Compared to Mullens' previous game, Pony Island, this would be a full five stars of improvement in almost every way. Not only is it much longer and more fleshed out, but it handles many mechanics and themes way better as well. One of my biggest gripes with Pony Island was how hard it tried to be cool and meta, and really just ended up ruining the emotional aspect of it.

Inscryption has memorable characters, a gripping visual style, fantastic sound design, and still manages to be meta and thought provoking.

As a standalone game without any comparisons, it's still fantastic but loses a couple of points for a few reasons.

The first act is pretty much rock solid and anything I could complain about would essentially be nitpicks. The introduction to Inscryption and its mechanics is carried out flawlessly in a way that manages to drive curiosity.

It's no secret that act two is not fantastic, it introduces way too many new mechanics in a visual style that ends up feeling cramped and much too overstimulating. I don't mind the departure from the pseudo first person perspective into more of an RPG, but it feels almost too out of place, even if it was for atmosphere.

Act three is also pretty solid, giving a good juxtaposition compared to the first tabletop segment while introducing mechanics that actually are handled well and spaced out.

The ending is also very good and hits in a way that is almost the exact opposite of Pony Island; rather than the characters begging you to delete the game, they're scrambling to play what games they can before everything is deleted.

The ARG parts of the game don't really...take away from the experience, but they don't add much either. If you're interested in it, great, but if not it's fairly easy to ignore and separate from the rest of the game.

And i already said it but; damn Jonah Senzel never misses.