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Inscryption key art: a wooden cabin door lit from above by hanging lanterns in a dark log cabin

Psychological horrorHorror escape

Inscryption

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A card game for your life in a dark cabin, and secrets written on the cards.

Platforms
PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Price
Paid
Rated
Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (97% of 148,995 reviews); Metacritic 85 on PC
Length
many hours
Players
1
Made by
Daniel Mullins Games
Released
2021
Visit the game's site SteamGOGEpic Games StorePlayStation StoreXboxNintendo eShop

What frightens You sit at a table in a pitch-dark cabin across from a captor whose face is only glowing eyes, playing a card game for your life with woodland creature cards. You sacrifice cards with blood, cards begin to talk to you, and between hands you creep around the cabin solving puzzles while sensing something much darker behind the game.

Content: blood, self-mutilation, disturbing imagery.

A dark card-based roguelike from Daniel Mullins Games, published by Devolver Digital. Trapped in a cabin, you play a deckbuilding card game against a shadowy captor, sacrificing creature cards in blood, while escape-room puzzles and stranger secrets wait behind the game.

About Inscryption

Inscryption is a horror card game by Daniel Mullins Games, the maker of Pony Island and The Hex, published by Devolver Digital and released on PC in October 2021. It is also sold on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. Its makers describe it as a blend of deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room puzzles and psychological horror.

You wake at a table in a dark cabin. Across from you is Leshy, a figure you see only as a pair of eyes in the gloom, who runs a card game across a little map of woods and wetlands. You draft woodland creature cards, play them on the board and pay for the strongest ones by sacrificing others, in blood. Lose, and the run ends.

At any time you can stand up from the table and explore the cabin. Its clocks, safes, cabinets and paintings hold escape-room style puzzles, and solving them gives you new cards, items and clues about where you are and how to leave.

The fear is less about scares than unease. The cabin is lit only by candles; cards speak; the game asks you to hurt yourself to win; and more and more it feels that the rules, and the game you think you are playing, hide something else. It is best played knowing as little as possible.

It suits players who enjoy card games and puzzles and want them wrapped in dread, and anyone who liked Pony Island or The Hex.

How to play Inscryption

  1. Draw cards and play creature cards onto the board, paying their cost by sacrificing other cards.
  2. Deal damage to tip the scale on the table in your favour before your opponent tips it the other way.
  3. Move along the map between battles to choose new cards, items and events.
  4. Stand up from the table to explore the cabin and solve its puzzles for new cards and clues.
  5. When a run ends, start again with what you have learned.

Screenshots

Inscryption screenshot: a hand of creature cards, including a squirrel and an opossum, over a green-lit card board in the dark cabin
Inscryption screenshot: a tabletop map of a pine forest with a dotted path between event icons, titled You had reached the wetlands
Inscryption screenshot: a carved wooden mask with glowing orange eyes and a knife beside candles, a card pleading Please, consider me pelts
Inscryption screenshot: a shadowed figure holding a knife behind a blue-lit card board with a brass scale and mantis cards

Tips

  • Squirrel cards are cheap sacrifices; keep enough of them to pay for your strong cards.
  • Look around the cabin often; many puzzles give powerful rewards.
  • Read card sigils carefully, since a well placed sigil wins more fights than raw strength.
  • Avoid spoilers before playing; much of the game is about its surprises.

Questions

Is Inscryption a horror game?

Yes. Its makers describe it as mixing a deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room puzzles and psychological horror; it is unsettling more than jump-scare heavy.

What platforms is Inscryption on?

PC, Mac and Linux (on Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store), PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.

Who made Inscryption?

Daniel Mullins Games, the maker of Pony Island and The Hex, published by Devolver Digital.

Do I need to know card games to play Inscryption?

No. The game teaches its rules as you play, starting with a small deck.

  • card game
  • deckbuilder
  • roguelike
  • escape room
  • puzzles
  • first person
  • cabin
  • meta
  • daniel mullins

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Inscryption is played on inscryption-game.com and its makers' stores; this page links to them and is not part of it. Pictures are from the game's own pages and remain its owner's. Terms and pictures.

Sources: store.steampowered.com, inscryption-game.com