Cyberpunk Game - CYPHER (Cyberpunk Text Adventure Game).

In a modern age of powerhouse graphics cards and immersive 3D universes, sometimes there are games that are such a throwback to the old days that they can't help but snag your attention. Enter CYPHER, a text-based adventure game completely driven by reading and typing.

In the vein of legendary series such as ZORK, it takes the old concepts of the genre and adds a new layer of style with a sleek interface, some visual props and a soundtrack. Does this game live up to its brain-wracking forefathers, or is this just a failed revival of a dead genre? Let's find out in this episode of Cyberpunk Curated.

I got into gaming in a transitive era, where I respected and played a few text adventures, but had so many visual adventure games at my fingertips that it was the much more intuitive type of game to play. I even started programming a text adventure myself back in the day as I'm sure many have, due to its simplistic nature.

It is no surprise then that indie devs are attracted to the medium as it is a clear-cut way to tell an interactive story with a small team on a miniscule budget. CYPHER was created by two brothers who have experience in the AAA gaming industry and web design.

Their passion for Blade Runner, cyberpunk themes and story-driven games is evident. But how well does that pay off here? Being that this is a text adventure, most of the environments, conversations and action is plain written text. However, the devs have spruced up the presentation by adding a few layers of polish and art to liven things up.

Most of your interface is stagnant, but there are items, photos and contextual visual effects to add a bit of flair. The sound is comprised of seamless music loops, occasionally backed up by ambient noises and sound effects to thicken the setting. These added a little immersion and enjoyment for me.

The core of the game though, both in terms of presentation and drive is the writing. Aside from some odd choices like the name of the city NeoSushi and some prose mishaps, the writing is decent in my opinion. Clearly inspired by cyberpunk movies and fiction, you will read about augmented thugs, corrupt city denizens, dark streetscapes, neon nightlife and everything you'd expect in this kind of story.

The main issue I had with the writing was the distinct lack of proofreading, resulting in several typos. If you are a grammar Nazi, you will probably despise reading through this game, be warned. Make no mistake, this is a text adventure. There are very sparse voiceovers, no mouse controls, no multiple choice.

You read, you think, you type. That's it. Like all text adventures, you type in a line of text the game runs through a parser which translates it into action. Because it's all automated, it can be strict. For example, you cannot "turn on plasma cutter", but you can "turn plasma cutter on".

You can't "pick up gun", but you can "grab gun". You can't address the "taxi driver", only the "driver". A more advanced parser would be able to see the intent either way, but in CYPHER, you have to write your commands by-the-book. This is most certainly a "read the manual" type of game.

This makes dialogue a challenge as there are no hard and fast rules for speech structure, but it usually works if you name-drop the important places, people or things the character needs to hear. Sometimes you'll need to shoot an enemy, talk your way out of a confrontation, make a phone call, or get a faulty device to work.

The best thing to do if you're stuck, is just look at or try various commands on everything in the room. Once you get into the groove of things and memorize a few commands, the game gets surprisingly kinetic, as you have to use logic and resourcefulness to get out of a situation.

Often though you simply have to figure out the game's confusing logic to proceed, which is a common flaw in the genre. The official website offers "Collector's" and "Deluxe" editions which contain guides and printouts known as "feelies". The extras in the Deluxe edition don't add much to the experience, but the Collector's edition includes a hint guide that points you in the right direction in each step of the game if you get stuck.

For text adventure amateurs, I would say the hint guide is almost a must, though many adventure games have hint systems built into the game, so that's disappointing. The manual, feelies and the hint guide are download-only, and having to Alt-Tab between the game and these PDFs isn't ideal, so I recommend putting these up on a 2nd screen or printing them out if you can.

I did very much enjoy CYPHER's story and the interesting situations it put me through. The text adventure interface is going to be divisive, but I found it intriguing as there are so few games like this out there now that the archaic game design now seems novel in its obscurity.

It's sad then that this game has typos and occasional bad grammar, which could be a turnoff. The parsing engine is a little annoying too as there are few synonyms or "fuzzy" commands or names you can use, making some scenes more frustrating than they need to be.