Inscryption:
Inscryption: A Card Game to Avoid Dying For
Inscryption:
A Review That Includes All the Information Other Reviewers Won't
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ACT II(a): THE THINGS OTHER REVIEWERS WON'T TELL YOU
Most reviews seem to stop at the end of Act I. They don't want to spoil anything. But though the game is only half over, the best part is behind the player.
Act II begins with the player, still playing as Luke Carder, still playing Inscryption. But now it looks like Pokemon on the GBA. Carder reads a story of how Inscryption came to be. Four Scrybes rule the world; Leshy of the Beasts, Grimora of the Dead, P03 of Technology, and Magnificus of Magicks. The player chooses one to challenge, but this is mostly irrelevant, as the player must defeat all four (I chose Magnificus). The choice influences the player's starting deck of cards. If I played a second time I would choose Grimora. She has the best deck.
Carder, “What's this?” Answer, four areas, three news deck styles, and a gaggle of opponents and bosses to defeat. Each area is controlled by one of the four scrybes. Before challenging them the player must defeat three of their minions and complete a small puzzle. Defeating a minion awards the player a pack of cards. This section is much more focused on deck building. The player takes all the cards they collect (around one hundred) and chooses how to build their deck. The player's deck must contain a minimum of 20 cards, with no upper limit. Act II lacks the tension of Leshy's Cabin, because it is bright and colorful without any threats. The minions and bosses are tougher than Leshy's campaign, but there is no penalty to losing. If the player loses a card game they can try again immediately, an unlimited number of times, even against bosses. This section could be tough to beat if the player can't figure out how to build a good deck. It could be very easy to mess up this section and be stuck for a long time. Don't build a bloated deck; only use two of the deck types.
Act II continually reminds the player that they are playing Carder playing Inscryption. They learn about Kaycee Hobbes (1970-1992). After defeating two bosses, the player watches more videos of Luke Carder. I had no clue about Inscryption's direction at this point. In retrospect, I don't think the developer has a concrete plan either (if he does, he doesn't communicate it effectively). The Act ends with a final boss after the player defeats the four Scrybes. But this boss “glitches,” and the game moves onto Act III.
ACT II(b): A BRIEF WORD ABOUT THE GAME
Act II introduces three new deck styles. It includes Leshy's blood deck. It adds a Skeleton deck which uses a bone mechanic introduced by Leshy. When a card dies the player receives a bone token. Skeleton cards (and some animal cards like snakes and vultures), cost bone tokens instead of blood. The Magick deck uses gems, a bit like Lands from Magic the Gathering. A Magick card requires the existence of a particular “land”, which in Inscryption are called Mox. There are Emerald, Ruby, and Sapphire Mox. Finally, the Robot deck uses energy. On the first turn, the player has one energy to spend. On the second turn the player has two energy to use, even if they used energy the previous turn.
The player is free to combine any or all of the styles. Though I started with Mox, I transitioned to a Skeleton and Robot mix. The Skeleton cards seemed stronger than any other set.
As mentioned previously, there is no penalty for losing battles.
The game still uses the four column, three row grid, and same damage system. The only highlight is the bosses are all really unique with special rules.
ACT III(a): ANOTHER SCRYBE TAKES CONTROL
Inscryption reveals that the game is competition between the bots. They each want control of the game. Now P03, the Scrybe of Technology seizes control. He brings the Player to his factory, which strongly resembles Leshy's cabin, except that it is sci-fi themed. Again shackled to the table, the player is forced to play P03's game of Botopia. This uses a new world map, a hologram in blues and blacks. It is more like Act I than Act II. The Player moves along the map fighting battles, earning new cards and upgrades, and confronting four bosses. The bosses represent the four Scrybes. Each adds different rules to make battles feel unique.
Eventually unshackled, the Player explores P03's factory, encountering more puzzles. These are similar to Leshy's cabin puzzles from Act I.
After defeating bosses, the player watches more Carder videos. While Inscryption seemed ominous and threatening under Leshy, the reveal of Carder leans toward the comical. The additional videos make me wonder; is this horror or joke horror? Is Carder going to die? And why is Kaycee Hobbes relevant? Inscryption is a story in the game, but also a story of Carder and the world. Act III rapidly brings these two conflicts together. P03's version of Grimora, Scrybe of the Dead, uses a trick similar to many games at this point (Undertale, Pony Island, Superhot: MCD, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice), where she threatens to delete data from the player's computer. Of course it does nothing of the sort.
P03 uses his game as a deception to trick Carder into performing a series of seemingly innocuous actions that will allow him to enter and control the real world (see, Ultron, or any computer entity that has ever tried to take over Earth). The other three Scrybes intervene, killing P03.
ACT III(b): THE GAME REMAINS MOSTLY THE SAME
P03's game is P03's game from Act II. The first turn the player has one energy. The second turn the player has two energy. It keeps increasing to five. The cards are similar to Leshy's cards, but instead of blood, they cost energy to place. P03 adds additional rules as his campaign progresses, but this section is much shorter than Leshy's ACT I, meaning it doesn't develop as much. The only significant difference is the board expands to five columns.
ACT IV: AN INCOMPLETE ENDING
After Leshy breaks P03, Grimora initiates the destruction of Inscryption. As the game corrupts itself, the player plays a ten minute match against her, five minutes against Leshy, and a minute against Magnificus. Grimora's is as interesting as a ten minute possibly can be, and Leshy's might make the player nostalgic, but Magnificus' game is boring. The developer doesn't leave enough time to develop his game.
In a few final real world videos, the player watches Carder's pathetic attempts to destroy the floppy disc, talk to a reporter on the phone, and answer the door to face a real world threat connected to the Inscryption game. The screen goes blank after a glitch tears apart the player's screen.
It's unclear whether the ending is supposed to be a cliffhanger (to what?) or a deficient conclusion.
IN CONCLUSION,
Inscryption develops a stellar Act I. It has atmosphere. It has gameplay. It has innovation. It even has the hints of a story. Each following act skids steadily downhill. The end of Act I introduces Carder, the protagonist. This addition tears apart the tone Inscryption's Act I constructed. Carder can't maintain the ominous and threatening atmosphere. Seen from Carder's perspective, Inscryption is campy and corny. Horrific events, like when the player stabs out their eye with a knife, become mawkish and silly. The foes are full of malice (threatening the player), but then they aren't (because they threaten an intermediary, Carder).
Act II introduces some new elements, some nice changes. But it adds too much, most of it not used to its full potential. Act III replicates Act I; it is both too similar and too short.
Act IV is a truncated ending.
The game only develops two of its four Scrybes.
Inscryption's errors then are twofold. One, in spite of attempts to mitigate this forseen problem, gameplay becomes repetitive. The key conceit, a card game against an implacable opponent, is recycled repeatedly. The second problem is the story. According to redditors, Inscryption is connected to Daniel Mullins' second game The Hex. Having never played it, I can't explain how the stories interlock. The story of Inscryption, which is marketed as a standalone game, is blotched by an overarching plot that is campy, incomplete, and poorly explained.. It offers hints rather than a complete plot. Inscryption ends without a satisfactory conclusion, and no offer of one in the future.
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