purchased this game in the mc2games escape room bundle (on sale), and found the difficulty of the game 'just right'. I did look up the meanings of some symbols around mid to late game, but it was just to recall what the symbols meant. Turns out it had nothing to do with the puzzle at all and I was overthinking it. I overthought a couple puzzles which probably extended my playtime by about an hour or so. I played it in one sitting and achieved just under 4 hours of playtime.
I felt the puzzles were fairly well designed, though I did find one puzzle whose solution made some sense, but I still didn't quite understand the logic behind how to solve it (I may have somehow managed to brute force it while applying what I felt was correct logic). I should've studied the solved puzzle a bit more to see if I was on the right track (probably was). That is a 'me' issue and not a knock against the game at all.
I found myself having a-ha moments several times and grinning while complementing the puzzle out loud to myself.
The environment is well designed, I encountered no glitches, issues, or crashes.
There isn't much story, but it is enough to keep you engaged. Walking speed is indeed slow (you'll see that in other reviews) but each room is self-contained, you won't be doing much walking or backtracking.
My general go-to criteria for game value is 1 hour per $1 spent. This game comes close, and I felt I got my full value out of it (taking the value of the bundle, divided by the (5) games).
I already look forward to installing their next game. I'm playing them in release order.
I would definitely recommend purchasing the game on sale or with the escape room bundle.