Inscryption is a card game about the card game Inscryption that is made for those that don’t play card games. If you don’t play card games because you find them overwhelming or difficult Inscryption might be for you. However if you are someone that wants depth, strategy or quality in a card game this game is not for you. I have a lot of experience with card games, and I hate the card mechanics in this game with a passion. The game has an fantastic horror atmosphere and flavour. Inscryption has an odd and unusual narrative that relies on surprises, and for the best experience you should go in knowing as little as possible and you should stop reading now. Please continue reading if you are experienced with card games, or want depth, strategy or quality in the gameplay elements.
Inscryption is split into several acts, which are drastically different from each other. The first act is centred around an excellent horror atmosphere; this atmosphere is one of my favourite aspects of the game. The flavour it provides to the card game is excellent. Unfortunately the excellent atmosphere and presentation of the first act is not present in the later acts. The later acts are significantly worse than the first act in both presentation and gameplay.
Inscryption is a card game and deck builder that sacrifices good gameplay for the sake of presentation and narrative. The pure card game aspects of the game are simply not very good. Neither building the deck or playing with the deck is fun or interesting. There are lots of small and big issues with the gameplay that is not going to be discussed here for the sake of spoilers.
I find it hard to believe that anyone that likes card games will like Inscryption. The gameplay elements of the card game are so lacking that it pulls all focus away from the rest of the game. This is probably a good game for the casual gamer that don’t play card games, but have a slight interest in them.
A critique of Inscryption can be found here (Spoilers ahead).
| Playtime | 14 Hours |
| Game release date | 19 October 2021 |
| Review release date | 27 July 2024 |
| Light sensitivity | No issues |
| Sound sensitivity | No issues |
| Motion sickness | Minor issues due to artstyle, very playable |
| Steam-link | Metacritic-link (85 metascore) |