My experience with Inscryption is similar to what I had with Bloodborne; I got stuck in the first few hours of the game several times and gave up, then much later jumped in again, devoted myself to getting past the tough bit and getting to see the rest of the fucked up brilliance the game had to offer. Of course, both times I was rewarded with exactly why I love the medium of video games and what they can do.

I regret it now, but back in 2021 when I first played this on my work laptop (which ran like shit, and I also hating gaming on it after work hours), I was convinced I wouldn’t get to see the ending and what everyone was describing online as this crazy unpredictable game, so out of curiosity I skimmed through a YouTube walkthrough. I really regret it!

You won’t get any spoilers out of me, but Inscryption is the kind of adventure that is a nightmarish mystery wrapped in really fun strategy and puzzles. And then you turn a corner and are hit over the head. Then you wake up and forget where you are. Then you’re hit again and suddenly everything is different yet the same. And it keeps going and going. You genuinely will not find many other video games that does what Inscryption does, and does it so fucking well! It’s constantly surprising in the best possible way.

It rewards you for experimentation, messes with you constantly, and my god does it ever contain so many layers and secrets all over the place. There is so much stuff here you’ll either miss, or stumble upon by accident. Ideas upon ideas, the wild shit that the developers come up with minute after minute, I can’t stress enough how admirable it all is. Absolute dedication to ensuring we all have this mindfuck experience that leaves you chomping at the bit to tell others about it.. but you can’t spoil it.

One thing I slightly wish was different, is the speed that actions are displayed during the battles. You’ll have your cards down, ready to ring the bell, and the opponents will have their cards down, plus whatever comes in behind them, and you ring the bell and everyone attacks as well as activates whatever effects/mods the cards have, and sometimes it’s all so fast that you think you’re about to win but suddenly you’ve lost and you couldn’t even see why. I get why the speed is there, but sometimes rounds are suddenly over and you’re like “what? How did I lose?”. I’ve had the same react from winning too. A small nitpick, more of an observation.

Inscryption is a game like Killer7 where there are layers upon layers, not everything makes sense, shit is all fucked up, it’s constantly winking at you and smirking, and it’s just a joy to behold. Love it. I can see this breaking into 5 star territory for me and being an all timer.

Wow, what a goddamn thrill. A little indie title by a small developer, yet this feels like a million bucks. Smooth as hell, lightning fast and tight gameplay, it's lightning in a bottle.

Throw Doom Eternal + Hotline Miami + Mirror's Edge + Superhot + Max Payne in a blender and you'll get the delicious concoction that is Severed Steel.

Do you want to slide across the floor, jump into a wall run, then dive through a window into a room full of five guys while shooting them with an assortment of pistols, machine guns, shotguns, grenade launchers etc. etc., all while in glorious slo-mo? And then drop kick one of them when you run out of ammo, grab his gun out of mid air, and then blast him in the face splattering blood all over the wall? Then buckle up, baby!

Oh, and you also have an arm cannon that can strategically annihilate enemies into a red mist or blast holes in a fully destructible environment that you can use as a quick escape if you're overwhelmed; you can pull a Trinity from The Matrix and wall run up a wall, kick straight off the wall and jump through a hole in the ceiling you just made, while headshotting people as you do so. Come the fuck on!

The only thing stopping me from giving this 5 stars, is the lack of a plot (it really doesn't need one, it's all shooty shooty bang bang but some voice acting, cutscenes, etc. would be cool aside from the very minor animated snippets we get). Also there's only really one boss battle. Not a big nitpick, but whatever. Also, and probably my biggest gripe - I'm not totally in love with the whole cyber/tech/neon/whatever aesthetic; every level looks like you're in this metallic chrome cyberpunk box, it's all enclosed and tight but honestly feels like you're fighting inside some dude's custom built PC with cool lights inside for his CPU and fans. Some levels change it up a bit though which is nice. I'd be more into a gritty realistic look for a game like this (think John Woo's Stranglehold or Max Payne), and I'd love to see the developer's do a real world style game, exactly like this. And with some cool story elements and voice acting! Right now it feels like they have all the gameplay components, it would just be neat to see it presented differently.

I didn't Platinum this, there's some grind-y stuff and some difficulty based trophies that might give me a rough time, but I definitely will be hopping back into this to do some more stuff (there's tons of replay value, bonus missions, challenges, score attacks, and even level/gun modifiers and unlockable arm cannons, there's a ton here!).

Fuck yeah, Severed Steel. Fuck. Yeah.