Decyphered

Last time, I praised Cypher's ability to make me feel like an idiot. Now that I've looked up some of the solutions online, I feel like adding an important clarification.

When I fail to solve a puzzle due to outlandish leaps of logic - like collating binary bits into groups of five?, or arranging planetary symbols by the lengths of their days - that doesn't make me feel dumb. It makes me feel ... nothing. Or at worst, like I'm playing Monkey Island 2.

Granted, there were some puzzles that I just hadn't applied myself hard enough to. But most of the ones I "missed" had solutions that I'd never, in a million years, have figured out on my own. And while I can respect the kind of "way outside the box" thinking that these puzzles were asking, that isn't something I look for in a solo game.

But I don't want to dwell on those puzzles too much. The first 45-50% of the game was a blast to solve using only in-game guidance -- and, in the case of the Vigenere ciphers, a web-app for automating the rotations. I felt really satisfied with this part of the game, and with Cypher's museum-like ambience along the way.

I'm still overall impressed, and excited for more from Matthew Brown. ... like Alchemia, I suppose.

Better than: Sethian
Not as good as: given I can't think of a great comparison, Human Resource Machine
Actually: I think the leaps-of-logic would have been more fun if this was a co-operative multiplayer activity. I wonder if a Jackbox-style mobile UI for note-sharing collaboration would work for this kind of game...

Progress: 064%, including some internet hints.