Cyberpunk Unfolds

• Designer: Jordi Muntaner
• Publisher: Key Enigma
• Players: 1+
• Age: 14+
• Time: 120 min on packaging (65 min for us)
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

In a cyberpunk world where class difference has divided society between the poor living in the slums and the rich residing in luxury estates; YOU are a recruit of the revolutionary group, who plans to infiltrate to the heart of this corrupt system and overthrow it. There is only one chance to do so and it is now or never, you are the only hope.

Cyberpunk Unfolds is a single chapter escape adventure trying new things from Pop-Up elements, foldouts and 3D paper figures. We want you to be able to explore the escape room scenario and even build it. You will unfold the escape room progressively until you build a large structure to investigate. No additional materials such as scissors or glue are required, everything can be simply put together. 

The packaging for this game is remarkably small – it really looks like an old school paper DVD folder envelope – albeit a smidge thicker.  If you’re old enough, remember those America Online intro kits that you used to get in the mail?  Well, it’s pretty much just like those… For you young kids, just nod your heads like you always do when us old folks talk about things like pay phones and newspapers!

In this game, you will solve puzzles to progress through the story and gradually unfold the escape or open parts. In this way the whole structure will be built. The puzzles are linked to the story, so that it is an immersive experience. To enhance this point, you will communicate with the game digitally, there you will talk to characters.

The app is easily accessed through a QR code included within the artwork of the game.  There is a fair amount of text to be had there, and it’s all there to be read. There isn’t an voiceover acting here, so if you’re in a group, either sit close so everyone can read the words or be prepared to narrate to everyone.  Alternatively, everyone could scan the QR code and follow along individually.  

The game starts with you opening the packaging and unfolding it for the first time.  This provides you with the setting for the first puzzle.  As you progress through the puzzles, you’ll be asked to unfold different parts of the pack, and you’ll see new and varied locations with each reveal.  

There are some videos included in the computer app to help you unfold it correctly.  While this is super helpful, they are maybe a bit too brief – some of them as short as 3 seconds!  It would be helpful to have a longer intro so that you can orient yourself and then more easily replicate what has happened in the video.  Additionally, the text on the app keeps spewing out as you’re trying to watch the video, so don’t be surprised if the difficulty level is increased as the video keeps moving up your screen or sometimes even being pushed off the screen as you’re trying to watch it!

The story is pretty well done, and the amount of backstory included is actually more than I would have expected. However, as it is all done through the app – there aren’t any physical limitations.  The artwork of the physical components is also well done, and it all adds to the cyberpunk theme of the game.

But of course, you’re probably most concerned about my thoughts on the puzzles.  We felt that the puzzles varied in complexity/difficulty, but they all worked.  We needed small hints on two of them (one due to art that confused us, and one due to the fact that we simply missed an important clue).  All of the hints are handled through the app, you simply type “HINT” into it, and it gives you increasingly stronger hints each time you ask.

Unlike most puzzle games like this, you can actually play Cyberpunk Unfolds more than once.  The reason for this is that there is at least one branch in the story, and you can experience each branch of the story and the puzzles that go along that path.  

While you do need to punch some things out of the paper and construct a few things, nothing is destroyed in the play.  Thus, if you are careful, you could put those loose things back in the correct folds of the game and repackage it for someone else to play.

Overall, Cyberpunk Unfolds provides a decent puzzle/escape room experience is a super small package.  Sure, you need the app to play this too – but the ingenuity of the multiply folded paper makes this game play like many of the “big box” escape rooms.   Key Engima has been around for awhile, and there are at least a dozen escape room games available on their website – https://keyenigma.com/

They also have a new KS campaign going on now – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keyenigma/backrooms-map-liminal-horror-creepypasta-escape-game?ref=5jomu5 

Until your next appointment

The Gaming Doctor