This review contains spoilers
Inscryption is a a pretty good video game, a decent card game, and not at all a roguelike or horror game. Expectations can be a bitch, but going in bereft of them enabled me to enjoy the game for what it was. And what it was is something that I find to be pretty unique: A story-focused experience that is just as committed to innovating in gameplay as it is to writing in creative twists for the narrative. All too often developers will forsake one of these two elements, though of course forsaking the latter is more or less fine given the medium. But Inscryption is an incredibly well paced experience that delivers brand new gameplay styles right the way through to the end, only shaking things up at the exact time they would begin to grow stale.
It's fortunate that the mechanical throughline of the game has plenty of room for innovation. The core engine of the card game on display is deeper than it initially appears, and that was the element that first hooked me. Once the game introduced the second resource for cards I knew there was a satisfying amount of strategic depth. Imagine my surprise when two more resource systems were introduced later on! It's the kind of depth that sets the mind aglow with possibility, and the game smartly compartmentalizes all of these as optional so as not to overwhelm the player.
Drawing inspiration from countless real life card games, though mostly the one from which the achievement names are aped, Inscryption is comfortable trusting the player to build the type of deck they want to play. Mixing resource systems for a balanced approach, or committing to one in a "glass cannon" sort of build, there is plenty of room to experiment. While the game isn't the roguelike it initially purports to be, this kind of Build-A-Bear gaming still works well in a single player, linear adventure.
The game's, and the player's deck's, complexity waxes and wanes throughout Inscryption's duration in a satisfying way. As the ancillary trappings of the adventure morph in crazy ways, the complexity slows its roll to allow acclimation. Only once the new coat of paint has become familiar does the game step back onto the gas and demand more thought in the deck building process.
Now despite this intellectual demand the game isn't inaccessible by any means. For better or worse, it is possible to "brute force" encounters thanks to the game's forgiving use of checkpoints, especially later on. Given the nature of card games, variance will always allow a somewhat weak deck to overcome a difficult situation with a god draw. While this does let almost anyone finish the game, it encourages them to bang their head against the wall and create an experience for themselves that isn't great. An experience that pales in comparison to the fun on offer should they actually learn to effectively interface with the deck building mechanics. The cost of freedom and player agency is this misuse, but it's certainly appreciated over a heavy-handed approach.
The omnipresent variance in card games is the most misunderstood and mistakenly maligned part of the engine. Variance is good; variance creates come-from-behind situations; variance creates the key element of excitement in the card one draws every turn. A more scripted encounter leads to more flat game play. If the frustrations of drawing terribly are mitigated, the excitement of drawing well is gone too. Variance is a feature, not a bug. Not only does Inscryption lean into its variance, it does so in a way that's completely novel from any card game I've ever seen.
The third act of the game features a somewhat "Demon's Souls"-esque system of exploring a map, fighting enemies, collecting resources, and losing all of those resources on successive deaths. Pretty rote. However, the most important aspect of early Souls games was the tension in exploring a level. Exploring more and finding good items is fun, but with every step taken the risk of ruin grows. Can you make it back? Who knows!
Tension.
But upon leveling up and gaining more gear, that tension tends to dissipate. Death becomes infrequent, and the system ceases to be relevant. Inscryption sidesteps this thanks to the variance inherent in the card game genre. Any encounter can have the player drawing terribly; a loss is always possible. This preserves the tension in exploring the map even as one's deck improves over the course of the game. It was a perfect and completely unexpected marriage of two gameplay styles that complement each other. I'm now interested in seeing a Demon's Souls-like game that leans harder on random elements.
Upon completion of the game, the player is "rewarded" with an endless mode of its first act, something that is essentially a regression. Inscryption works as a complete package; it works because it is a perfect coalescence of the story's and gameplay's themes matching and enhancing one another. To focus on any one individual part of it exclusively misses the point of the game. To say I was disappointed by this final unlock would be an understatement, but it is easy enough to write off this optional content.
Inscryption has plenty of qualities that fall flat. The "found footage" angle is entirely unsatisfying and poorly put together; the narrative itself is not the strongest; parts of the UI obfuscate important strategic information way too often; but all of these feel like minor foibles when taken in the scope of the product as a whole. Inscryption's core design is very strong, particularly the way it meshes narrative and mechanical themes, and that is something that will live in my mind long after I've finished with the game itself. It is the rare game that I actually respect rather than simply enjoy.
(4 stars tho)
It's fortunate that the mechanical throughline of the game has plenty of room for innovation. The core engine of the card game on display is deeper than it initially appears, and that was the element that first hooked me. Once the game introduced the second resource for cards I knew there was a satisfying amount of strategic depth. Imagine my surprise when two more resource systems were introduced later on! It's the kind of depth that sets the mind aglow with possibility, and the game smartly compartmentalizes all of these as optional so as not to overwhelm the player.
Drawing inspiration from countless real life card games, though mostly the one from which the achievement names are aped, Inscryption is comfortable trusting the player to build the type of deck they want to play. Mixing resource systems for a balanced approach, or committing to one in a "glass cannon" sort of build, there is plenty of room to experiment. While the game isn't the roguelike it initially purports to be, this kind of Build-A-Bear gaming still works well in a single player, linear adventure.
The game's, and the player's deck's, complexity waxes and wanes throughout Inscryption's duration in a satisfying way. As the ancillary trappings of the adventure morph in crazy ways, the complexity slows its roll to allow acclimation. Only once the new coat of paint has become familiar does the game step back onto the gas and demand more thought in the deck building process.
Now despite this intellectual demand the game isn't inaccessible by any means. For better or worse, it is possible to "brute force" encounters thanks to the game's forgiving use of checkpoints, especially later on. Given the nature of card games, variance will always allow a somewhat weak deck to overcome a difficult situation with a god draw. While this does let almost anyone finish the game, it encourages them to bang their head against the wall and create an experience for themselves that isn't great. An experience that pales in comparison to the fun on offer should they actually learn to effectively interface with the deck building mechanics. The cost of freedom and player agency is this misuse, but it's certainly appreciated over a heavy-handed approach.
The omnipresent variance in card games is the most misunderstood and mistakenly maligned part of the engine. Variance is good; variance creates come-from-behind situations; variance creates the key element of excitement in the card one draws every turn. A more scripted encounter leads to more flat game play. If the frustrations of drawing terribly are mitigated, the excitement of drawing well is gone too. Variance is a feature, not a bug. Not only does Inscryption lean into its variance, it does so in a way that's completely novel from any card game I've ever seen.
The third act of the game features a somewhat "Demon's Souls"-esque system of exploring a map, fighting enemies, collecting resources, and losing all of those resources on successive deaths. Pretty rote. However, the most important aspect of early Souls games was the tension in exploring a level. Exploring more and finding good items is fun, but with every step taken the risk of ruin grows. Can you make it back? Who knows!
Tension.
But upon leveling up and gaining more gear, that tension tends to dissipate. Death becomes infrequent, and the system ceases to be relevant. Inscryption sidesteps this thanks to the variance inherent in the card game genre. Any encounter can have the player drawing terribly; a loss is always possible. This preserves the tension in exploring the map even as one's deck improves over the course of the game. It was a perfect and completely unexpected marriage of two gameplay styles that complement each other. I'm now interested in seeing a Demon's Souls-like game that leans harder on random elements.
Upon completion of the game, the player is "rewarded" with an endless mode of its first act, something that is essentially a regression. Inscryption works as a complete package; it works because it is a perfect coalescence of the story's and gameplay's themes matching and enhancing one another. To focus on any one individual part of it exclusively misses the point of the game. To say I was disappointed by this final unlock would be an understatement, but it is easy enough to write off this optional content.
Inscryption has plenty of qualities that fall flat. The "found footage" angle is entirely unsatisfying and poorly put together; the narrative itself is not the strongest; parts of the UI obfuscate important strategic information way too often; but all of these feel like minor foibles when taken in the scope of the product as a whole. Inscryption's core design is very strong, particularly the way it meshes narrative and mechanical themes, and that is something that will live in my mind long after I've finished with the game itself. It is the rare game that I actually respect rather than simply enjoy.
(4 stars tho)