This review contains spoilers
Inscryption boasts a beautiful beginning with charming dialogue and wonderfully done atmosphere. Act 1 is a visual treat and, had it been the entirety of the game, would have honestly garnered more love from me. The rules are simple enough to learn quickly, with enough variation and ways to augment your cards that you can play all sorts of different ways. The boss fights in the cabin are lovely, too; the dark aesthetic marries perfectly with the haunting soundtrack, and the mechanics are all perfectly in theme with the boss, as well.
Unfortunately, the game drops off quite hard after this. It may be a staple of Daniel Mullin's work, but the meta-fictional plot is unengaging and underwhelming. I'm far more interested in the world inside the game, and I could feel all of my immersion get forcibly torn away each time I was forced to sit through a segment involving 'the real world.' The game's plot and characters suffer for this, in my opinion, as so much time is diverted away from the Scrybes and into Lucas Carder. The fact Luke will occasionally quip in over your gameplay, just after enough time has passed for you to forget he existed, was nothing short of irritating.
Act 3, at least for me, wasn't so terrible, though it certainly was /boring/ both to look at and read. The card game, however, was back to being reminiscent of the cabin, and I was pleased to go back to it with a fresh new set of mechanics. This does come with the caveat of the game playing much slower than before, though, so make what you will of it.
The half-baked plot concludes with one final stand against each of the Scrybes, though all are cut short. I for one, actually quite enjoyed this! It looked amazing, and gave me a taste of the decks I hadn't really been able to enjoy in the slog of the second act. Unfortunately, as cool as the set piece is, the Scrybes are neutered for plot-reasons and you may only play a few turns with each one before moving on. This segment simply furthered my need for the game to throw away the focus on the metafictional: I would happily play a game going through the worlds of each Scrybe, as you had done with Leshy's cabin, and enjoyed it much more than the actual product.
After this, the finale to the plot is... unsatisfying, at best, and honestly, comes off as downright laughable. Why should I care for Lucas Carder, or anything that happens to him? Why should I feel horror at PO-3's actions? What is the truth behind the mysterious card-turned-video-game? I've played other games that leave me turning questions such as these over in my head for weeks afterwards (shoutout to Signalis!), but with Inscryption, I felt no attachment to any of it. Honestly, I wanted the credits to roll faster, so I could get back to playing the cabin card game in Kaycee's Mod.
I don't think that Inscryption is bad at a base level. It's a fun game bogged down by terrible writing, leaving a perfectly mediocre experience. But I don't want a mediocre game, I want a game that continues to channel the fun and wonder I had at the start.
Unfortunately, the game drops off quite hard after this. It may be a staple of Daniel Mullin's work, but the meta-fictional plot is unengaging and underwhelming. I'm far more interested in the world inside the game, and I could feel all of my immersion get forcibly torn away each time I was forced to sit through a segment involving 'the real world.' The game's plot and characters suffer for this, in my opinion, as so much time is diverted away from the Scrybes and into Lucas Carder. The fact Luke will occasionally quip in over your gameplay, just after enough time has passed for you to forget he existed, was nothing short of irritating.
Act 3, at least for me, wasn't so terrible, though it certainly was /boring/ both to look at and read. The card game, however, was back to being reminiscent of the cabin, and I was pleased to go back to it with a fresh new set of mechanics. This does come with the caveat of the game playing much slower than before, though, so make what you will of it.
The half-baked plot concludes with one final stand against each of the Scrybes, though all are cut short. I for one, actually quite enjoyed this! It looked amazing, and gave me a taste of the decks I hadn't really been able to enjoy in the slog of the second act. Unfortunately, as cool as the set piece is, the Scrybes are neutered for plot-reasons and you may only play a few turns with each one before moving on. This segment simply furthered my need for the game to throw away the focus on the metafictional: I would happily play a game going through the worlds of each Scrybe, as you had done with Leshy's cabin, and enjoyed it much more than the actual product.
After this, the finale to the plot is... unsatisfying, at best, and honestly, comes off as downright laughable. Why should I care for Lucas Carder, or anything that happens to him? Why should I feel horror at PO-3's actions? What is the truth behind the mysterious card-turned-video-game? I've played other games that leave me turning questions such as these over in my head for weeks afterwards (shoutout to Signalis!), but with Inscryption, I felt no attachment to any of it. Honestly, I wanted the credits to roll faster, so I could get back to playing the cabin card game in Kaycee's Mod.
I don't think that Inscryption is bad at a base level. It's a fun game bogged down by terrible writing, leaving a perfectly mediocre experience. But I don't want a mediocre game, I want a game that continues to channel the fun and wonder I had at the start.