I'm a huge sucker for "deck-building roguelikes", but usually drop them halfway through because the gameplay loop eventually gets stale, but Inscryption stuck immediately. I was drawn in with Inscryption's horror element and was not disappointed. I was so satisfied with the "opponent" and their use of different masks as each boss - very unsettling and hits my horror loving heart in just the right places.

The card game itself is simple, satisfying and QUICK. That was probably the key. I rarely had matches that were drawn out, and even when they were it was a rush trying to stay alive with only 5 (and 4 in Kaycee's Mod!) hitpoints.

After you finish the main story, you unlock Kaycee's Mod, which is the true roguelike, endless mode and I had so much fun unlocking new decks and cards with each victory. There are a lot of different strategies you can build for each run, and additional challenges you add on to make it unique (think "heat" from Hades). Overall, Inscryption is hands down my favorite deck-building roguelike and I wish there was more.

There are very few video game genres that I flat-out won't play, but boy oh boy do I not get along with card games. Maybe it's the ADHD part of my brain that has zero patience or the fact I'm absolutely abysmal at thinking two steps ahead (both are probably linked now I mention it...), but card games are basically my kryptonite. They're slow, technical and feel custom-built for old people who want to talk to me about taxes and their OAP bus pass. So when I say this, I mean it. Inscryption is a borderline masterpiece.

I don't know how Daniel Mullins came up with this but it's legitimately genius. Combine aesthetically grimy horror with a surprisingly intricate card game. That's like taking your grandpa that loves caravaning to a nightclub in Vegas. But somehow the pair work in harmony, making an utterly fascinating experience. There's this ebb and flow to the roguelike card combat which is easy to pick up and play but so difficult to fully master, while the unsettling (but oddly charming) characters you meet and mysteries you uncover make every inevitable death and reset less frustrating.

But its Inscryption's creative ways of inviting you to toy with and break its systems to succeed that fully set it apart. This is a deeply meta game, and although you can succeed with an airtight battle strategy, the true gameplay loop is learning how to cheese the systems to rig Inscryption's battles in your favour. It's filled with inventive ideas, and let me tell you, you have absolutely no idea how batshit wild it gets. Everyone who's played it is going to tell you to avoid looking too deeply into it before buying and they're 100% correct.

Like, this starts and you're immediately caught off guard. You're sat in a dark room with a little gremlin man who's just absolutely gassed to be playing cards with someone. You start playing and instantly this little bastard is just playing the dirtiest game you've seen in your life. Dude's just knocking your cards off the table if he feels like it, adding shit cards to your deck, stealing lives from you because his "boss battles have stakes". If there's a way to cheat, this dude will find it. And so the game becomes about bending the rules so that you can outwit him, to which he'll bend the rules back. And you think, oh, this shit is so weird. This is why everyone has told me to play this game. But, dude, let me tell you. The weird gremlin man cabin is just the tip of the iceberg.

I don't want to spoil any more, but Inscryption goes places that you don't expect, and by the end, it's become about a whole lot more than cussing out the dumb gremlin dude in his claustrophobic cabin. So why isn't it a five-star? For me, it was close, but I think the first act is the tightest and the ensuing two maybe drag slightly in comparison, but they're both still pretty good. Act 3, despite getting a lot of shit from people online, has some next-level boss design, while Act 2 gives you a lot more control over your deck, which is a fun mechanic.

Overall though, this is genuinely just a developer going sicko mode for 12 hours straight. It seems every year has that one game that comes out of nowhere and is a straight-up masterpiece that everyone who's played it won't shut the hell up about. Papers Please, Undertale, Outer Wilds, Disco Elysium. In my eyes, this is one of those games. Don't watch a walkthrough and don't get turned off cause you don't like card games. Just play it. You'll be enthralled in like 10 minutes... mainly because the gremlin man is secretly a theatre kid and has god tier stage presence. I did theatre for 10 years. Lemme tell you. That green bastard is a theatre kid through and through.

Terra meter: 72%

Story/narrative - 4/5
Gameplay - - 4/5
Sound/music - 3/5
General presentation - 4/5
Overall enjoyment - 3/5