Studio Cypher Review

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.