The somber and introspective strums of a guitar harmonizes with the lonely journey of your figurine on the map. I was frequently floored by how deftly all of the gameplay and design elements effortlessly flowed together. And during boss fights, the dark entity affixes a mask and immerses in his temporary role. Other checkpoints have you wheeling and dealing with a lonely trapper for pelts. Certain nodes on the map allow you to blood sacrifice one card to permanently transfer its abilities to another. Truly, I believe this is where Inscryption began to pull me in. The shadow beyond the map narrates each node, each event, and each fight, often under the guise of role-play. Like a cake that is too tall, with icing far too thick, it would be easy to look at all of those rich ingredients and say “no, I’ll just have a salad.” But please, let me reassure you that Inscryption sets the tone and paces the mechanics brilliantly, delivering a nearly perfect drip feed of simple mechanics that allow the player to grasp foundational knowledge before saddling you with more.īetween battles, your eyes glance down across an unfurled map where you’ll advance your figurine forward across various nodes that can enhance your deck. It also delicately folds in escape room, tabletop and roguelike elements to further immerse you in its uncomfortable brand of horror mystery. And there is definitely a lot to chew here.īut as mentioned, Inscryption isn’t just a card game. Much like in my Alan Wake review, I think my chewing of the fat is a far better fate than a frustrated sigh of relief when I finally close down Steam. But in subverting the expectations of the player, does it really stick the landing? Perhaps the fact that it even dares to go so far off the beaten path is what has earned my praise. Because what quietly lurks beneath the surface of Inscryption is there to serve a broader narrative and shirk the stale taste of overabundance and derivation that haunts modern card games.
Honestly, you almost can’t discuss what makes Inscryption a memorable title without lightly landing on some of the key perspective bending fulcrums it employs. With a dash of table top role playing, a smidge of escape room, a pinch of card game, and a truck load of grizzly viscera, Daniel Mullins Games cobbles together a surprisingly functional Frankenstein of a title that is beyond compelling. Inscryption is one of the weirdest games I have ever played.
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