Inscryption

This is the best game of 2021 and probably one of my all-time favourites. It's a good roguelike deck builder in its own right with an incredible vibe, but unlike Slay the Spire and friends, this game isn't just about doing runs and increasing difficulty. It has a story going on in the background. As you play, things will happen, which will take the game in a direction you can't imagine. Try to go in unspoiled. The other reviews here are pretty spoilery. Just know that some people didn't like the direction the game takes. I think it was up and down but I was so hooked just imagining what the next twist could be. HOWEVER. GOG customers got screwed here. Firstly, there is no cloud saving with GOG Galaxy, which you might or might not care about. Secondly, they have actually released a free DLC which makes an endless roguelike mode, but as of writing, it is exclusive to Steam. (It's been in "beta" for over two months, and will apparently be released on all stores eventually.) In the meantime, Steam users are having a blast with regular content patches and everyone on Reddit is discussing the ongoing evolution of this game, while GOG (and Epic) customers sit on the sidelines waiting for it to be "finished". Yes it is free content that we were never promised in the first place. But I don't appreciate having major content withheld for months because of which store I bought the game from. 5 stars for the base game, -2 stars for Steam-exclusive DLC. I will update my review if and when the DLC comes to GOG.

I'll do my best to write this review without spoilers as I can only agree with what others have said: the experience is better if you don't read spoilers beforehand. The game does have multiple acts. All the images and video you see on the store page are from the first act. This first act where you're playing against a mysterious figure with roguelike elements to the building of your deck is the best gameplay Inscryption has to offer. The first act is a fantastic experience with both the card gameplay and with the puzzles about learning more about this figure you're playing against. The subsequent acts are not nearly as good. The game abandons its roguelike structure for the deck building. It adds more elements to the card play, but those elements feel unfinished and somewhat clunky. The card gameplay is never again as fun as it is in the first act and occasionally relies on annoying gimmicks. The story is absolutely a strength of the game, but it is also far better in the first act. I don't want to spoil the story either, but I'd give the story and gameplay of the first act a five star rating. The subsequent acts warrant three stars at most for me.

TL;DR: This is a decent game that too often sacrifices the "game" part in order to be quirky and meta. I was intrigued by the premise of this - a survival horror card battler?! Sign me right up. The initial experience confirmed my hopes - it's a "Slay the Spire" inspired card game combined with an escape the room type environment that you can explore for secrets and extra cards. This was a lot of fun and I was looking forward to see where it's all going and what mechanics will be introduced..... except that there is also a meta story about some dude playing the game and it being more than meets the eye. I was not bothered (or interested) by that part throughout the game but I think the devs considered that to be the main "gimmick" of the whole thing and they literally changed the game after act 1 in order to service it! It turns into bargain bin Pokemon - I'm not kidding! You have a small over-world map where you explore, solve puzzles, collect card packs and then do card battles that are slightly different from before but in the same vein (you can now edit your deck..uuuuu). I found this very bewildering since it was not that enjoyable for me - the difficulty spike that others mentioned is there but it's more annoyance since you cannot actually lose in this part. And then .. the game goes back to the previous style, except now it's worse (different style and more bare-bones surrounding room). There is the essence of a great game here but the devs needed to be quirky above anything else so we get pieces of a good game instead. They even have a tease at the end of 2 other possible escape the room cart battle environments but it's just 1 encounter each because the game is done at that point and we're just wrapping up. How disappointing - devs should always be careful not to let "the special story" they want to tell get in the way of actually making a good game

The game is fun as hell, full of mysteries to discover and very interesting visuals. Plus, the game knows how to keep you playing, is so addictive i'm on my fourth playtrough and i got it today. The mechanics are simple yet complex and let you build your decks with more or less freedom depending on the RNG, but we can fix this by doing certain events to sacrifice cards we dont want or buff the cards we like. Just buy it, you are not gonna regret it. I HOPE they release expansion packs soon, to...well...expand on the history, characters, cards, mechanics. I'M HAVING A BLAST WITH THIS ONE!