Espionage

The Cipher Room - Newtown (Sydney, Australia)

Time limit: 60 minutes

Age limit: None

Player limit: 2-8 (recommended 2-4)

Difficulty: 3/5

Awards: TERPECA Nominee (2021-2023), Best of Morty 2023

Date visited: October 2024

I felt a tinge of sadness walking out of Espionage, our fifth and final room at The Cipher Room, knowing that we won’t be able to play any more of their games until the release of their new room, Metamorphosis, due in 2025. 

Whether you ask novices, enthusiasts, or escape room owners, the answer is invariably the same: Pound for pound, Cipher’s rooms are the best in Australia. Every one of their rooms is spectacular and unique in their own way, but what sets the quality of their rooms apart is not just the exquisite props and bespoke puzzles, but the unmatched atmosphere, immersion, and attention to detail. 

We went to Espionage as a group of 5, a week later than expected. Z unfortunately broke his arm the week prior and needed surgery, so we had to postpone our initial booking. But this turned out to be a stroke of good fortune for my niece C, who returned from a family trip just in time to join us. C has been to a few rooms with us now and still says Cipher’s La Rebellion is her favourite.

As Cipher’s oldest room (8 years old), Espionage still holds up really well thanks to the maintenance of the props and the tweaks and updates that have been added over the years. I suppose being older also makes the props feel even more vintage, which plays perfectly into the hands of the WWII spy theme. Espionage felt like a truly classic and timeless room, the kind of room I imagined and hoped an escape room would be like before I ever played one.

It has so many cool elements, with a variety of different puzzles and concepts I had not seen in their other rooms. There was one puzzle in particular near the end that left me asking: “How did they think of that?”

Espionage is also Cipher’s easiest room, which was a shame because we blitzed through it despite making sure we all worked on the puzzles together and never pushing for time. I guess we were so accustomed to the thinking and logic of game designer and co-owner Marise that the solutions to these puzzles just came more naturally to us. I really hoped we could have spent more time in the room to savour the experience. 

Strictly speaking, Espionage is arguably Cipher’s weakest room — it doesn’t have quite the “wow” factor or jaw-dropping theatrics/endings of their later rooms — but that’s only because they’ve set the bar so high. It really says something when there’s a good chance that Cipher’s worst room is still better than the best room of any other escape room establishment in the country. It's no surprise that Espionage continues to be nominated for TERPECA every year.

Cipher’s General Manager, Lachlan, who rarely runs games these days but serendipitously managed to host us three times (Mr. Pepper, The Cabin, and Espionage), was so kind and generous, spending the rest of the time chatting with us about the room, his experiences, and the future of Cipher. We were so excited to hear that, in addition to Metamorphosis, Cipher has space for two more rooms at their St Peters venue!

Escape time: 38 minutes out of 60

Rating: 9.26

Player	Theming	Atmosphere	Puzzles	Creativity	Fun	Average
H	9	8.5	8.5	8.5	9	8.7
E	10	9.5	9	9	10	9.5
Z	9.5	9	9	9.5	9.5	9.3
J	9	10	9	9.5	9.5	9.4
C	10	9	9	9	10	9.4
Rating						9.26