In short Inkulinati is best described as a card based board game with to many rules.
But
This was not the game I thought it was going to be. I understand why a lot of people found Inkulinati frustrating or challenging to get into; and honestly these complaints are valid and good criticisms the Devs should take on-board. However Inkulinati absolutely has some fun to offer it's just unfortunately locked behind it's very dense convoluted mechanics and rules.
Firstly when booting up the game with the stupid name the tutorial is absolutely recommended (not that the game tells you that). Initially you start with 3 tutorial levels that give a general idea of how the game functions. But this is when the Nightmarish 70+ optional tutorial levels reveal themselves. Not only are most of these necessary for understanding the basics of playing the game I would say they are crucial to having a good time. Personally I completed about 40 before moving onto the campaign as the agonising wait times between turns in the tutorial levels were killing me.
When setting up to play the campaign you initially have to decide different units, abilities and and team to use, but this isn't elaborated on unless you use an info tool to tell you what each item means. Initially I started the game on the easiest difficulty to get a feel for how it plays, but as I progressed I found I was grateful I made the decision. At the beginning most of the encounters were quiet easy and I would progress quiet quickly but in the second last world the difficulty spike was so sudden it made the experience quiet unenjoyable. Eventually I managed to beat the game and actually enjoyed most of my run.
I don't think I would recommend Inkulinati and it's not something I plan to return to.
But
This was not the game I thought it was going to be. I understand why a lot of people found Inkulinati frustrating or challenging to get into; and honestly these complaints are valid and good criticisms the Devs should take on-board. However Inkulinati absolutely has some fun to offer it's just unfortunately locked behind it's very dense convoluted mechanics and rules.
Firstly when booting up the game with the stupid name the tutorial is absolutely recommended (not that the game tells you that). Initially you start with 3 tutorial levels that give a general idea of how the game functions. But this is when the Nightmarish 70+ optional tutorial levels reveal themselves. Not only are most of these necessary for understanding the basics of playing the game I would say they are crucial to having a good time. Personally I completed about 40 before moving onto the campaign as the agonising wait times between turns in the tutorial levels were killing me.
When setting up to play the campaign you initially have to decide different units, abilities and and team to use, but this isn't elaborated on unless you use an info tool to tell you what each item means. Initially I started the game on the easiest difficulty to get a feel for how it plays, but as I progressed I found I was grateful I made the decision. At the beginning most of the encounters were quiet easy and I would progress quiet quickly but in the second last world the difficulty spike was so sudden it made the experience quiet unenjoyable. Eventually I managed to beat the game and actually enjoyed most of my run.
I don't think I would recommend Inkulinati and it's not something I plan to return to.