Inscryption

I didn't know what to expect when I started playing Inscryption, but it did exactly what I hoped it would. I had seen just a little bit of the game, but it was hardly more than the screenshots on its store page. However, I was hoping there would be some kind of hook to pull me in beyond the already intriguing premise of playing cards in a creepy cabin. With so many unexpected layers and secrets, Inscryption delivered on that front many times over. I've seen other reviewers express some dissatisfaction with later phases of the game, but I was so thoroughly engrossed that I actually kept playing after I had beaten it! I normally don't do that, even for games I love, because I have such a large backlog to get through, but Inscryption wasn't letting go that easily.

Inscryption's narrative has an unexpected level of depth that I won't explore further in this review. I was constantly surprised by what happened next, and I think your overall experience will be leagues better if you go into it as blindly as I did. Without any major spoilers, I can say that Inscryption is a haunting deck-builder that challenges you to progressively improve your deck and your strategies so you can defeat the menacing figure sitting across the table from you. If you fail to overtake your opponent, you'll have to start over from scratch, bar any permanent upgrades you may have unlocked in previous runs. While I used to be pretty wary of this formula, the actual card game in Inscryption is so phenomenal that I couldn't help but get sucked in.

While there's a laundry list of reasons why the card game portrayed here could never work in a real tabletop setting, I was still completely immersed. You get to draw from one of two decks to draw from at the start of every turn, with one being the actual deck you're building while the other holds defenseless squirrels. The squirrels typically can't do anything to compete with your opponent, but they are key to the card game's main mechanic. In order to play almost any card onto the board, you'll need to sacrifice a certain number of other cards. Squirrels require no sacrifice to play, so they are the default fodder, at least at the start of a match. If one of your cards is sacrificed or killed in combat, you'll also receive a bone token that can be used to play a different subset of cards that don't require direct sacrifices.

To make any sort of progress, you'll need to master the give and take of sacrifices and bones. Your opponent has no such limitations to the cards they play, instead following a predetermined script. The next cards that your opponent plans to play and the place on the board where they plan to play them are always visible to you, so a bit of clever maneuvering during your turn can guarantee your safety for another turn. However, if you aren't playing wisely, the opposing side of the board can quickly fill up with too many creatures for you to make any sort of recovery. While that happened to me quite a few times, especially in the post-game content, I never felt deterred from hopping right back in, which surprises me quite a bit.

I'm usually pretty put off by the idea of losing any significant amount of progress, but I wasn't bothered here. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Inscryption, I think my true love for it can be attributed to the card game. I love playing the Pokémon Trading Card Game, but I don't have anybody to play it with and rarely have enough time or motivation for PTCG Live anymore (look out for a review of PTCG Pocket soon!). I believe the pick-up-and-play nature of Inscryption on the Switch helped me to fill that void. Obviously, both stand alone as excellent games in their own right, I just think that my love for one helped me to love the other even more.

I don't think you need to be a fan of competitive card games to get a lot out of Inscryption, but it definitely helps. I thought the dark and mysterious narrative complements the gameplay well, but the focus of the game absolutely is the cards. In my case, this was perfect. There are very few games that can convince me not to tackle the next entry in my backlog as soon as possible, but Inscryption somehow did just that. While I don't think this is a game for everyone, if you are a fan of trading card games, board games, tabletop RPGs, or anything similar, you'll likely feel right at home. I won't give my blanket recommendation, but if you fall into the same niche as me, do yourself a favor and play Inscryption!
The game is available for Steam here (as of 11/21/24): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1092790/Inscryption/
The game is available for Switch here (as of 11/21/24): https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/inscryption-switch/
The game is available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S here (as of 11/21/24): https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/inscryption/9p8nstdmz11p
The game is available for PS4 and PS5 here (as of 11/21/24): https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP3643-PPSA07022_00-3600510866394395

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