CodeCandyBlue – Cadets Training Day [Hivemind Review]

Cadets Training Day is a free point-and-click game created by CodeCandyBlue.

Cadets Training Day, Home Office Communicator video.

Format

Style of Play:

  • Online native experience (can NOT be played IRL)
  • Play on-demand
  • Includes video segments
  • Point-and-click

Who is it For?

  • Any experience level

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

Recommended Team Size: 2-4

Play Time: about 60 minutes

Price: free

Booking: play at your leisure

Description

After starting your adventure, a short video segment plays and you’re presented with information to help you start solving your mission. While the game is self-contained in one web browser, you can use the video conferencing platform of your choice to connect with your teammates and solve puzzle after puzzle. Each player solves independently (you’re not logged into the same “team”, so it can be solved with just one person presenting their screen). Once you solve the puzzle, you enter the answer, and you’re passed to the next puzzle.

An image of a desk witha. safe on it and assorted papers and books.

Theresa Piazza’s Reaction

Cadets Training Day is a free escape game intended to be played with a team of 2-6, but there were a couple of reasons why the game didn’t drive me to play their paid games. The plot right off the bat seems fairly implausible. Not that other escape games don’t also have unrealistic plots, but this was wacky for seemingly no reason. The second, and more important reason why I feel Cadets Training Day fell flat is that there were far too many puzzles in this experience where we just had to guess a likely answer. We couldn’t find anything in the game materials which clued us to the correct outcome. What CodeCandyBlue did do well is have several varied styles of puzzles that all functioned and worked well within a simple web browser.

Cara Mandel’s Reaction

Cadets Training Day was a free web-based experience. We were given the role of undercover cadets for the “Home Office Academy” and were tasked with weeding out a mole before they released stolen data. This felt like an entry-level game with fairly easy puzzle mechanics. The tasks were straightforward though a couple of solves felt like a bit of a stretch. There were some enjoyable video clips throughout and a very clear system of entry for solutions. A hint system was also present for clues if needed. This might be a good game for beginners to get the feel for this format of gameplay. And you can’t beat the price!

Joel Smileypeacefun Reaction

We were in our first year at the home office academy. While training we learned about some intruders who threaten to blow up the campus.

At its best, this online game had some cool interactions. The puzzles were not too easy, but also not too difficult. Each scene of the story gave us a clear goal so we knew what to look for. On top of it, this game is actually free!

At its worst, the very first puzzle already overstayed its welcome. In addition to some loading issues with the videos telling the storyline, it was just not the most exciting theme for an escape game. Also, one task made me use a trial-and-error approach.

Overall it may not be the most memorable game. But it’s definitely a good time-killer if you have a spare hour.

2 Comments

  1. Thanks for reviewing Cadets – Training Day. I would like to clarify one point made in the review, and that is that all of our puzzles can be solved without resorting to trial and error. CodeCandyBlue adventures all combine logic puzzles with narrative clues that provide insight to help solve the puzzles. Unlike many other games, the bulk of the challenge in our puzzles is in finding the clues needed to solve the logic puzzle, rather than the puzzle itself. That’s one reason our adventures are not timed – the goal isn’t to speed through, but to do a deep dive, and examine all the evidence in order to solve a puzzle.

    That said, after reading this review, we did go back through all the puzzles in Cadets – Training Day, and agree that the linguistic constraints supporting the solving of the word find in the first scene were not very helpful. We have rewritten the redacted document to make it easier to know which words to look for. This kind of feedback is very helpful in our efforts to improve the player experience on all our adventures, and all the reviewer comments were greatly appreciated.

  2. Thanks for sharing your game with us. We’re glad to the feedback was helpful. We truly appreciate that you value the player experience and are continually striving to enhance it.

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