Devolver Digital strikes again. Or should we say that Daniel mullins strikes again. Regardless of which name strikes you the most, Inscryption is one of the best games of the year and an indie adventure not to be missed.
Find out why we think so in ours Inscryption review.
Travel
What is Inscryption? This is the question many are asking, especially if they know the strangeness of Mullins' previous works (The Hex and Pony Island). The most direct answer would be: it's a card game. However, we think it is an incorrect answer, or rather, an extremely partial one. Most of the hours spent in Inscryption will be spent playing cards, true, but these are only the means, not the end.
In fact, we must not approach Inscryption as a deckbuilding rogue-lite (it is, but it's not ... complicated), but like an adventure. Even more precisely, an adventure founded on a great mystery which, initially, we will not even know the existence. We will be the player, perhaps the avatar of the protagonist or perhaps spectators of events that have already taken place over which we have no power. The storyline is administered on a regular basis during battles and during more exploratory phases. It is a narration proposed with the dropper, made of details, foreshadowing, but also of secrets to be discovered by playing.
Despite having concluded the journey conceived by Mullins and having understood the narrative core, we still have doubts about what is really hidden in Inscryption, but they are positive doubts, of those that make you think and rethink what you saw and the characters you met, for which in the end we felt a great affection. We were even seized by nostalgia, as if we had always known them, when we realized that we have now reached the end and are therefore ready to say goodbye. The strange beings that populate the world of Inscryption initially look like specks put there to advance the plot, but they expand incredibly as you go along. Nothing is random, even in the very early stages, when everything seems simple and clear.
It would be a insult to Mullins try to give you concrete examples of what will happen in narrative terms in the advanced stages, since one of the goals of Inscryption is to surprise the player every three by two, changing the cards on the table (metaphorically and literally) and taking ideas already presented for expand them in a surprising way. We therefore ask you to take our words for granted: this journey is to be lived.
Hut
At this point, however, we offer you a bit of concreteness, telling you a few details about what is the departure of the work.
Inscryption is a card game, literally. In the narrative world of this video game, Inscryption is a retro card game, of which Luke - content creator of a YouTube-style platform - it's passionate. The young man finds a floppy disk in which there seems to be the only copy of an Inscryption-based video game in the world. No one has ever heard of it and there is no information on the internet.
The sequences dedicated to Luke are in live action, in the form of video recordings documenting his journey to discover Inscryption. The actor who plays the man did a great job in terms of acting. Even if the time allowed on screen is very short, Luke's presence (and the details about his past, if you are good enough to find them) is pleasant and exciting.
The focus, however, is on the video game on the floppy disk, which takes us to the Leshy's hut, a shady figure who has imprisoned us and forces us to play with him. In his dark little house, we will have to play cards and at the same time find out how to free ourselves. The room we are in is full of objects and small puzzles, more or less simple to solve.
I environmental puzzles they are closely related to the card game and in order to continue on one side you have to make the right moves on the other. The quality of Inscryption is also linked to the fact that each step is suggested in a clear but never too direct way: understanding what to do and seeing the results is satisfying and never frustrating. The whole adventure is very fluid and in the more than 12 hours it took to get to the credits we never got stuck or felt that the game was pulling the rope with a certain playful sequence.
Map
But how do you play cards in Inscryption? Again, it would be unfair to give you too many details and it would also be complex given the enormity of the rules that will make up the Card-game at the center of the game. Initially, as we have explained to you in our test, the game will be based on the Beast Cards, animals that must be played on a board. Some creatures can be played right away, others will require you to sacrifice Beasts already on the table.
The cards have two statistics, health and attack and on their turn they strike in front of them: if they attack an opposing creature, they take away health, but if the space is empty they do direct damage. When enough direct damage is dealt, the fight is won. The balance of the games is defined in such a way as to make these battles quite fast: two rounds played perfectly or on the contrary completely wrong moves are enough to win or lose in an instant.
The hut adventure is also almost one session at D&D, with Leshy acting as Dungeon Master, putting on masks to play NPCs and bosses, and telling us what happens on our path. In addition to battles, there will be ways to get new cards, play luck-based mini-games, upgrade cards, fuse them, sacrifice them, and so on. The creatures also have many effects, such as the ability to fly, attack multiple times, eliminate every enemy in one hit, activate effects on death and much, much more. It is all very clear and immediate, but it is extremely layered and dense. The effects also expand as you advance with the adventure.
All this, however, is only the beginning, because the mechanics of the early stages are only a quarter of what awaits us at the end. Inscryption continues to add rules and propose something different: it does so without making us feel overwhelmed by news, allowing us to learn to take advantage of every advantage offered to us. The game - every few hours, sometimes every half hour - introduces something different that changes the structure, but at the same time it does so while remaining itself. The final result is a very refined balancing act that particularly struck us.
World
Inscryption aims to surprise us also from a visual point of view. On a technical level it's nothing that, but - and again we don't want to tell you exactly how - over and over again the game surprises you to play with. sudden changes of register. As mentioned, there are also live-action sequences, which mix with the game in all its forms, in specific stages of the adventure.
It is therefore also a journey that does not leave us graphically dissatisfied, thanks to a wise variety. The soundtrack is also excellent, accompanying each phase, giving us the chills in the most tense moments or giving us the charge in some more open phases. Finally, we point out that the game has i texts in Spanish.
Comment
Tested version PC Windows Digital Delivery Steam Price 19.99 € Buy it here at Resources4Gaming.com9.0
Readers (2)4.4
Your voteFresh, intense and challenging without being complex; so we would define Inscryption. The Mullins Adventure, published by Devolver Digital, is a card game but also an escape room. Card battles are fast, fun and extremely varied. The rules are continually expanding keeping us always at attention, while a series of small puzzles break the rhythm in the right way. In the background there is also an interesting, exciting, well-acted plot. The great mystery hidden in Inscryption is asking to be revealed and we advise you to do so.
PRO
- An ever-expanding card game
- Great pace
- Exciting storyline
- On a technical level this is not surprising
