Blimey, Cipher Zero is hard work. Puzzle games are subjective, of course, and I know full well you have a mate or two who’ll say something challenging was easy – you know the type; when it’s freezing-cold, they’ll boast, “Cold? I’m boiling!”. They then accelerate into the lower depths of hypothermia. That’ll show ’em. Now for the folk who like to apply their grey matter…
Puzzles seldom have a narrative device affixed, unless the puzzle element is secondary, and in this case, that’s the game. Spanning across a handful of biomes (approximately five from memory?), the cipher in the title is actually how to decipher the symbols in the game using logic. Again, there’ll be those mates who’ll totally understand it, but I was typically in the category of winging it.
At the start of each world and segment in Cipher Zero is an introductory symbol, indicating what is expected from each solution, without using any words. There are no tutorials or hints, though you can manually ‘flag’ a title with one of three colours while you reverse engineer the meaning. For example, the first few puzzles will be a series of titles where you have to light up (that’s click) a path that goes horizontal or vertical. Once you understand this, you’ll have two points that you need to connect. Think of it as an input/output scenario where it is crystal clear where the start and end points are. Should you highlight any additional tiles where there are two paths, it won’t work.
Throughout the game, I could not retain that many of the solutions are very straightforward. Predominantly, you will create a path from A to B, and any peripheral tiles that need activating can be done separately, as long as they don’t directly connect with the path. That rule, of course, is turned on its head in later levels when multiple paths need to be generated, or puzzles are mirrored. However, this isn’t the difficulty I faced with Cipher Zero – mine was literally deciphering the meaning of the symbols, and I don’t feel ashamed to say I guessed a lot of the solutions, or applied a little trial and error.
With that in mind, when I did understand what the symbols meant, the sheer satisfaction of creating a solution was grand and made me feel like having a poke around at the Mensa website, even if it was only a teasing visit. In my opinion, Cipher Zero is a big and challenging game, quite like SEN: Seven Eight Nine. According to the Steam store page, there are 300 levels, and these are procedurally generated. My biggest regret was playing the game in erratic bursts – like going to the gym for an intensive 3-hour session, not going for a week, then doing another 3 hours. The short of it? Pace yourself. Cipher Zero is an excellent puzzle game that I wish I had taken my time in enjoying, rather than finishing to complete the review.
The soundtrack, with a somewhat unusual end credit piece, was excellent, but the minimalist visuals were the real highlight, as was the lack of UI and bloat. It’s as if Nothing created this game, as it’s a visual, cerebral treat, though it would be nice to have had some additional guidance. I get that’s the concept of the game, but it’s a bit like explaining grammar. You might get to the answer, but as a native speaker, you might not understand the ‘how’, and that’s what I sought. Still, an excellent puzzler, just take your time with it to get the most satisfaction from it, and equally, develop a big brain.
