South Africa's online gaming community seems to be going crazy for CodeBreaker. The free online game has already amassed over 3 200 registered players within three weeks of the site going live.
With the game having just opened with a set of challenges and a prologue to the action, media hype is beginning to take effect. The CodeBreaker forum on the HIP2B2 website is buzzing with questions, comments, suggestions and invitations to form teams.
Radio and TV coverage is growing, and independent blogs have even emerged online.
The appeal of the game is its sophistication, its intellectually challenging nature and its slick aesthetic appeal, explains Laura Hallam, HIP2B2 Brand Manager.
CodeBreaker is the first free online game of its nature in South Africa, and it is certainly a first that so many people will be playing it at the same time in different parts of the country (and even the world).
The start of the game was greeted with much anticipation - and with its recent live launch inviting players to complete two challenges as an initiation into the first episode, its clear that the excitement is unlikely to die down.
The next episode starts on 3 April and subsequent episodes follow every two weeks until the 15th May. Players can only move on to the proceeding episode once they've passed all the challenges of the previous one. Although the game has already started, latecomers can register at any time and catch up without jeapordising their chances of winning.
The initiation period describes the spine-tingling kidnapping of Dr. Indira Basu and takes players to the CodeBreaker headquarters in Table Mountain, where they are set with their first challenges: a logic puzzle and a target-shooting exercise.
Once they have completed the challenges, players are kept on tenterhooks yet again, with the next twist in the plot only being revealed on 3 April.
CodeBreaker architects promise that upcoming episodes will be just as thrilling, with surprises in-store that will take players from a jungle in Mozambique to the streets of a township in pursuit of a witchdoctor.
CodeBreaker is expected to continue to create a huge stir amongst South African youth and is sure to remian the most talked about subject during break in the tuckshop queue.
Over the next few weeks, the hype continues and players can continue to log-on, register and play past episodes right until the end.
Players can win the following prizes: a Sony PlayStation PSP, MP3 Players, Music Backpacks, USB Watches, a Casio Electronic Keyboard as well as R15 000 to the player's school.
To register and play for free visit www.codebreaker.co.za.