Inscryption

I've played this game for literally 1000 hours and I haven't gotten tired of it. It's endlessly re-playable and the aesthetics and style are so wonderful. Thank you for such a wonderful wonderful game.

mindbending, but still replayable. Incredible game loop

first act is good but it becomes a pokemon ripoff that wasnt advertised in the second act that just removed everything good about the game, its also past the return window when you get to the second act

Awesome card game, well at least mostly card game. Strong Black Mirror vibes here!

fantastic game, the game continues even when you think its over.

Great game with cool atmosphere and gameplay

Incredible game. Very fun. Subverts your expectation

I bought this game on the recommendation of someone I work with. Even with his recommendation I watched the video and thought, hmm, not really my thing. But in the end I bought it and was not disappointed. This game is unlike anything you've played before, give it a try, you'll love it.

Very unique game. There are games out there with similar elements, but INSCRYPTION wasn't afraid to take risks and I think it paid off huge.

There's no way to really know what the game is without spoiling it, but here are some pieces...
-It's a card game with heavy deckbuilding mechanics.
-As far as I've played it's also a little roguelike. You won't win every run and that's part of the progression, so don't let it frustrate you.
-The sense of mystery and discovery is really cool. Investigate EVERYTHING, there's a lot of content scattered around and you'll be generously rewarded.
-The combos and synergies you can build are truly amazing. I've never broken a game system so hard as I have here, and it was really fun to do.
-The game is CONSTANTLY evolving, so you can't get too comfortable. Once you think you've "figured it out" the game mechanics shift, you get dealt new cards, or the challenge increases.
-If you ever think the game is "too hard" you should take a step back and think about how to use the tools the game has given you. That's the core gameplay, so embrace the possibilities!

Don't look things up! Dive in blind and it'll blow your mind. A true indie gem, right here!

Its a complicated game, the first act is great, but the second and third are bad. The first act sets a good mood and creates a mysterious atmosphere, if the game was just act 1 it would be a better game. The second and third act shakes things up but not for the better, the second is just more boring than the first. The third is just horrible, with a eye straining colour scheme and ear piercing sounds, and a unsatisfying conclusion to the plot. Overall a slightly good game.

All the screenshots and videos you see on the store page are from the first 4 hours of the game. After about 4 hours the game changes its visuals and gameplay significantly. For me the change was too drastic and the "new" game no longer enjoyable, so I refunded.

Probably one of the best games I've ever played in my life, I seriously could've never have predicted that it would be so deep as in lore, characters, music even the gameplay is so much than it seems, every single part of this game I loved and could not recommend more

An endlessly challenging roguelike card game, and an intricately crafted experience that rightfully deserves its place among the greats of indie gaming.

They should have called this game? Insidious. I've played actual card games before sure, like Euchre or Poker, yes even Go Fish...so i I'm starting to get the gist. Similar suits and/or series? Depending on what the "Game Master' dictates.. aka the Developer. I kinda want to choke him? Her, they/them idc... i'm impartial. Half kidding of course. Its from Devolver Digital! They been setting AA standards many years now. This is an absolute masterpiece.

10/10. Best experienced blind.

Moderate spoilers -
This is a card game with escape room and horror elements.
Both the horror and the escape room parts are fairly lightweight and don't detract from the lore.

The card game part is a roguelike,
and it is unique in allowing us to modify existing cards to create more powerful cards.
It is enjoyable on its own, so much so that Kaycee's Mod (a free DLC included with the game) focus and expands on it.

My only disappointment is that there's no Act 3 analogue for Grimora or Magnificus.

/!\ Potential spoilers ahead /!\

This game is an absolute trip to insanity, and it does it so well that the ending wont leave you emotionless.
That said, the game have some daunting moments, but i encourage you to push through and go for the story 100% (i insist, do all the secret stuff in the story, its worth doing). Id say it took me about 15 hours at most to do the whole story, and it didnt feel like it.

This game at first glance can look like a deckbuilder kinda like heartstone, but its only a facade, the real game is everything behind it. It doesnt mean that the gameplay isnt important, its equally important and it has its own mechanics that are really cool to explore.
The game has excellent replayability via Kaycee's mod (unlockable either by completing the game once, or entering a secret sequence in the menu) that will keep you in what is arguably the best part of the game. HOWEVER ! Even myself had really bad feeling after act1, the bar was so high, the start of act2 felt... weird and underwhelming, after a few weeks i finally decided to finish the story, and i just spent 12 hours on it. Theres plenty of hidden details, of puzzles and enigmas that are worth your time.

To do a quick summary:
- A deck builder with its own quirks and ideas that make it unique and well thought, very imbalanced in favor the player in the story part of the game.
- A story worthy of your time, despite the transition from act 1 to act 2 being weird and can feel underwhelming at first.
- A rogue-like mod unlockable that provide excellent replayability.
- Puzzles and enigmas that are really well thought, not specifically hard, but make you use your brain.
- An atmosphere that peaks in act 1.


I can only recommend the game mainly for its story, im not a fan of deckbuilders myself and yet i find myself enjoying this game quite a lot and trying to slowly beat kaycee's mod over time.

Banger game. Took a chance on it because it didn't seem like my style, but now it's in my top 10 games OAT. Super immersive, tons of content and replay potential. My only criticism is that there isn't more.

An amazing blend of roguelike and story - going in blind highly encouraged!

Also I got to play YuGiOh! against a tree. 10/10.

Where do I even start? Like what can I even say? Well, I know what to say "Just go play it damn you!".

One of the most unique experiences that made me feel like a kid again. Even though at many points I didn't know what I was doing, I kept playing and playing without a care. It kept me stuck to it and even though It took me months of discontinued playthroughs. I kept coming back to this. Now, that it's over. Man, I'm feeling Empty.

10/10 for the whole experience. I'm amazed at how big this game felt, even though it was so small in reality. I still think this game and devs behind it deserve a lot more recognition.

Im not normally into card games but, wow, what an excellent game this has been. The pacing is damn near perfect and every time you think you're running dry it throws an absolute curve ball your way to keep things fresh. Amazing game.

Gameplay is simple but very interesting. The duels are challenging.

First act is incredible, diminishing returns on subsequent acts, but still more than worth the price of admission

its really fun you should buy it no im not a bot i just cant think of anything else to say

Let’s delve a bit into this fascinating experience.

This is one of the best examples of storytelling I’ve seen in a card game. I really loved the layers involved in breaking the fourth wall, in fact, the fourth wall is broken through many different stages until it finally reaches you, the player. (It also appears in other ways, of course, such as integrating the main menu directly into the gameplay.) We begin by standing up from the table where we’re playing a “deck builder” game and interacting with the person sitting across from us, along with the atmosphere surrounding us. At the end of that initial interaction (in Act 1), additional major figures begin to appear through the talking cards, and with Act 2, a sort of “narrative” takes shape on the top of that mysterious ambiance. Meanwhile, an ARG storyline and the concept of “old data” start developing through the player’s perspective. By Act 3, the scope of breaking the fourth wall extends to us, like showing Steam friends as enemies and even accessing computer files. Finally, the relationships among these figures build to a peak and conclude.

I can explain these layers more clearly; it’s essentially related to what you perceive as the “most encompassing” element within the game. If we are only playing a card game, our universe within the game is limited to just that. If we stand up from our place and interact with the person we’re playing with, our universe expands to the figure compelling us to play the card game and keeping us confined in the cabin. If, beyond this single figure, we observe other characters of similar importance and power, and notice that the story revolves around these four characters, and we individually interact with each, then our universe elevates to include these four figures and their stories. Furthermore, if we encounter an ARG aspect connected to all these elements, and we also follow the IRL narrative of the person playing the game, and finally, if we arrive at mechanics that affect not only that person but also us directly, our universe expands considerably. Throughout the game, we sequentially move through these layers in an interesting way.

These techniques by themselves might not be overwhelmingly impressive, indeed, many games use them, and their impact doesn’t always last long. Even though I’d rather avoid overly abstract discussions, the essence of my point is that each technique has been developed so solidly and expansively that you could call it its own “layer,” and the relationship among these layers is high-quality enough that you might call it a dimension. I really enjoyed being in this sort of fourth-wall-breaking space. I tip my hat to the game’s storytelling, which offers many valuable insights.

I haven’t even gotten to the mechanics yet, have I? While all this is happening, the game’s mechanics diversify within each act, and each time you switch acts, it transforms into something different. Sometimes, when I think of deck builder games, I compare them, but it doesn’t make much sense to line this one up against others. I think it really achieves its own goals. To briefly mention mechanics, I believe it also delivers a very strong gameplay experience. The integration of storytelling into gameplay is done naturally and effectively, so yes, it’s a good game even if you only think of it as a deck builder.

Some wild theories suggest each “Scrybe” represents certain attributes defining a game design or even a good creation of a world. However, considering the personas of the Scrybes and their interactions, these theories don’t seem far-fetched. More reasonably, we might reflect on what each Scrybe values and the experiences they provide us. I won’t go into further detail, but it’s worth exploring and thinking about.

Regarding the ARG component, if you really push the boundaries and investigate, you can discover some very fascinating things, and it turns into a whole different adventure. As you dig deeper into the concept of “old data,” you realize it’s not only confined to the game itself, it reaches into other games as well. However, I don’t think it’s necessary to go that deep. I did enjoy the atmosphere added by the occasional IRL videos, but I don’t think they’re essential for the game’s narrative. It’s certainly fun if you’re curious, though.

It’s a game that has you questioning, at every step, who is truly “living,” who is real, what exactly we’re in, and who remembers what.

Finally, there were definitely moments when I got a bit bored or couldn’t fully immerse myself. Introducing so many different mechanics and an ever-changing storytelling technique naturally leads to that. You’d need a more “packaged” product to keep it consistent. This is often the case with games prioritizing “experience.” Of course, there are plenty of things that could have been done better, maybe issues or omissions I’ve noticed, especially the things you might need to know to ground the story in a more logical context. (even if completing every detail isn’t always necessary or beneficial for storytelling) Still, before I focus on any of that, I really must say: play, experience, and live this game. There’s plenty worth exploring. This is my favorite aspect of games: the experience a game provides can be truly unique due to its broad scope.

This game is a must play. It has a ton of variety, and turns the player's expectations on upside down when things start to progress. This isn't just a card game. There is an interesting story and course taken through the game's "narrative".

Easily a 9/10.

Just got the platinum trophy and I can definitely recommend this game to ya'll!
Challenging and funny to play at the same time, if you like card games this one will get you addicted to it right away.
Kaycee's mod goes beyond challenging, offering you some funny items to help you through your journey.

Recommend, got it on sale.

> Card + Puzzle + Escape Room
> Challenge with unfair opponent and rule
> Explore super fun combos
> Take photos in a cabin where you can barely see
> Name your own card whatever you want

Squirrels carried my game...

Very interesting. 3 acts game, first one is fantastic, second is meh, third is solid but not as good as the first one. Another bad thing - lack of different endings.

really addicting yet very simple gameplay. the visual also is my favourite

An absolute blast from start to finish. Would highly recommend to anyone looking for a good card game adventure.

Inscryption is a multi-act card game, but throughout, it always seems like more. The storyline is coherent and cool, the gameplay is also great- a pure card mode opens up after finishing the game.

The atmosphere of Inscryption has many small features that add up over the course of the game, changing the context as you learn more about the world.

There isn't much I want to spoil, because this is a great game to play without spoilers, but it is both fun and thought-provoking. If you like either card battlers or story games, I recommend this and await the next game like it.

I loved this game got stuck on act 3 becasue i skipped through heaps of the dialogue, 100% recommend. Just wish i could play again, or even just the card game aspect. <3

I don't usually do favorites but this is definitely at least one of the best couple games I've ever played or even seen played, genuinely

Daniel Mullins has not failed in making a game that hooks the player. Even if it doesn't look like the type of game you'd play, there's a LOT more to it. I don't normally play deck builders but I became obsessed with this game as soon as I started it.

I would recommend this game, but not to those who are after a fair deck building experience. Now, if you would like to be creeped out, then certainly...

Still, I would like to shake their hand. This was a wonderful game and I went to bed thinking about it over the past week.

Your opponent is more like a casino dealer with 10 aces up their sleeve rather than a traditional opponent, which is why it feels unfair at times. Your opponent, for instance, will put down four things on the board to challenge you on the first round, and you might only have the resources to do one. So it's best to think of the games as encounters or puzzles rather than 1v1. That said, there's enough strategy for your brain to chew on. Sometimes you're presented with difficult odds, but you will manage to pull through if you work on strategy or just straight up surviving rather than raw power. Have no pride with your "power-ups" and do not save them. Some scenarios will punish you for being stingy.

If you fail you will not fail forever. You can make some decisions for yourself that will make you more powerful later. So sometimes it felt like you were waiting to get stronger and luck dealing me good cards. I would be interested to see a 0 death run-through to see if avoiding death is reasonably feasible.

Inscryption is a fun and interesting game, and I have so many screenshots I want to share but I aught to not because I want others to experience it too. So get on it!

Fascinating game with tons of secrets and surprises. The art styles are amazing as well with great variation between the acts. For anyone who gets a bit frustrated in certain battles, there are a bunch of things online about unlocking the secrets to help get more cards and power ups. Some battles are meant to be lost as well. It's a very unique experience that is difficult to forget.

I don't want to spoil anything because "the big twist" is part of why the game is popular. What I will say is the story the game sets up before the twist was vastly more interesting to me than the creepypasta story it ended up becoming. If the developer took the first act of Inscryption and fully committed to that story then I think they would have had a much better game. The card characters were such an interesting concept. With the card gameplay being centered on blood sacrifice as well as the implications of bone alters permanently removing cards, it just pains me to think of what could have been if the story stuck with that.

Mechanically speaking, the game plays fairly well. The gameplay in the first act was much more enjoyable than the rest of the game. The times between acts where your deck is tossed out and you start over can be a real slog. The UI could use some quality of life improvements. Having such a low field of view was probably a stylistic choice, but having to shift the camera around to see what's in my hand, to look at the game board, or to read opposing cards felt very cumbersome. Not having tooltips when hovering over things, instead having to click icons and pull out a rulebook, was also a bit tedious.

Overall I'd say Inscryption is great if you want to play something made by someone who quite clearly loves card games. I just wish they had the courage to be authentic with their story and a little less meta.

If you like deckbuilder rogue-likes, this game is for you. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

An imaginative entry into the burgeoning canon of roguelike card game sims, Inscryption is a fine CCG, realised in handsome and characterful fashion, and enlivened by / saddled with (delete according to preference) Daniel Mullins’ trademark metatextural hijinks. A kind of Paul Auster’s Magic: The Gathering, Inscryption is certainly worth checking out, but in purely gameplay terms does little that hasn’t been seen before.

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT:

It’s likely worth going into Inscryption as blind as you can, as much of the game’s enjoyment comes from the discovery. Like Shrek, Inscryption has layers. With that caveat out of the way, let’s get down to brass tacks: this a more a bundle of related games than one experience. The initial roguelike Slay-the-Spire-in-an-escape-room familiar from the marketing is likely the best. Moving through a beautiful diegetic world of wooden figurines and tableside tools, trapped in a log cabin with your faceless nemesis (who dons wooden masks to represent the various characters you meet along the way), I found Inscryption’s first few hours to be its most enjoyable. The atmosphere is rich, and the premise intriguing. The card battler’s systems are a little shallow, however, and progress is gated behind the puzzles strewn about the log cabin. This can lead to frustrating repetition, which both robs Act 1 of its atmosphere and reveals it to be somewhat at the mercy of the RNG. Drawing one card per turn can feel restrictive, and the five-point-swing to win means battles rarely last for long. There are some delightful synergies and strategies to exploit, but aside from some fun interactions between the card games themselves and the surroundings, there’s little from a gameplay perspective to recommend Inscryption over the likes of Slay the Spire or Hearthstone.

Then you finish the first act, and the second reveals itself as more of a top-down Pokemon-CCG. The aesthetic is much worse, almost deliberately unpleasant. The gameplay is quite shallow, even compared to Leshy’s Cabin. Then comes the third act, a sci-fi reimagining of the first, but mechanically less dynamic, and much less characterful. I’m not sure ditching roguelike mechanics for persistent progression benefits the gameplay. As this goes on, Inscryption reveals more of its 2000s disc-in-the-woods lore, which is not necessarily a good thing. As with Mullins’ previous Pony Island, the gameplay is perhaps best seen as an enjoyable vehicle for delivering a payload of fourth-wall-breaking puzzles and dry wit. This is arch, meta, eyebrow-raising stuff. On the one hand, it’s inventive, imaginative, and generous. On the other, when characters and themes from one gameplay mode show up in another: so what? After somewhat limping to the end of the third act, the finale offers a fun rehash of Inscryption’s themes, and for me was the strongest section after the stellar first few hours. How much you enjoy the totality, however, will likely vary a lot with personal taste and, perhaps, how jaded you are with video games as an art form.

Praise has been heaped on Inscryption, and so you probably don’t need me to recommend it; though I do. Just be aware that – unlike Pony Island, which was short enough not to outstay its welcome – Inscryption’s meta-narrative may not be to everyone’s tastes, and if so, Inscryption can drag. For all that, this is well worth checking out if this is sounds up your alley, and is certainly a unique and well-realised spin on a familiar formula. Slay the Spire likely remains the CCG to beat for gameplay perfection, while in a similar vein I’ve recently also had a blast with Klei’s Griftlands and the terrifying compulsion of Balatro.

As a fan of card games such as Dominion and Slay the Spire, Inscryption does a fantastic job of using this genre to tell a trippy story. As Dunkey says: "This game gets crazy."

I could talk about the narrative and cool storytelling (what you see on the surface is very much not the whole story), but honestly the core card gameplay is really fun. ouroboros gaming

A psychological horror roguelike deck builder with a mix of escape room puzzles. Everything from story, the games mechanics, and game play loop make this one of my favorite games I could easily replay. 10/10 I couldn't recommend this game enough.

I'm very late to this game but wow was it great. Act is is 10/10, Act 2 and 3 are a mixed bag mostly because you get so used to Act 1 that they are pretty daunting.
Not much else to say. Fantastic passion project from Daniel Mullins. Play it, you won't be disappointed.

Is it healthy to have so many hours in a game like this? Most likely not but gotten all these hours I have and get all these hours once again I very much expect I will.

The main story that I played all that time ago I felt was well worth the one playthrough it got. It presents itself at first as mix of roguelite deck builder and escape room and in typical Daniel Mullins fashion, the rules change a bit over time as, also in Daniel Mullins fashion, we find ourselves slap bang in the middle of an extremely haunted video game with any number of character within trying to take advantage of and/or torment the player avatar. It can certainly be said of it that it is an experience. It can also certainly be said of it that as the game space and mechanics expand and become more elaborate, the more barren your surrounding and the more thoughtless your actions both coming, leaving you concerned all too much with just ending the damn thing. Act 3 seems to do this on purpose and as such I must give a word of advice: lampshading that the longest, most tedious part of your game is pure tedium the played must endure does not excuse the pure tedium that YOU made everyone have to endure. Suffice to say, on the second run, it did not really hold up.

As much as Kaycee's Mod (despite the name, a post-game extra mode) could be reasonably viewed as sort of an apology to all those who ultimately bought the game for its first act and was disappointed to discover the other two (they are, in fairness, more *interesting* than fun), it is the shot in the arm that can take all of the credit. As you might imagine, it's the first act of the game transformed into something more akin to the other roguelite deckbuilders you know - increasingly painful mutators, extra starting decks, rebalancing of the game's worst offenders (that's right Kaycee, what you did to the Fecundity sigil DID have to be done), increased buckwild randomness and so on. It is simultaneously wildly unfair, totally unforgiving and a power trip and those experiences come in just the right measures that I keep coming back again and again.

Give it a shot. And if you find yourself only wanting to play Act 1 and not the others: it's Shift + K + M - hope that helps.

Daniel Mullins is insane. I wish I could experience this game again for the first time. You really aren't prepared.

Gameplay is really engaging with fresh mechanics that build complexity. Game design is super creative, don't search anything up and play it!

i love this game omgggg i've been hyperfixed on it for a month i lowkey wanna make my own little board game version of it so my friends can play w me im actually obsessed the gameplay? the art styles? the storytelling?? im kissing the creators on the cheek i love yall AUGHHHHHHHHHHH

Lacks controller support, which for a game that's been released on consoles is absurd. As somebody who does most of my gaming on my Steam Deck I *can* just dock into a mouse and keyboard and play that way (and I often do), but if I want to play on the go instead the UI is so clunky using the trackpad as a mouse that I might as well not bother.

Very fun game, a lot of replayability, went in blind and would definitely say that's the best way to experience the story. This is such a masterpiece of a game, and I like how Kaycee's mod shifts up the gameplay a little bit. It was able to run at ~60 fps on my shitty laptop with low graphics settings, 10/10 would recommend.

No spoilers but this game is not really what is advertised on the steam page. Depending on how experienced you are with rogue like card games it will probably last about 3-4 hours before essentially becoming a different game. Some people enjoy that, but its not for me.

If you watched the trailer and find the content intruiging, i would recommend buying when its heavily discounted, because I feel somewhat ripped off