How many of you out there
remember Majestic? I’m not referring
to that brilliant
little game about aliens overtaking an outer space
cruise liner. The
Majestic that I’m holding near and dear to my heart this moment is the
highly produced, online, episodic adventure that put the player at the center
of a vast conspiracy involving the Majestic mind control experiments, alien ships
buried in the New Mexico desert, and a group of innocent scientists that stumble
into the whole mess. Through innovative uses of Instant Messenger and email,
the experience became completely submersive. The characters from the game would
personally contact you to advance the story. Honestly, I loved the whole experience
and wished the idea would have caught on. In the end, the shortening length of
each new episode and the vast distance between these segments, coupled with some
poorly designed puzzle fodder, ended what was otherwise one of the most stimulating
gaming experiences I’ve ever had.

For fans of Majestic who desperately miss the experience of being
involved in a huge government cover-up, complete with secret experiments
and encrypted documents, Studio Cypher may just be the cure for the
hacker/text adventure/puzzle enthusiast in all of us.

Start whistling the theme to the X-Files my friends.

Because we all
want to be part of a heist . . . where’s the
van?!

Okay, readers, who here
has not wanted to be part of a great conspiracy, working against “The Man” to unveil a great conspiracy
and blast open the doors of truth? Studio Cypher works to put you
in such a situation. From it’s opening page, where you scratch at the surface graphic like a lottery ticket to discover that the
actual Studio Cypher, with its front of being a game developer (curious
games for curious people), we learn after our scratching efforts
that in fact Studio Cypher is not real!

(Cue the shock and horror music!)

While this premise is not totally original in this day and age of
conspiracy shows, movies, and novels, I cannot resist delving into
a deeper story to see what I will find. Studio Cypher asks you join
their team of investigators and agents to unravel a myriad of codes
and puzzles to learn about the secrets hidden under the surface of
our government. The Agents call themselves The Cyphers. And not only
do they do battle with government agencies, but with forces beyond
that, forces that are beyond our understanding.

And you little Padawan,
you are now faced with the task assisting the Cyphers and learning
their ways. Think you’re ready to
face the evils of the Vigenere Cipher or the Hex?

After a simple registration
process where you choose a unique username and password, Studio
Cypher puts you through the rigors of their
training scenarios, where you’ll learn the intricacies of the
nine different codes and ciphers you’ll encounter over the
course of your work with the game. These scenarios also serve to
further the loose story that these puzzles are built around, creating
more atmosphere and providing the feeling that your brain strain
is serving the greater good. The ciphers vary in range from simple
rotation ciphers (where A=N, etc) to the challenging Hex cipher which
makes use of my underused math talents . . . or lack thereof. The
scenarios also explain the history of the different ciphers, so not
only is this entertainment but also edutainment.

Smart and fun, like how I like my men . . . oh but I digress . .
.

Have you gotten your Gold Star yet?

Once you’ve completed the tutorials, roll up your sleeves
for the story element. From here on out, you’ll need to buy
the episodes in order to actively participate. And since all the
episodes roll out in real time, if an episode is close to completion
(like right now for instance) new players will not be able to enroll
until a new episode starts. Studio Cypher has an email list set up
to notify interested players once a new episode begins. This was
a huge drawback for me. I really wanted to get the full experience
of playing the episodes, right from the start. If I’m told
from day one that I will not be able to experience previous episodes
because of when I enrolled, it could just turn me off. What I liked
about Majestic, is that while the events you participated in did
unravel in real time (if a NPC said he would contact me in 24 hours,
I would hear from him in about 24 hours) you were able to start the
first episode any time you wanted. I could have started the first
episode three months after a friend, and we’d still be able
to have the same experience. Majestic would then also team you up
with other players who came on board at about the same time so you
all would be on the same page when playing through the game.

I think that Studio
Cypher could benefit from this similar form
of gameplay. With the forums that are available on their website,
players can interact with each other to assist in learning different
ciphers and finding the clues necessary to progress. But limiting
me to only the episode that is currently playing out is frustrating.
Studio Cypher does have a summary of the previous episode(s), where
new Wakeful Agents can read the day by day events of what happened
as to not miss out on story elements that could become important
in later cases. However, I think that SC should explore the option
of opening the previous cases to new Agents in an effort to hook
players and make them excited about the new cases to come.

But what about the puzzles?

Rest assured, I will tackle
this topic right now. Perfect Friends Forever, the current case
that is wrapping up as I type this, made
use of a fictional website devoted to communication with the dead.
Madame Z, the proprietor of PFF, is a psychic who believes her website
could help the living benefit from the knowledge of the dead to solve
mysteries and uncover lies. By solving ciphers and codes, and gaining
access to clues on the page, players would increase their communicative
power with a spirit from the beyond and help Madame Z to solve a
mystery right in her own backyard. Depending on your adeptness with
ciphers, these could take you anywhere from an afternoon to a couple
days to work through. I also found them using Morse Code puzzles,
which were not present in the tutorials on Studio Cypher’s
homepage. While once recognized, Morse Code is easy to figure out
(I was a Girl Scout and military brat so I know what this looks like)
for those who don’t immediately recognize the sequences of
dots and dashes could find it difficult and try to associate this
code with one of the tutorial codes on the homepage.

All in all, I think Studio
Cypher is an interesting experiment,
taking the logic based, puzzle fodder elements of games like Jewels
of the Oracle and Safecracker and blending it with an online, interactive
fiction experience. SC still has some tweaking to do in their customer
service department, mainly in their timeliness in responding to customer
email inquiries. And perhaps a re-evaluation of how the episodes
are delivered is in order.

This probably isn’t the game for the explorer, eye-candy loving
adventure gamer out there. If you like a good story with pretty scenery
and lush orchestrated music, steer clear. For the code puzzle enthusiasts,
I highly recommend signing up for at least the free tutorials. If
you’re a fan after that, then by all means, work on through
the new episodes as they be come available. And you know what’s
doubly dangerous, my puzzle lovers . . . you can play it at work!
Just make sure to minimize it if the boss walks by.

Like right now.