In Short: Being told you’ve done well makes you feel good!
Cypherdene has a neat premise, which makes the room look right, even though the décor is fairly sparse and modern-day-office-ordinary, as well as allowing for the existence of puzzles because the whole experience is a test.
It isn’t difficult, especially once you realise the room generator loves puns. Even as a team of four not six, we ran out of things to do, particularly as it narrowed down to linear towards the end. Before that it had several clues all found on the same page of a tablet (frustrating because it lacked narrative sense as well as reducing searching fun) and hints seemed to come before we wanted them. But the hidden spaces were great, and even though we finished too quickly to experience the sound effect tension built in to the “achieve task” goal, we came out feeling kindly toward the room.
Whilst that might be partly the “simple can be effective” effect, it was also down to the host. They were so friendly and complimentary about our play-style! So complimentary in fact that they managed to persuade me to break an only recently formed rule, and agree to play a second room by the same designer in one day.
Vital Stats:
Room: Cypherdene
Company: Cryptology
City: Nottingham
Date: December 2016
Team: Mandala Studios team (4 of us forming a team that will become regular)
Other Reviews:
Tripadvisor
Bookings:www.cryptologyrooms.co.uk
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