Inscryption

What to Know

Critics Recommend

Average Score

Total Reviews: 44

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Inscryption is a sinister and excellently crafted card game with top notch art and audio design.

Play It

Critics Recommend

Critic Reviews: 44

Critics Consensus

# Reviews: 44

Inscryption is a sinister and excellently crafted card game with top notch art and audio design.

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Awards & Recognition

Critic Reviews for Inscryption

Critic Reviews

Score Distribution

44

Reviews

Average Score - 88/100

88%

Ranges

8/10

David Wildgoose (GameSpot)

Inscryption is an excellent deck-builder that fades after an astonishing start.

November 15, 2021 |

Full Review

Inscryption is as consistently fun as it is surprising, with a wonderfully creepy story cleverly tying its ever-evolving mechanics together.

October 28, 2021 |

Full Review

9/10

Tom Marks (IGN)

9/10

Ben Reeves (Game Informer)

The card combat is engaging, and the larger narrative elements make Inscryption incredibly hard to put down

November 22, 2021 |

Full Review

David Wildgoose (GameSpot)

8/10 - (Read Review)

Inscryption is an excellent deck-builder that fades after an astonishing start.

Tom Marks (IGN)

9/10 - (Read Review)

Inscryption is as consistently fun as it is surprising, with a wonderfully creepy story cleverly tying its ever-evolving mechanics together.

Ben Reeves (Game Informer)

9/10 - (Read Review)

The card combat is engaging, and the larger narrative elements make Inscryption incredibly hard to put down

**Read all 44 critic reviews on the desktop version of VSG.

Read the Reviews (44 total)

Outlet	Author	Score	Date	Quote	Read
33bits	Rubén Manzanares	90 / 100	10-25-2021	Inscryption, the new game by Mullins postulates to get very high, its plot twists are most unexpected. But we already know that, that’s how their games are, it also combines with a great technical section and a very solid gameplay. I can’t say more but Inscryptión is a game that will catch you from start to finish, a MUST HAVE within the category.	Read review
3DNews	Михаил Пономарев	10 / 10	10-24-2021	Inscryption tears apart all of the clichés and finds unique ways to break the obstacles between itself and the player. And succeeds in the creepiest way!	Read review
Cerealkillerz	Julian Bieder	8.8 / 10	10-23-2021	Inscryption may not reinvent the card gaming genre, but it is filled to the brim with great ideas and the usual twists of a David Mullins game. If you enjoy a spooky atmosphere as well as deckbuilding definitely check this out!	Read review
CGMagazine	Lane Martin	8 / 10	10-18-2021	Inscryption is a great creepy experience to get your skin crawling with some thought provoking depth in its gameplay.	Read review
Checkpoint Gaming	Lise Leitner	9 / 10	10-19-2021	On the surface, Inscryption is described as a card game, but it hides a lot more than just cards under the bonnet. Prepare for a layered story, thrilling surprises, and terrifying yet fascinating characters that will keep you glued to your seat. The game masterfully expands on the story playthrough after playthrough, providing a fresh perspective with each run. In this sense, Inscryption is a great twist on the otherwise repetitive roguelike formula that has dominated the deckbuilder genre in the last few years. This, in addition to the strange storytelling we’ve come to expect from Daniel Mullins, makes for a gaming experience that is not to be missed for card game and narrative game fans alike.	Read review
COGconnected	Nicola Kapron	90 / 100	10-18-2021	All in all, Inscryption is a great–and spooky–game that is constantly expanding and re-inventing itself, and I recommend it to anyone who loves horror. As long as you approach it with an open mind, a strong stomach, and the willingness to keep trying, you should have a great time with this title. Just remember: if you think the game is over in the first few hours, it’s time to hit the New Game button and see what you’ve unlocked.	Read review
cublikefoot	Chase Ferrin	9 / 10	10-19-2021	Inscryption is easily one of the best card battlers I have ever played, with tons of gameplay layers, cool escape-room style puzzles, and a creepy story tying it all together.	Read review
Cultured Vultures	Maxim Klose-Ivanov	7.5 / 10	10-18-2021	Though uneven in its middle section, Inscryption is a clever and refreshing horror-adventure card game.	Read review
Destructoid	Zoey Handley	7.5 / 10	10-19-2021	With that said, I did enjoy Inscryption. Part of me is tempted to dive back in to see if I can scrape any more secrets out of its cracks. Really, that’s where it excels: not the misdirection, but the hidden crawlspaces where it hides all the bodies. At its best, it feels like you’re actually uncovering a deeper plot. At its worst, it feels like you’re watching a magician pull handkerchiefs out of their sleeve. It’s cool, I guess, but you know they’re just screwing with you.	Read review
Eurogamer	Robert Purchese	Recommended	10-22-2021	A bold, stand-out, knockout of a card game that drips with imagination and menace.	Read review
Everyeye.it	Andrea Sorichetti	9 / 10	11-16-2021	Inscryption is a damn fun card game: a roguelite, a puzzle game and a horror story, and all this is barely enough to describe what on balance are only the first hours of the experience.	Read review
Explosion Network	Chantelle McColl	10 / 10	11-03-2021	Inscryption reminds me that games are capable of so much more than we often give them credit for. Daniel Mullins manages to weave a completely surreal and meta-focused narrative into a genre-bending game and successfully create an experimental work of art.	Read review
Game Informer	Ben Reeves	9 / 10	11-22-2021	The card combat is engaging, and the larger narrative elements make Inscryption incredibly hard to put down	Read review
Gamer Escape	Josh McGrath	9 / 10	10-18-2021	Inscryption is an amazingly well-put-together piece of work. The atmosphere presented…well, I’ve already doted on it multiple times. And I’ll do so again: it’s unsettling, occasionally oppressive, and always keeps the player on their toes. It could easily carry the work on its own, but luckily the card game mechanics are solid and sound as well. It’s easy to pick up, but with a ton of variables to allow customization and multiple viable approaches to the challenges provided.	Read review
Gamersky	心灵奇兵	8.6 / 10	10-28-2021	Inscryption attracts players with a Roguelike card-based feature, which has both gameplay depth and interesting card combat holding player’s curiosity. When players become immersed in the game, the game shows a subversive change and it is quite different from what you thought the game was in the first look of the game. This experience is difficult to replicate and gave me a deep impression.	Read review
GameSpace	Emily Byrnes	10 / 10	02-17-2022	You will not find a better bargain for your buck as far as story-rich horror games go. Inscryption is a meager $20 on Steam, and I honestly wish they would have charged more for it. I would have paid far more for it. It hasn’t won several awards for nothing! With that being said, I do appreciate the pricing because it makes the game available to more of their audience that might not have been able to afford it. If you’re at all hesitant, don’t be. Just do it. Take the leap, and play Inscryptionfor yourself.	Read review
GameSpot	David Wildgoose	8 / 10	11-15-2021	Inscryption is an excellent deck-builder that fades after an astonishing start.	Read review
Gaming Nexus	Eric Hauter	10 / 10	10-18-2021	Go into Inscryption as unspoiled as possible, and trust in the game. You will find a deeply enjoyable card game, wrapped in a series of dark mysteries, wrapped in…well…other stuff. Part CCG game, part escape room puzzle game, and part bonkers gonzo whirlybird lunacy, Inscryption is one of the best games of the year. They should charge more for a game this good.	Read review
Hardcore Gamer	Kyle LeClair	4.5 / 5 stars	10-18-2021	Inscryption manages to combine an expertly-crafted card game, a nail-biting tale of horror and enjoyable escape room adventures into another genre-defying gem and easily one of the year’s best games.	Read review
Hey Poor Player	Daymon Trapold	4.5 / 5 stars	10-18-2021	Inscryption is refreshingly unique. With all the roguelike deckbuilders popping up these days, they can all start to blend together. Inscryption manages to stand out from the crowd in all the best ways. Complex card strategies blend with escape room puzzles far better than should be possible. And the whole package is wrapped in such wonderfully creepy trappings that it’s perfect for the Halloween season. Just remember: don’t ever assume you’ve reached the end.	Read review
IGN	Tom Marks	9 / 10	10-28-2021	Inscryption is as consistently fun as it is surprising, with a wonderfully creepy story cleverly tying its ever-evolving mechanics together.	Read review
IGN Italy	Alessandro Alosi	9 / 10	10-27-2021	Behind the solid card game mask hides a special, original experience, to be lived in one breath until the last surprise.	Read review
IGN Spain	Álex Pareja	8 / 10	10-18-2021	‎Fun, addictive and mysterious. It superbly mixes concepts from card games with roguelike and escape rooms. A continuous surprise that sneaks among the most interesting independent games of the year.‎	Read review
INDIANTVCZ	Barbora Šalandová	9 / 10	01-28-2022	Inscryption is excellent; at the beginning of the game, you have a deck of cards that you improve as you progress through the campaign. At one point, the campaign will start again with other mechanics, and your package is not the same as it was. The campaign is also somehow different, but it still acts as an Inscryption. What’s happening? I’m taking off my hat.	Read review
JVL	Kikitoès	9 / 10	11-05-2021	Don’t judge a book by its cover. Inscryption sells itself as a roguelite card game immersed in an anxious atmosphere, but it is actually much more than that. With an intelligent narrative, simple but surprising staging effects and mechanics that are renewed as much as the artistic direction, the game hides a lot of surprises and turns out to be a most singular experience, which does not care about the 4th wall.	Read review
Metro GameCentral	GameCentral	8 / 10	10-19-2021	A work of devilish cleverness that’s both a mockery and celebration of collectible cards games and an increasingly disturbing horror story about the cost of victory.	Read review
MonsterVine	Diego Escala	5 / 5 stars	10-18-2021	Inscryption is one of the most mesmerizingly unnerving games I’ve ever played. A constant, unsettling experience that never lets up and dares you to make sense of it.	Read review
Niche Gamer	Chris George	9 / 10	10-19-2021	I love Inscryption even more because I expected something entirely different. It does everything so well, and I’m itching to get back to playing already. This deck-building psychological horror is more than worth your time, and one hell of a great game.	Read review
Oyungezer Online	Anton Semchenko	9 / 10	11-03-2021	Those who don’t hate card games, those who like puzzles and mysteries, don’t miss out!	Read review
PC Gamer	Jody Macgregor	69 / 100	10-22-2021	At its best when it’s strangest, Inscryption doesn’t know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em.	Read review
PC Invasion	Joshua Chu	8 / 10	10-18-2021	Inscryption’s twists and turns are hit-or-miss, but the game’s oddities are worth experiencing for yourself.	Read review
Polygon	Jenna Stoeber	Recommended	11-17-2021	If first-person self-violence sounds like too much, approach this game with discretion.	Read review
Rock, Paper, Shotgun	Brendan Caldwell	Recommended	10-19-2021	A sinister and excellently crafted card game with a darkly comic underbelly	Read review
Screen Rant	Leo Faierman	4 / 5 stars	10-18-2021	On top of all of that, Inscryption’s arrival in mid-October makes for a perfect Halloween game. What seems most vital for the game’s success will be to casually get it to people who won’t know what to expect, like fans of deckbuilders just looking for another to add to their pile. Still, even if players go into Inscryption expecting the unexpected, there’s entertaining depth to its mechanics and narrative, a form of storytelling that could only exist in a video game.	Read review
Slant Magazine	Aaron Riccio	4 / 5 stars	10-18-2021	It’s true that the game’s card-based randomness may allow some players to stumble through boss encounters without properly solving them. But what is the proper way to come at most things is a social construct. Allowing players to find their own, occasionally lucky, way through the game is a brilliant way to demonstrate Inscryption’s cards-as-life theme. There’s no one right way to live, and despite all your preparation, sometimes you may draw an unlucky hand.	Read review
Softpedia	Cosmin Vasile	9 / 10	10-19-2021	I would like to see more use for the sacrifice mechanic and some extra ways to cheat the rules. But self-aware creatures, cards that immortalize failed runs, and general creepiness add a lot to the core concepts. Inscryption has all the necessary ingredients to set a new standard of quality for its genre and keep fans engaged for tens of hours.	Read review
SpazioGames	Daniele Spelta	8.5 / 10	10-26-2021	Dark, intriguing, compelling: Inscryption is an absolute must-play.	Read review
TechRaptor	Unknown	8 / 10	10-18-2021	While the more complex story doesn’t completely gel, Inscryption has plenty of gripping CCG gameplay and unsettling horror setpieces to keep your attention.	Read review
The Game Crater	Bhromor Rahman	9 / 10	10-20-2021	Inscryption is an outstanding horror game that will keep you glued to your seat for your entire playthrough. The combination of horror and deck-building is perfectly utilised, making Inscryption the ideal game to play this spooky season.	Read review
The Games Machine	Simone Rampazzi	8 / 10	10-18-2021	Inscryption turned out to be a small surprise, an indie title that breaks the rules of card games offering players something more elaborate and exciting, by adding in a mixture of roguelite, puzzle and horror. A pity that the game has no voiceover: it would have made its particular setting feel even more alive.	Read review
WayTooManyGames	Leonardo Faria	9 / 10	10-18-2021	Inscryption is an utterly demented piece of software in the best of ways. I don’t remember the last time I played a game that made me go “what the hell am I looking at” with such frequency and intensity.	Read review
WellPlayed	Ash Wayling	9 / 10	10-19-2021	Far more than a card game, Inscryption is a dark odyssey into an even darker narrative – commanding your attention in an exciting, gripping manner.	Read review
Zoomg	افشین پیروزی	8.5 / 10	01-07-2022	Inscryption is one of those different and unique games.	Read review
ZTGD	Anthony Mann	10 / 10	11-30-2021	All I can really say is that I think the narrative is extremely well done and I should have expected that coming from the guy who also created Pony Island which I thoroughly enjoyed as well. The art design and the audio design are also top notch.	Read review

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Game Info

Game Description / Storyline:

Inscryption is an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie. Darker still are the secrets inscrybed upon the cards…

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