Beer, mythology, mystery! How about all three? Deadlocked Escape Room The Cyphstress is one of the best online escape rooms on the market and needs to be on your bucket list.
Deadlocked Escape Rooms offers in-person escape rooms in Reading, United Kingdom and at home games that can be played anywhere in the world. They currently offer two distinct at-home experiences: the online Cyphstress and the print and play Insider.
The Cyphstress
In this game, you are recruited to join an epic adventure. Your team of adventurers is lured by the Siren’s call, and quest to brew a legendary beer based upon an ancient recipe.
How To Play
The Cyphstress is a fully digital escape room and is an entirely browser-based. There is no need to print any additional documents, but at least one member of your team would need a Facebook and Instagram account.
You will also want to play on a desktop and not a phone or small tablet.
Plus, you’ll need a communicate over voice chat, such as Discord or WhatsApp, if everyone isn’t in the same room.
If not all the team members have a Facebook account, you’ll also need a way to screen share using something like Discord.
The Cyphstress is split into two 90-minute chapters. After completing the first part, you’ll get sent the second one 24 hours later, but if you wish to play them back to back, that is an option. There is no set time limit for each section, so you can go at your own pace, the 90 minutes is just an estimated completion time.
The Cyphstress Review (Spoiler Free)
Deadlocked Escape Room raised the bar on online escape rooms. The Cyphstress is overflowing with expertly crafted puzzles unlike anything my team has seen before, gorgeous visuals, and a playful narrative.
For my playthrough, I was joined by five other escape room experts. Upon completing the game, many of my teammates exclaimed with was their favourite online escape room ever.
Deadlocked Escape Room raised the bar on online escape rooms. The Cyphstress is overflowing with expertly crafted puzzles, unlike anything my team has seen before.
Without question, expect to be dazzled. From the first main challenge of navigating the boat, I was hooked. The game has songs, voiced dialogues, videos, and so many more surprises inside.
Another unique moment is the 3D panoramic puzzle, something I’ve never seen before.
But it wasn’t only the big flashy moments that left me impressed. Other companies need to step up their game, as Deadlocked Escape Room integrated Facebook the best I’ve seen.
In this game, you message a person on Facebook, and messages aren’t automatically sent scripts that sound fake. Instead, just like a human would, you’ll see the indication they are typing, and there will be a pause between replies as in natural conversation. It might be a small detail, but it made the story so engaging, at it felt more like you were really talking with the character.
Another highlight is towards the end of the game. It is similar to Enchambered’s Alone Together series. The players will need to split into two teams.
Both sides will have different things on their screens, so each team will need to take turns describing what they see. Using the information described to you, you’ll need to go back and forth, solving puzzles.
Just be warned, when you get to the stage to brew beer, you can’t leave. This section requires you to flip a power button every few seconds. So if needed, take a quick stretch or before this part. You’ll know it is about to start when you get sent a .pdf file.
If you happen to be playing alone or using one computer, there is also the option to do this section solo.
The method to solve every puzzle was apparent to us, and there was never a moment where we didn’t know what to do next. That isn’t to say the challenges were easy, but simply the story was clear on the objective each step. But if you did get stuck, there was a hint option, we just never tested it out.
Completion time will vary from team to team, but it took us 2 hours and 10 minutes.
We were amused by the fact you get a prize at the end – something else our team never saw before. You’ll get 10% off your next Deadlocked Escape Room and 15% off purchase of Siren Craft Brew (which is featured in the game) and one DIY printable.
Final Thoughts
If you love escape rooms The Cyphstress is a must-try, the excels over most of the competition. The game could charge double, and I still would have found it a great price.
The game is just only £10.00 (approximately $17.17 CAD) for two 90 minute games. For a team of 6, that is under $3 CAD per person for roughly 3 hours of entertainment. Talk about budget-friendly entertainment!
Time to gather your group of friends and order a copy of the Cyphstress now.