Dealing with the Devil | INSCRYPTION
“In a measureless cavern… deeper than the sunken sea… you approach the bone lord…. You approach me.”
The best way to describe Inscryption is ‘indescribable’. As vague and unhelpful as that sounds, it is the closest to the truth I can get. It transcends genre, subverts expectation and takes pleasure in simultaneously pleasing and horrifying its players. I dove into it with not a clue in my brain of what lay before me, and can confirm – after being advised so – this is the best way to experience it. To enter the world of Inscryption with naught but the clothes on your skin invites the wonderful, haunting satisfaction that only naivety can allow. To let it thrash you around and then reward you is an extraordinary experience, as unsettling as if it reached through the screen and patted you on the head with knotted hands.
Screenshot by DareFox9 via steamcommunity.com
Spoiler warning:
Usually I would suggest either playing the game or skipping past the spoilers, but in this occasion I implore you to play the game before reading this post at all. There’s something about the experience of Inscryption that the only way to achieve the truth of this game is to go into it without even an inkling of its contents. Otherwise, by all means – continue <3
Inscryption begins like a usual deck building card game. We play against a shadowed stranger who implores us to move not only on the board on the table in front of us, but beyond, into the room our character sits in which holds various secrets and sneaky puzzles to solve. It is easy to assume this stage is all there is, because it is so well fleshed out with an apt replayability that convinces the player of its false entirety. However, upon beating the ‘final boss’ the truth is revealed, that this game is nowhere near as straightforward as it pretends to be. Instead, we are whiplashed through the fourth wall as we are shown clips of found-footage from a 90s-esque video camera, depicting the experiences of a ‘real’ person called Luke Carder, who finds Inscryption on a floppy disk and documents the strange occurrences that follow. We revisit Luke multiple times while the game itself warps its style twice more, we see his intrigue, his confusion and his fear as the situation becomes more and more sinister. The characters within the game begin to reveal their sentience, morals and ambitions, some of which are confined to the game, while others reach outwards into the real world. As Carder tries to make sense of it all, he discovers secrets that were never meant to be revealed, and in the end prove to be fatal - among other things.
Screenshot by DareFox9 via steamcommunity.com
As a self proclaimed scaredy-cat, horror does not bode well for my weak little heart. However, I am a firm believer that horror allows for creativity to press deep into the dark corners that normal fiction would not dare to touch. From within the shadows emerges games like Inscryption, refusing to rely on jumpscares and gore and instead forges an ambience that not only chills bones, but feels a little off even in its most unassuming sequences. The music is harrowing and dynamic in its creepiness, dull scrapes and abrupt sounds and out of place notes scatter throughout the audioscape, sounding not-quite-right but also perfectly in place. The graphics are strong enough to understand clearly what is around you, but vague enough to leave some things to the imagination. And boy, does it prompt your imagination to wander. In saying that, the game does not adhere to a sense of style. In fact it almost evolves to become what the characters want it to be, like you're moving through the game as a pawn rather than the player. All these elements tie together to serve a very specific kind of horror, the type that really unsettles the nerves but you’re not sure why. That, I believe, is the most difficult feeling to conjure from an audience, because it must replace the sense of self with a question mark, and create an oddness without revealing the source.
Inscryption is a rare game, not only for the contents, but for its ability to maximise both gameplay and narrative. Often I find that even the most excellent games focus more on one than the other, or possess budgets that break the bank. Daniel Mullins is a genius for the way he intertwines the two. The card-play is solid and balanced enough to stand alone (I greatly struggled to beat this game, though this is entirely a skill issue) but the incorporation of mystery and character is gripping, especially to a player who has never played a deck builder before. The ability to ‘get up’ and walk around the playing table is proficiently mind-bending, and coupled with the jumps to Luke Carder’s found footage, it leaves you questioning where the fiction ends and reality begins. It’s a game within a game, playing as a character playing a character. In an industry heavily saturated with cool concepts, it is not often that you find one with such a unique ability to place the player in a sort of outer-body experience. Not only do you have to have an interesting, soul-eating idea, but you have to make it coherent and with quality. When it achieves this and more, it is a truly astonishing feat completely attributed to the strange and beautiful minds of its creators.
Screenshot by _bigudi via steamcommunity.com
Even if I never touch this game again, even if the story melts away in my memories, the feeling that Inscryption conjured inside of me will forever remain potent. But the truth is, it is hard to never touch this game again, given its ability to be played over and over, finding new secrets every time. I will forever recommend this game, in all its oddness, especially to those who find charm in the hideous and wonder in the weird.
Inscryption is the creation of solo dev Daniel Mullins, an amalgamation of brilliant ideas and clever production. Play it on steam here.
