An indie game that will change your view of horror: “Inscryption”
Photo Courtesy of Daniel Mullins Games
Colby Craig, Staff Writer
“Inscryption” is a game that has blown the minds of many players over the last three years. Releasing on Oct. 19, 2021, “Inscryption” has many playing asking one simple question — “What?!”
“Inscryption” is a singleplayer, story rich, card-battling horror game developed by “Daniel Mullins Games” and published by “Devolver Digital.” It leaves players absolutely flabbergasted about the story they actively piece together. Everything about the game is cryptic and leaves more questions than answers for its entire duration.
The game has a way of disturbing the player through its amazing art direction and unique style. The main character never speaks, and you never see his face. As you complete different stages of the game, you receive different videos from the real world which give the player more insight into the origin of the game.
Players are thrown into the game without any knowledge of what is going on and then introduced immediately to a character named “Leshy.” Leshy is an old man in a shack in the middle of the woods, who makes you play a card game with him. He does not show you his face, and he has a special camera that turns people who lose to him into playing cards for this game.
It sounds simple at first, but there is so much more that the player unfolds that only causes more confusion.
The core gameplay is pretty simple. The player moves a game piece along a board-game-style map landing on different spaces that do unique things, and some require a card battle. In these battles, the player places cards that do unique things depending on the symbol found at the bottom of the card.
Each creature has life points and damage points. Once the player successfully tips the life point scale all the way to Leshy’s side, they win. If Leshy wins, the player must start the game from the beginning.
It is common for people to joke about the low quality of $60 to $70 games created by huge development teams. A particular flop in recent history would be “Battlefield 2042,” which currently has 52% negative reviews on Steam. The second half of the joke is that people can buy an $8 game from an independent development team, and it can change his or her life forever. “Inscryption,” currently having 96% positive reviews on Steam, certainly has had that effect on many players.
A reviewer on steam named “Kissmate54” said, “I cannot name anything like it. Once I finished it, it’s been stuck in my mind. Still it is not for everyone but if you actually seem to be interested in it you should without a doubt try it.”
Players still love the game, and every time it goes on sale, there is a spike in players. “Inscryption” has a current daily player base of about 1800 players. For a singleplayer game, that is very good, especially given the fact that it came out in 2021.
“Inscryption” is not for the faint of heart, and if a player does not feel that they are up to playing a horror game, they should refrain. However, if they feel that they can play and enjoy a game like “Inscryption,” it should be a crime to ignore such a fantastic title.
