Transports You Back To Year 11 Mathematics, For Better And Worse
Playing Cipher Monk: Cassette Equation was a bit like being taken around the back of the maths block at school, before getting pummelled by a group of calculus students. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so simultaneously stupid and pained. It’s an achievement, I guess.
Somehow, we feel worse than after we played its predecessor, Cipher Monk: Ancient Calculus. That game had us scrambling for our calculator app, paper and a pen, and we would often stare blankly at the screen while grey matter oozed out of our ears. It required brain capacity, proficiency at mental arithmetic and patience, and we had zero out of three. I’m still amazed that I completed it.
A Game That Will Divide Players
Cipher Monk: Cassette Equation is harder. It didn’t need to be harder, but it is. It’s harder because it introduces division, to go with the first two games’ addition, subtraction and multiplication. And rather than have division-themed levels, it stacks division on top of the other symbols to create puzzles that implode my tiny little mind.
We should probably rewind a bit for newcomers. Cipher Monk: Cassette Equation is the third in the Cipher Monk trilogy, although there may be more of them in the future (it’s someone else’s turn to review them if they start dabbling with squares and square-roots). In each game, there are thirty puzzles to solve, and the puzzles are almost entirely mathematics-based.
Cipher Monk uses a counting system invented by Cistercian Monks of the 13th century. They would make scratches into wood that would denote particular numbers. A square would represent a 9, but the position of the 9 with regard to a single I-shaped line would determine whether the square meant 9, 90, 900 or 9000.
Rachel Riley Will Love This One
Cipher Monk: Cassette Equation starts with a target number. This hovers at the top of the screen and, Countdown-style, you need to create a sum that achieves that number. You get there by manipulating these Cistercian scratches. You have free reign to rotate and position them around the line in the centre of the game board.
The puzzles start with simple addition. 960 might require you to simply add 900 to a 60. So, you rotate the symbols that represent 9 and 6 and Bob’s your overconfident uncle. You have 960.
But things don’t stick with addition for long. The symbols are different colours, and the colours represent different mathematical functions. A red symbol is a minus function. A blue symbol is a multiplication. And – horror of horrors – purple is a division. You’re forming these symbols into a sum (which breaks the rules of BIDMAS, we should note, as multiplication and division happen last) which should hopefully match the total for the puzzle.
Like Playing Countdown But With Only The Big Numbers
It sounds easy in theory, but in practice I find it to be an anxiety nightmare. Cipher Monk: Cassette Equation doesn’t help you out with easy, self-evident totals to chase, for one. The totals it picks feel wholly unachievable without a working knowledge of things like the 27 times table. Reverse-engineering a solution, as we did with Cipher Monk: Ancient Calculus, became far more challenging when BOTH a division and a multiplication were on the table.
Cipher Monk: Cassette Equation also doesn’t help out with a tutorial to onboard you into the whole thing. There is no hint/spoiler system, and the rules of BIDMAS are extremely obfuscated. Generally, Cipher Monk: Cassette Equation can seem a little cruel. We would often find a rotation that worked as a starting point – a multiplication or division number that got us somewhat close – and then work from there. But too often that was through luck rather than judgement.
BUT BUT BUT. The thing is, I know people who would love this. I’ve already recommended it to them. They’re mathematicians, mostly, and they have an uncanny ability with numbers. They’re the ones who exhaust the back pages of The Times, completing every puzzle. They complain that puzzles in video games are too easy, and don’t push them hard enough. They can look at a number total in Cipher Monk: Cassette Equation and immediately find a starting point.
No, I Don’t Know Why It’s Called ‘Cassette Equation’ Either
It makes Cipher Monk: Cassette Equation somewhat hard for me to review. I was already beaten by Cipher Monk: Ancient Calculus. I didn’t need a sequel to turn up afterwards and kick me while I was down. It adds division to a game that didn’t need it, in my view, and the result is a game that introduces itself poorly, doesn’t help out in the slightest, and asks way too much.
But that’s me, and I’m a mathematics scrub. I prefer words and sentences and stuff. If you are of the numerical persuasion and wished that mathematics puzzles in video games were actually challenging, then boy do we have the game for you. Cipher Monk: Cassette Equation is as niche as you can get, but the calculus-loving niche are going to frigging love it.
Important Links
Cipher Monk: Cassette Equation Continues The Curious Puzzle Series – https://www.thexboxhub.com/cipher-monk-cassette-equation-continues-the-curious-puzzle-series/
Buy from the Xbox Store, optimised for Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/cipher-monk-cassette-equation-xbox-series/9p0lqshkxpcd
Buy for Xbox One – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/cipher-monk-cassette-equation-xbox-one/9p6cnvmst9n5
Buy for PC – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/cipher-monk-cassette-equation-windows/9pf2gk28jgrv
