Code Candy Blue - "The Cryptographer"

Photo above is property of Code Candy Blue

Company: Code Candy Blue

Game: The Cryptographer

Country: USA 🇺🇸

Language: English

Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻

Genre: Detective, Mystery

Date Played: October 16, 2021

Difficulty (based on 4-5 players): 7/10

Size of Team: 2-6 Players

Time: Unlimited (Suggested time 1-2 hours)

Price: $19.80/ Team (up to 6 logins)

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You receive a cryptic message from an agent who went missing months ago. Clues guide you along a twisted path through the city of New Hyperion in search of the missing agent. Is it a plea for help, or a trap - or both? Only you and your team of agents can put a stop to a plan to control Earth's defense satellite system, IF you survive that long.

Video above is property of Code Candy Blue

🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈

The Cryptographer is a website based investigation where you will examine clues and answer questions to progress through the game. You will receive a link and login details to the webpage where you will carry out your investigation. Everyone will need to create a login on their main website and the person purchase the game is the main host where others will enter their codes in as "guests". You and your team will all log into the same page, but your sites are not synced with each other. Everyone in the team will have to do all actions and type in all codes, so make sure that everyone follows along.

Once logged in you are greeted by the home office communicator and given your first task. As with many tasks to come you use a special map to check your results and receive a final answer. Once you find the correct answer, you will input the answer on the site and be able to move along to your next mission with a new location, objective and task. Make to check your inventory panel on the left side as many information you need for the puzzle is not only in the clues provided but also within the documents. You might even need to refer back to previous information at times in order to solve the current puzzle.

Along the way you have the option to take hints. For each mission you can choose to read multiple layered hints as well as the answer. You will not receive any penalties for reading the hints, so it will be completely up to you how to use them.

Photos above are property of Code Candy Blue

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The puzzles start off being quite simple looking through photos and deducing answers, but as the game progresses so does the level of interaction. From setting correct frequencies on a transmitter to clicking around as fast as possible to mark things before the time runs out, there’s a lot to actually do in this game.

There are a few math puzzles that are more analytical and will challenge your logic. For example by choosing a correct path of addition and subtraction that will result in the defined number as well as a fair share of ciphers, anagrams, word scrambles, and artistic liberties of the use of the Fibonacci sequence.

My favorite puzzle was a take on painting by numbers. It was a nice break and a chance for the team to reassemble. But don’t be fooled, it is not as easy as it looks.

At one point you are faced with deciphering codes that are changing every 30 seconds. And unless you’ve managed to sync every click with the rest of your team down to the second you are on your own on this one!

Photos above are property of Code Candy Blue

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The cryptographer is a game with a good mix of easy and more complex puzzles and tasks, and even though it only takes place on this one website it feels pretty interactive. I found that there were a few red herrings along the way, as well as some (what I would consider) outside knowledge needed, but not bad enough to keep our team too far off track.

For a couple of the puzzles we spent way more time than needed, simply because we had missed a key part of it. But I actually enjoyed those two puzzles a lot anyway because exploring the devices inputs and outputs was fun on it’s own. I also think those missions were better suited for team play than others, which is something I appreciate in a game, especially when it’s not synced across devices.

We actually divided into 2 teams for this game which was kind of fun to do it in competition style. Team A had 5 people and team B had 4. It was fun to gather back together after the game to discuss about the experience. All in all I really enjoyed The Cryptographer, even though I would have needed more help with the speed deciphering at the end. This game gave the option to let you try the puzzles on your own but play it through a team setting. 😉

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(If you do decide to try this experience, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank Code Candy Blue for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.

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