by Deadlocked Escape Rooms Reading (website)
122 Castle Hill, Reading RG1 7RG
2-6 players
£12.00
Languages: EN
2 x 90 mins
In a worldwide first, Deadlocked, have collaborated with their favourite brewery, Siren Craft Brew to fused beer and online escape rooms together to create an epic alternative reality virtual online escape room, ‘The Cyphstress’, taking your brains on an adventure and back with this fantastic, mythology-heavy set of puzzles and riddles.
Assemble your best team or play solo to navigate through the epic custom interfaces, using internet stalking across social media to hunt down our hero and join him in answering the Siren’s Call and brewing up a legendary beer, based upon an ancient recipe.
To play ‘The Cyphstress’ you’ll need a desktop/laptop, at least one member of the team will need the usual free social media accounts, sound on, and your favourite beverage ready to keep your brain hydrated.
It includes two 90-minute chapters to keep you occupied – we’ll tell you it’s the end of a chapter, and strongly recommend a break, but you can trigger it to come immediately after the first if you desire (for the truly hardcore).
Siren have even put together an exclusive special mixed case of our favourite beers which can be bought with the game, (including a unique bubbly brut beer to celebrate your victory with) if you want to know what we’d recommend.
You can play with other households online over your favourite video conference software or even solo, if you’re really up for taxing your brain.
Overall rating
based on ratings from 70 users
combined with 7 pro reviews
Your review
Player reviews
This was definitely not for us.
The heavy dependence on Facebook/instagram/fake phone response delays did little to disguise that this was a few well designed set pieces stitched loosely together with a story that had little depth.
One of us did not have all the social media platforms required, so while playing remotely they were essentially excluded from the “fun” of analysing pictures. (Yes, we could have shared screens, but we had lost patience with the format, the game and each other by that point). Progress is difficult to track when you pick up the game later, but you can largely ignore that as you can direct to the various websites.
We ended up doing it when we were in the same location mostly solving it independently and only the last section had any level of entertainment for two players.
If you like multi application, single player focus puzzles, it’s fine for the price, there are some nice touches, but make sure all players in all locations have facebook, instagram and likely screen sharing.
I've played a couple of digital games and didn't really enjoy them so I wasn't expecting much but we just loved this game! It's clear a lot of time and effort was put into creating this and the use of social media was super fun! Felt like we were only playing for an hour and before we knew it, 4 hours had flown past! Would definitely reccommend.
We’ve done plenty of live escape rooms but this was the first online escape room we’ve purchased and we weren’t disappointed! Saw this on a website as a recommendation and it was brilliant. We loved the interactivity of social media, the game was very high quality overall! Kept us entertained for an evening at home. We will definitely be purchasing another game from Deadlocked soon!
Reviews by escape room review sites
A medical condition caused by too many puzzles? No, the Cyphstress is, in Deadlocked's narrative, a mythical siren from Greek legend notorious for riddles, and perhaps also brewing beer - because this game was developed in collaboration with craft beer company Siren. The beer theming isn't subtle, and you should expect some clear signs of corporate sponsorship, though I never found it detracted from the game.
Deadlocked's previous game The Insiders was a huge six-hour beast, famous (notorious?)...
The Cyphstress is a wonderful, well-polished game that’s filled with charm and has excellent puzzles to boot. As we finished the game and the end credits rolled, I felt good. Not just because I’d ‘escaped’. Not just because we’d solved all the puzzles. But because I felt like I was a part of the story.
It’s a rare and joyous feeling in a puzzle game. I heartily recommend you give it a go. And at £10, it’s incredible value for money.
This game was a tremendous amount of fun, especially considering it’s genesis as a corporate partnership. For £12 you’re getting three solid hours of good, novel puzzles and a fun story.
Can you solve the mystery’s of the Cyphstress?