[Review] Palindrome Syndrome: Escape Room - Nintendo Switch

Developed and Published By: Mc2Games
Categories: Puzzle, Escape Room
Release Date: 04.21.21

Note: The game would not allow me to take screenshots, so every image is from the game’s website. They may not accurately depict the Switch release.

First person puzzle games, and to be exact, Escape Room games don’t seem too common on consoles. They’re everywhere on PC, but not so much to my knowledge on consoles. Palindrome Syndrome: Escape Room remedies that. How well does a PC centric genre fare on a console though?

Get your thinking cap on, or you’ll never get anywhere. Look at your surroundings, read the notes you get. None of the riddles are too out of the box if you pay attention. I did constantly have to look at my notes however and occasionally actually write some down, just to have quicker time without going into a menu. I will admit though, an early puzzle had me stumped if only because I wasn’t sure you could interact with a certain part of it. That all said, it’s incredibly satisfying to solve puzzles in these kinds of games by yourself.

You can walk and look at everything, but when you examine points of interest, it switches perspective and in turn, controls. Moving the curser in these sections is all done by the right stick, which is less than ideal. With Joycons especially, there is just not enough precision. I’m left thinking I’d prefer a few updates to controls, hopefully in a later patch. The first of which allowing for touch screen controls in these sections. The free reign of a mouse does not translate well to a control stick in games like this where you need to be precise in grabbing things. I’d even be alright with an option to let me move cursers with the left stick. As is, the controls feel awkward and make what is otherwise an enjoyable game is a bit uncomfortable to play.

Palindrome Syndrome is fantastic looking for a Switch game. This is ofcourse in exchange for a sluggish framerate when moving around. In a slower paced, more thoughtful game like this, this isn’t a big issue, it’s never choppy. I am aware that for first person games, a poorer framerate can induce motion sickness however, so this is something to look out for.

Add more control options and you have a fantastic puzzle game. I hate to tell someone to just play the PC version as that’s not really the most viable option for people, but as the game is right now, the PC version is definitely the way to go. Better framerate, better controls.