Inscryption (from the creator of Pony Island) is a surprising, amazing and very interesting card game where a lot of things happen and this review will contain light spoilers. Based on the fictional card game ‘Inscryption’ and the adventures of a card enthusiast messing around with it. Going through different styles of gameplay - but with consistent rules thorough - with light puzzle solving you’ll play a nice card game against a wide variety of opponents, each with their own special gimmicks and tricks. I had a great time with it!
The game starts in the Hermit’s hut and when I started playing it, I thought this was going to be the entirety of the game; You play a sort of roguelike where you go through a map, playing card duels, upgrading your cards, getting items and sometimes walking around the room (where you are captive) to solve some puzzles, get more upgrades and progress through the story. Fights are interesting because they are usually themed around something so they become small puzzles about dealing with your foes using your deck.
The core principles of the card game are solid enough - you have cards with a blood cost and you need to sacrifice creatures in order to get blood. You have a supply of “squirrel” cards that you can draw from, plus your deck, and the goal is to have your opponent at 5 damage more than you - something represented by a scale where the weight goes back and forth based on damage dealt and received. Creatures are varied with a bunch of effects, but they all have attack and defense values and they (usually) attack each turn automatically in the spot in front of them.
The bosses are fun, but you might be really unprepared depending on how luck went for you because I feel like some mechanics really give you a great boost to your odds of winning - like making your squirrels worth 3 blood units - and you could spend an entire run looking for cards you know and like without getting them, and this might mean your deck is weird and unfocused, so you’ll have to try again - when you defeat the final boss - which requires quite a bit of card game playing and out-of-arena exploration, you get to watch a few live action videos about the card collector and how he got into possession of “Inscryption” cards.
The game then shifts to a mode that reminded me much of Pokemon TCG on the original Gameboy where you select an archetype from four, each with their different mechanics, and go on a quest around a pixelated world in order to defeat the four bosses. I really enjoyed that part as well, you get the mages that use a semi-complex mana crystal system, the robots that use energy that increases and replenishes every turn and the undead that use ‘bones’ generated from dead creatures.
After which you are thrown into another extra mode where you explore a world of robots and fight bosses with REALLY SPECIAL mechanics, like reading files from your drive or connecting to the internet. This part was also really great! It culminates into everything getting destroyed, but you have a few moments to play as the undead and mages beforehand, I kinda wish all factions had equal time under the spotlight, to be honest.
Overall, Inscryption is really solid. The mechanics are great, the setting is intriguing and captivating and the weirdness will make you want to keep playing. It goes for way longer than I thought it would, and when it ended I still wanted to play more. Great game, great surprise, I recommend it 100% if you enjoy card games in the slightest!