Operation Deep Magic: Cryptanalysis Reviews

If you think you might like to buy this game to learn how to do real-life cryptanalysis, then you can safely give it a miss. In reality, it is a game of puzzles for people who already know how to do cryptanalysis. I get the feeling the author might disagree with that assertion. Elements of instruction and explanation exist in the game, so some attempt has been made, but it's all extremely terse and provided without context or explanation. It assumes fluency in reading post-doc academic material and a great deal of supporting knowledge besides. For example, roughly a quarter of the sub-one page manual contains the following text: [quote]An ordered arrangement of r elements selected from a set of n elements is a [b]permutation[/b] of n elements taken r at a time. A collection of r elements, regardless of order, selected from a set of n elements is called a [b]combination[/b] of n elements taken r at a time.[/quote] You must be fully comfortable with that as the maximal level of guidance in order to play this game. We're a long way from the cryptanalytic version of "Human Resource Machine" or even "TIS-100" here. I think we can see the result as a miscalibration of part of the author's design philosophy, as noted in their Jan 2024 post: "Realism must strictly not be compromised by overly helpful instructions and manual." The game often utilizes a Zelda-like interface, but it's almost entirely vestigal , adding little to no additional gameplay. It seems like it was merely added to make a series of cryptanalytic puzzles seem more game-like. There is no story, characters or plot if such things are a concern, nor is there any progression per se; all scenes are available from the outset. The price is very steep, but given that the worldwide target market for this game can't be more than 4 digits, and that such people are probably not price sensitive, it might actually be on-point but certainly not what your average Steam gamer expects. So, if you are already proficient in basic cryptanalysis and are looking for some structured puzzles and don't mind a questionable UX, then you should buy this game. As for the rest of you, I sadly have no alternatives to offer. It's an un[strike]der[/strike]-served niche, which is why I gave this title a try to begin with.

Let me start off by saying that this is probably one of the most deeply technical games on Steam. The cryptanalysis techniques utilized in this are actual, real-life techniques used in academic cryptography and spy alike. How do I know this? I'm a cryptographer. :) By playing this game and learning how these techniques work, you will gain an understanding of how these attacks are performed. If you're not familiar with the basics of cryptography, this game is likely too difficult for you, but there's no better time to start than _right now_, The UX and UI definitely needs work, but this is a early-access game. As such, you should expect bugs and UX failures. I do think the price of $50 is far too much to ask for what is essentially a major technical demo, but as a cryptographer I couldn't help but see this and say "wow someone made a game for me". From a cryptographer's perspective, this game is realistic. This ain't your average puzzle game - this is modern code breaking.