The Cypher Files: An Escape Room… in a Book!
£10.20£12.30 (-17%)
THE ULTIMATE GIFT FOR WANNABE SPIES: AN INTERACTIVE PUZZLE BOOK FROM THE CREATOR OF THE BESTSELLING CULT PHENOMENON, JOURNAL 29!
In this brain-bending interactive game, you’ll solve puzzles on every page, and obtain keys to move forward by submitting answers online. To solve each puzzle, you’ll need to think outside the book.
You are an agent of CY.P.H.E.R., the secret international agency working on ‘unsolvable’ code-based cases. Called upon to investigate cryptic clues discovered in the wake of a series of mysterious disappearances, the clock is ticking to crack the codes before it’s too late.
To escape this book, you must write, draw, search, fold and cut pages, explore virtual escape rooms and think laterally to identify the perpetrator and solve the mystery.
All you need to play is a pencil, a pair of scissors, an internet connection, and a curious mind.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Penguin (5 Nov. 2020) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 112 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0241481740 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0241481745 |
| Dimensions | 15.24 x 1.02 x 23.5 cm |
by BrainBuilder
It took less than 3 hours to complete, solo and without hints, and I took the time to read all of the story elements both in the book and on the accompanying website, none of which are necessary to solve the puzzles.
A bit easy overall, I think, since if you’ve much experience at all with escape rooms or this sort of puzzle then you’ll have seen the majority of the puzzles before in one way or another, including in the author’s own books. That said, there are a couple of genuinely creative puzzles too, which I won’t spoil here but led to some good ‘aha’ moments.
There are 28 puzzles in the book which makes it pretty good value for an escape room, although somewhat disappointing for a puzzle book. But, that said, if you haven’t tried this sort of thing before then this is a good place to begin. So 4* if you’re new to this (but not 5* due to overly precise answer strings in places), or the 3* I’ve given it if you already know what you’re getting.
The book must be used alongside an internet-connected device, and really it expects you to use a smartphone.
by kelvin heath
Good
by Amazon Customer
Whilst presented well the puzzles are very easy. The only puzzle that really had me feeling excited was puzzle 15 since it required some actual research. Completed in approximately an hour.
by effortless
I almost didnt buy this… I really enjoyed ‘Journal 29’ but then ‘Journal 29 revelation’ really put me off with its ridiculously overly convoluted puzzles. This one however is a good back to basics puzzle book, just right for me, but probably too easy for some. The only negative I’d give it is the fact it says you can use a smart phone, whereas I found that the VR segments worked on neither my ‘smart’phone or my ipad so I had to resort to my desktop computer to continue, not a dealbreaker for me but for those with older tech this may make the book unplayable. Other than that I had a thoroughly good time.
by Kindle Customer
Links to online clues so could be pretty good. Xmas present for someone who likes cryptic crosswords
by jo pedder
I’ve enjoyed working through this book, but found myself needed to seek help on forums more than I would have liked. Maybe I get stuck on one way of thinking about a puzzle and other’s will find the answers more satisfying. My only real gripe is that the print quality is a bit poor, and as you spend a long time staring at and scrutinising images, it would be nicer to have a better resolution.
by Anne M
This is the third book I have enjoyed from the author Dimitris Chassapakis, the first 2 being the 2 Journal 29 books. I will compare a little bit between this book and those but also hopefully give enough information about just this book to help potential buyers make up their minds!
This book is not a regular novel or straightforward story, each page has some sort of riddle or puzzle to solve to progress to the next page. You will need a phone to input your answers and then get a bit more of the story and a special code word. These code words are then used in later puzzles to help come to their solutions so it is essential to have the internet available while using this book. I used my phone but it would also be possible to use a computer. Using the phone added an element of immersion though as the input and response feels like text messaging.
In the story itself you are cast as a secret agent trying to solve a mystery. I won’t give away too much of the plot as that is part of the fun to unravel what is happening as it goes along. I found the story line much easier to get into than Journal 29 was and it felt a lot more cohesive. Some of the puzzles seemed kind of shoe-horned in to fit the theme but they were all fun to solve and worked well enough.
In comparison to Journal 29, I initially felt a little disappointed as the book felt a lot thinner and therefore not as many puzzles to solve, it turns out though that a lot of the content of the story is within the messages you send and receive from your “spy team”. I found this was really well implemented, I really felt like it was an unfolding adventure and was excited to keep going. In journal 29 I occasionally skipped pages if I got stuck and came back to them later as there didn’t seem to be any real story (though this was remedied a bit in the sequel) but in the Cypher files I never felt like skipping ahead as I wanted to solve the story in order. I also never really got stuck though either – perhaps because of having had the practice of the previous books but most of the puzzles felt pretty straightforward to solve. They were all fun though. The main time I had a problem was a few of the puzzles have a website to go to and my phone didn’t have motion controls allowed on the internet browser so I couldn’t “look” up and down in the room. It was obvious I did need to look that way though and I guessed perhaps my phone wasn’t working properly so I figured it out in the end by changing my phone settings without having to resort to the hints!
Speaking of hints – each puzzle has a hint in the back and also there is a website with more hints. There was one puzzle that I wasn’t progressing with and I checked the hint and instantly had enough to go on to solve the rest myself so they seem pretty well written and just the right amount of helpful. i’ve just had a look at the website hints and they are a lot more of a solution or more in-depth hint so would be helpful if you get really stumped by any of the puzzles!
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It didn’t take me anywhere near as long to solve as Journal 29 but it felt like much more of an exciting story and I think overall I liked it a bit more despite there not being as many puzzles. I would really recommend this book for other fans of Journal 29 but also for fans of escape rooms, EXIT! games or any similar puzzle books.
by Chrestomancy
I bought this for my other half for Christmas, in part because I read some reviews that said it was quick to finish (3 hours solo, I think was the quote) and she’s extremely busy so giving her something that would take hundreds of hours would be more of a curse than a present.
She’s definitely enjoying the book, and I have to say the puzzles are varied, interesting and as described – like the sorts of things you get in an escape room. But it is not anywhere near as quick as the previous reviewer had claimed. It’s now almost a month since Christmas, and I can definitely say that she’s spent much more than three hours, and has a fair way still to go.
We’ve completed dozens of escape rooms together, played a bunch of “EXIT” escape-room-in-a-box games, we’ve never timed out and have rarely needed (or wanted) additional clues to solve stuff. So, if you’re buying this thinking it’s an easy afternoon to complete, you may be surprised. Like all puzzles, when you see the solution it looks easy, but it’s by no means guaranteed you will see it instantly.