Getting into ‘CipherCraft: Cyber Guardian Introduction’ was an interesting feeling. You could take one look at the title and have little hope for what the simulator could have in store. Sadly, in this case, one can easily judge the book by its cover.
CipherCraft: Cyber Guardian Introduction is a simulation game that puts players in the role of a cyber guardian.
The task is that you must assemble computers and battle hackers in a cyber attack simulation.
With a glaring lack of challenge or drive to keep me playing, I found that there is not much in this title.
CIPHER STALE
The game begins with the task of cleaning a room filled with trash. This in itself seemed to be an indication of all that was to come. Once you slowly and painfully pick each piece of random trash into the can, now the game lets you begin.
When the tutorial showed me how to buy parts and told me that I would be assembling computers myself, I was hopeful that some rabbit would be exiting a hat but things worked out in a different way.
Once I placed the purchased items down, a tutorial began, showing me how to proceed and warning of potential mistakes. However, my disappointment set in when the tutorial revealed that the process wasn’t hands-on. Instead it involved monotonous mini-games like stopping the metre on green or rotating objects along certain axes. This reliance on mini-games meant that the game lacked a real fail state. Success depended solely on completing these simplistic challenges. While these mini-games might be suitable for children’s entertainment, they felt out of place in a game centred around complex machinery like computer parts.
CYBER Drag-on
The next step introduced is the software side of things. Which just as the real thing, is all about clicking things and watching them load. Really something if monotony is your thing.
Honestly, I do not know what else to say about this side CipherCraft except that it just is what it is.
Anti- Climactic Hacker
The last big thing hyped up in this letdown of a game was becoming a Cyber Guardian and dealing with the ‘Hacker,’ who’s supposed to sneak into your work and do who-knows-what. But to be honest, by that point, I was so bored that I might have missed some of the story about the whole cyber security stuff. You’re supposed to fend off the hacker, which might sound exciting to some, but I just couldn’t get into it.
Miss of the Century
From the mundane task of lacklustre computer assembly to the cyber attack simulation, ‘CipherCraft: Cyber Guardian Introduction’ fails to engage players with its simplistic mechanics and repetitive mini-games. Even the introduction of the Hacker element, meant to inject some excitement into the gameplay, falls flat due to its lack of clarity and depth.
To put it simply, ‘CipherCraft: An overly long title about cyber security’ doesn’t live up to its potential as a fun PC Shop/Cybersecurity game. It’s disappointing because it doesn’t give players the engaging experience they were hoping for. Instead of being exciting and interesting, the game feels boring and average. It’s a shame because it could have been so much better if it had more depth and excitement.
NOTICE: However, it’s important to know that CipherCraft: Cyber Guardian Introduction is a free Cyber security and computer building game that you can get on Steam. It is set to be a part of a bigger game called ServiceIT. So, until the whole ServiceIT game is out, we might need to wait before making a final decision. Even though the game is boring for now, we should wait to see what changes developers make for the final release. That way, we can see if the game gets better or adds more stuff. So, while CipherCraft might not be great yet, let’s wait and see what happens next.
