My overriding feeling with Inscryption is that it ended up being a bit less than the sum of its parts. Knowing it's a roguelike adventure deckbuilder where all is not as it seems I was expecting this to be one of my favourite games ever, but I found myself underwhelmed.

I was quickly drawn in to the world, in love with the macabre atmosphere and all the little gruesome details. After a couple of hours, though, I found myself struggling. Small strategic mistakes or RNG misfortune meant I had to retry a bunch of times even after my second win, but the mechanics were a little too shallow for it to stay interesting. It became clear why later on, when those mechanics were thrown away and then adapted for a less interesting (but still enjoyable) dive in to the meta hole.

Those pacing issues aside, I would say I liked but didn't love the story. I appreciated the writing and the variety of ways in which it was told—cards speaking, live-action videos, mysterious text files— and I'm always down for a mystery, but I'm quite tired of self-referential games about games and the associated meta-humour. There's an "isn't this clever" vibe that isn't backed up by any substance — it's an intriguing conspiracy about a haunted game, but it doesn't say anything interesting with it.

I was also really looking forward to Kaycee's Mod, but it's just that first part of the game except less forgiving and with even less power progression. Total time sink.

I guess I mostly like I'd seen each thing the game did well done better elsewhere. The deckbuilding adventures of Hand of Fate and Slay the Spire; the FMV mystery of Immortality; the run-by-run progression in Hades; the "game about games meta"-ness of Undertale. I had fun, but it dragged on a bit, and I really wish it had some substance to tie it all together... but I won't expect much given the ARG (I looked it up) revealed that the cursed code was stolen from the pocket of LITERALLY HITLER