Developer: mc2games
Publisher: mc2games
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Palindrome Syndrome Escape Room – Review
Palindrome Syndrome Escape Room is a single-player escape room game that uses puzzle solving, decoding of different codes, and logical thinking for the sake of remembering one’s grim past. The game is developed and published by mc2games, and we were lucky enough to find ourselves trapped in no-man’s land in the middle of outer space.
Story
The story starts when John wakes up from cryo-sleep in a futuristic setting on-board a starship traveling to a distant planet. Not knowing anything except his name, he stumbles upon different rooms with puzzles, which must be unlocked one by one in order for him to find out more about his past and that of his colleague Margaret.
The story is presented in a simplistic fashion and at a slow pace. You’ll only hear the ship’s robot as the narrator, rather than viewing cinematics or other snippets that would highlight the story. While for many games this would not be the ideal way of presenting the story, for Palindrome Syndrome it adds to the minimalistic theme of the game. The story itself progresses slowly due to the sheer amount of puzzles to be solved. Another factor of story progression is of course the player’s solving capabilities.
Graphics
The game’s visuals on extreme settings are decent at the best. There are textures that need to be updated to make this a proper high-end experience. Textures such as the walls, mechanical doors, and their LCD-displays definitely feel especially dated. Running on a full HD monitor and ultra-settings shouldn’t have visible pixels for a game such as this, where it’s all about the environment. The approach taken was probably for the player to focus on the detailed objects as they are the ones holding the puzzles and their answers. This in a way is good for those who can’t find their way as fast as an experienced player, but at the same time it makes the game too predictable. For an escape room, it would have actually been nice to look around a bit more, rather than have the items nearly highlighted.
Finding yourself on a starship you would expect every detail to be well placed and spread so that it makes the experience more realistic. This is because spreading one’s focus around the environment will definitely make the game harder to solve. The lighting makes the walls and every object look like it was made out of plastic, except the metal floor. Objects and their materials all have the same reflection effect and shadows on the other hand were very shallow. Sometimes they will simply disappear when getting closer to them.
Beyond the big windows of your vessel, there are stars to be seen but not in motion. The experience would’ve been so much better if the stars were in motion as if one is in warp-field traveling thousands of kilometers a second. Yet we only get a low-res background that if looked at closely, does not resemble stars at all.
Sound
The sounds such as the background music are pretty neat. What really made an impression were the sound effects of the different puzzles and mechanical objects once they are in motion. While walking between the different rooms, after they have been unlocked, the player would notice that each room has its own different background music. Although this makes the game more mysterious and fresh when entering a new room, there is no crossfade between the tracks. The previous track just stops abruptly and the new one starts. In a way, this was quite enjoyable, as you could basically switch the background music when desired, or when having to backtrack. The background music did feel futuristic and as if you are traversing in Sci-Fi setting.
Gameplay
Palindrome Syndrome is an escape room game, meaning you have to find your way out of each room, by solving puzzles and codes with different difficulty levels. With each escaped room, the player will be granted clues of the storyline in the form of dialogues with what appears to be the ship’s robot. Other than the robot narrator on the ship you will come across no NPCs, highlighting the solitude of space.
There are no tutorials of which one could use to get to know the controls better, although they are pretty straightforward and any experienced gamer would get the hang of it pretty easily. What felt like a surprise was the fact that you are unable to run. Running through the corridors would definitely speed the pace of the game. The developers clearly made this choice to drag out the game’s duration, but it sometimes becomes tedious to run back and forth at this slow-moving pace. All the puzzles and codes have broad difficulty levels. There is always a clue of how to solve a puzzle thus being observant is key in this game.
Having basic controls one might think that the game fits better in a VR-set. Considering also the usage of low-resolution textures, this will most definitely be a better experience than just using the few keys on your keyboard. Of course, even with VR gaining popularity and becoming more affordable, this remains a niche market, which would mean reduced sales and options.
Conclusion
Solving puzzles and decoding secret codes while being on a deserted starship definitely has its charms for those who are fond of the virtual outer space experiences with a little mystery. The story was well presented while solving the puzzles, which made the overall experience thrilling as one would like to know more of the storyline. The visuals were disappointing, even when set on ultra on a proper gaming rig. Luckily, thanks to the soundtrack and sound effects, the game has the proper atmosphere. Using basic interactions with the surrounding environment and objects, the game was missing key features, which with a few tweaks can be adjusted to smoothen the experience. This is one of those smaller indie titles that could actually become a lot better, or more popular, with VR support, putting you right in that desolate feeling of being alone in space. An escape room game has a lot more to offer when you are actually in the middle of it in the case of a VR approach.
Palindrome Syndrome Escape Room - Review,
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