Inscryption:
Inscryption: A Card Game to Avoid Dying For
Inscryption: A Review That Includes All the Information Other Reviewers Won't Share
Time to Beat:
13 Hours, 49 Minutes
In 2017 I reviewed Pony Island. I called it “predictable,” “straightforward,” and “an endless slog,” because it makes no attempt at deceiving the player about its plot. The last comment now seems unfair, since the game is only two hours long. It was still too long for the limited ideas the developer introduced. I recommended it with reservations in the 2017 annual review.
Inscryption, also by Daniel
Mullins, suffers from a similar problem. It has a better setup- but
squanders it by wasting the player's time with unnecessary
extensions. I bought the game because of its many nominations,
rewards, and positive reviews. But I feel these, in an attempt to
avoid spoilers, only addressed the first third of the game. In my
mind the game is easily divided into four Acts, and only the first is
award worthy.
ACT I(a): A CABIN IN THE WOODS,
SOMEWHERE...
The monster, who the player later (but
much later, I mean, unnecessarily delayed, like Act II) learns is
named Leshy. I only mention that here, so I can refer to him in that
way, instead of repeatedly calling him monster, or some other term.
Leshy's card game is about nature, red in tooth and claw. The player
has two decks, one with their collection of combative animals (Bears,
Sharks, Snakes, Wolfs, Vultures) and one with only rabbits.
On the player's turn they choose to draw a card, or a rabbit. Each card has a name at the top, a picture, an attack power in the bottom left, a health number in the bottom right, and an ability in the middle. The combat board is a grid of four columns and three rows. The player places their cards in the bottom row. These are in play. Leshy places his cars in the top row. These are out of play. On Leshy's next turn his cards move into the middle row, and are now in play. He reveals his actions in advance. The player summons their units with blood. Nearly all cards have a blood cost of one, two, or three. Rabbits, the exception, cost zero blood to play. Blood is the number of in play cards the player must sacrifice to summon the card in their hand. Leshy does not use blood, he merely places cards, delayed one turn. This system of sacrifice contributes to the ominous and brutal atmosphere of Leshy's dark and dirty cabin.
After drawing a card or a rabbit, the player plays cards and then watches the cards attack. Cards attack cards in their path. Leshy's out of play cards in the top row don't count. If a card hits an opposing card it damages that card's health equal to the attacker's attack power. This damage is permanent. The defending card does not inflict damage on the attacker. If the card is not blocked by an enemy card it damages the player (here I use player to mean the Player or Leshy, depending on who is under attack). Hits are recorded in a scale, filled by knuckle bones. The scale starts at zero. The first person to be at a deficit of five loses the match. This means, one person could lose quickly after taking five damage. Or, in theory, the battle could go back and forth, keeping the damage difference no more than four, until someone finally wins, 100 to 105. This isn't possible, as the player's deck is limited (it also seems like Leshy has a limited number of cards per battle). I lost once because I ran out of cards to draw. A single battle isn't the extent of Inscryption, or the player's imprisonment (though it's reasonable to question whether each individual battle is too quick. I would say, yes, slightly, but yes). Leshy's game is a campaign. It begins in the Forest. Leshy rolls out a map. It has a path, dividing into two, three, or four branches. The branches eventually narrow to a final point at the end of each region. The path is marked with clearly identifiable icons. Icons indicate battles, special battles, or any of a number of a variety of resting spots that offer the player a benefit. One type of resting spot allows the player to sacrifice a card to transfer its ability to another one of their cards. Another spot lets the player pick new cards from a few choices. The player can review their collection of cards when they are not in a battle. Inscryption is a deck building game, and it encourages the player to put together a winning combination.
Each region ends with a boss battle. Each boss introduces special rules that complicate the battles. Bosses are tougher. They have two lives, and after defeating the first life, they unleash a devastating ability to confound the player. If the player defeats the boss they advance to the next region; the Swamp, the Snow Line, and finally, the Cabin.
Inscryption does a superb job continually increasing the tension, while simultaneously introducing new rules and concepts. I lost a number of times, but each time I advanced further. I lost the first time at each boss, but beat them the following time. Inscryption continues to introduce new cards until the final moment of Act I. But when the player is defeated they return to the Forest to begin again. The continuous addition of concepts made sure the experience never felt boring or tiresome.
Loss is a part of Inscryption. The player must suffer two losses before they restart. After the first loss Leshy unshackles the player so they can explore his small home. Simultaneously he threatens to sacrifice you if you lose a second. This ominous threat is supported by some of the cards. The Stoat and Stink Bug offer friendly advice tempered with warnings. The cabin is filled with a handful of small puzzles and secrets. Solving these is helpful, but not necessary. But they are pretty easy, so it shouldn't be too difficult.
Eventually I suffered my second defeat. And Leshy (remember he didn't have a name yet, granting him a more monstrous persona) reaches across the table, and the screen goes blank. I awoke in another room. Leshy stands in a doorway, trapping you (not that you can move, it looks like you are lying on the ground). He asks you to design a new card based on cards currently in your deck. He asks you to name it, takes a picture of you with a Polaroid camera and kills you (presumably, you don't see).
The next thing the player sees is the table, and Leshy across from them. The player is supposed to think they died. Are they supposed to think of themselves as the same person, or as a new one? It isn't clear, and this frustrates the player's immersion. The card the player designed sometimes appears in the deck. But I also started to see cards I hadn't created, like one of Kaycee. I kept playing, dying, progressing, learning. On my fifth death, when Inscryption displayed a strange something, the player character uttered their first word, “Woah!” The final boss of the Cabin twists the common mechanics into an eerie conflict with the moon and three lives. With the scale moving in my favor, I thought, “I am about to beat Inscryption, but HowLongToBeat.com says I still have seven hours to play. What trick does this game plan to reveal next?” So I beat Leshy's final form, and then the game tries to get weird.
ACT I(c): STORY SPOILERS, THE
INTRODUCTION OF A PROTAGONIST
This reveals that the player (I) is playing the Player (Luke Carder), playing Inscryption. From this moment Carder's voice intrudes constantly, inserting comments like “How is this game not over yet?” (after defeating Leshy's final form in the Cabin). Carder adds additional CC commentary, like “I'm so sick of this boss. Die already.”
After defeating Leshy a locked room in the cabin opens. It's the room where Leshy kills the player every time. It's packed with dead bodies. The Player makes a card of Leshy and unlocks New Game+.
Normally I don't play New Game+, but I suspected this was different.
Recent:
Sekiro: A Strange, Solo Reflection of Dark SoulsRelevant:
Pony Island: Playing as a Pony to Defeat the Devil. No, that's not a Spoiler.
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