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Spooky card game Inscryption is stacking up to be a surprise GOTY contenderThe next game from the creator of Pony Island and The Hex is a real winner
The next game from the creator of Pony Island and The Hex is a real winner
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital
Inscryptionis the next game fromPony Islandand The Hex creator Daniel Mullins, and having spent two hours playing itsnew demothis week, this creepy deckbuilding game has immediately shot up the list of my current game of the year contenders. It’s dark, it’s spooky, it’s compelling, and in typical Mullins style, there’s a heck of a lot more going on here than meets the eye. For starters, why the heck are my cardstalkingto me, and why is there one with my own name and face on it?
Right from the off, Inscryption doesn’t mess about on the weirdness front. You wake up in front of a dark, candle-lit table, and all you can see on the other side of it is a pair of ominous white eyes that spiral into a mad shade of orange whenever words growl out of their invisible mouth. You are trapped here, it seems, and you’re about to play a deadly game of cards.
Inscryption | October 19 | Demo on SteamWatch on YouTube
Inscryption | October 19 | Demo on Steam
The setup immediately calls to mindHand Of Fate, Defiant Development’s underrated deck-building RPG series that plays out a bit like a tabletop game, only here’s it’s infinitely more sinister. Not only does Inscryption’s mad dungeon master narrate your journey as your wooden character figurine makes their way across aSlay The Spire-esque branching map scroll, but he also dons misshapen, handmade masks in order to play different support characters and bosses you meet along the way. There’s something disturbingly unhinged about this man who’s constantly leering at you from a cloud of darkness, but no sooner have you picked up your first hand of cards than things start getting even weirder.
Your stoat starts talking to you. And what he has to say isn’t good news.
Your cards are themed around animals in Inscryption, and the aim is to deal enough damage so the creepy set of teeth-laden scales sitting off to your left falls all the way down your opponent’s side rather than yours. To deal said damage, you’ll either need to attack a free space in front of one of your four cards, or biff the animal opposite you to clear the way.
There are branching pathways in Inscryption’s map scroll, letting you choose between more card battles, visiting totem merchants that bestow extra effects on certain cards, campfires where hungry travellers offer to boost the health or attack power of your cards (and maybe take a nibble out of them in the process), and much more.
The good news is that you can play as many cards as you like in a single turn, offering up plenty of strategic avenues to take to counter what’s being thrown at you. While most of the odds seem stacked against you in this crazed mind game, you do get one small concession in that you can see what your opponent’s going to play one turn in advance. This can help with a bit of forward planning, but even in demo form, Inscryption doesn’t pull its punches. I fell victim to the main boss several times before I managed to best him, although ‘dying’ is actually part of the fun here. On a second go, the game revealed even more of what’s going on underneath, introducing new dialogue from my talkative stoat, and further hints about other talking animal cards to find.
Your Wolf Cub requires one blood, so sorry, squirrel, it’s time for the knife.
Indeed, it quickly became apparent that I wasn’t just locked into playing a deranged card game. At the end of each map event, I was actually free to get up and walk around this shady cabin, which revealed the existence of several additional puzzles. Straight away, I felt like I’d been cast back into aZero Escapegame, which is always a good thing in my book as they’re some of my favourite games ever made. In Inscryption, this involved finding obscure clues hidden around the rest of the environment to try and solve them. Some were simply a matter of poking and prodding the slots and wooden dials of the object in question, trying to work out what made them tick, but others involved diving into the rule book to find a hidden code, for example.
Those eyes will forever haunt my nightmares…
But then the unspeakable happened. I drew my own death card - the card I created right at the end of my first playthrough using random traits, health and attack power from other cards I once had in my deck. A dazed black silhouette stared back at me with my name written across the top, and then it hit me. As it turned out, I’d given myself some pretty generous stats - a zero cost draw, decent attack and a good wodge of health - and I realised I’d be able to use these cards against old man crazy over there in a sweet, sweet blow of vengeful justice. As it also turned out, I’d have to die a second time before I’d be able to defeat his mad Prospector boss and get to the end of the demo, but the thought of using the knowledge and abilities of your past playthroughs like this is a powerfully tantalising one. It hooked me real good, and I was left wondering just what else there was to discover on maybe a fourth or fifth playthrough as well.
I’m sure plenty of you will probably want to wait for the full game given how close we are to the release date, but I do still highly recommend checking outthe demo on Steamif you’re at all on the fence. And don’t forget we’ve got loads of otherSteam Next Fest demo recommendationsfor you to try as well before they disappear on October 7th.
