Inscryption

It starts very cool, it keeps you tense, and it builds story very well around a card game. But I didn't like the second part at all due to new mechanics suddenly introduced, I almost gave up on the game. Luckily, it's quite short and somewhat easy to beat. The third part is good enough to keep things going.
Overall, it's a solid 8. If the whole game was like act1+act3 could be even 9. But it's definitely worth trying out!

I love Inscryption.  Not everything works:  the connection to the Hex is a bit tacked-on, some of the lore stuff is a bit inaccessible, and I think that the game would have benefited from lower stakes than its mythology ended up tacking onto the game.  

Aside from that though, the core game mechanics are just awesome.  I'm not a huge card game person but this game made me into a believer.  Act I and III are understandably universally acclaimed, but after playing through a few times I found myself appreciating Act II more and more.  The sense of atmosphere is great, the characters are really fun, and you really grow to care about the world.  Difficulty is set perfectly in my view:  it's not easy but you feel yourself getting better at the game and there are a few mechanics sprinkled in the game that are designed to make things easier when they need to be.  The community has had thousands of posts of people who have figured out card mechanics to break the game but people are still enthusiastic to talk about it precisely because it's so fun to feel like you've found loopholes to the games' programming.  Did I mention the DLC is basically a game in itself that you could easily sync 30-40 hours in?  

Daniel Mullins is great, Inscryption is great, and you should get it.

Absolutely excellent game. Best to go in with as little information as possible so that you can go on an absolute ride.

9/10

<< Spoilers ahead! >>

What a phenomenal game. The gameplay throughout the three acts are fantastic and all feel fairly fresh compared to one another, but not too unfamiliar so as to confuse you. I really loved the story, and I was surprised by how deeply attached I was to the characters by the end. Watching them all vanish and be deleted was heart-wrenching. Unfortunately, while the first time the camera files came up on screen caused me to lose my mind at the places the game was going, I found ultimately found the "creepypasta found footage" storyline to end up being... just alright. The only notch against what would otherwise be a perfect 10.

I was skeptical, because I don't like card games.

But this is a masterpiece.

This game definitely blew my mind. I was expecting just another Slay the Spire like with some horror and jump scares, but as soon as the cards start talking to me (literally) and I was able to get of the table, I knew it was never going to be like that. 
This was the game that made me say WTF the most of any game. Especially when breaking the 4th wall.

Try it and don't spoil yourself! You're in for a ride

Amazing and unexpected in every way. I love that Mullins uses that unexpectedness to lean into the horror of surreal unknown corrupted data. Also love the high key Yugioh reference at the end just because.

The magic themed deck is pretty underexplored but I kinda liked that, showing that there's a lot more to this world than we know or could know. It almost makes the final battle feel pointless and perfunctory.

Journal Style Review:

I’ve heard a lot about this game on Reddit and podcasts. It seems to have a great following. On the first day I played like 5 or 6 hours and I can already see why. The atmosphere and the spooky style to the game is great and the card game mechanics were fun as well. 

The first change up where we see a guys videos is interesting. I’m definitely intrigued.

I’ve escaped 4 or 5 times. The card game is losing steam but I had a few runs where I didn’t really progress as much as I could because of the escape room stuff. I’m now focused on that escape.  I’m looking forward to the next acts. I’m close.

Beat the game. Very much enjoyed it. The leshy act was my favourite. I still liked the next two and the change up was good, and needed, but they didn’t top the opening, and they were kind of easy by that point. The story was a lot of fun but I am a bit let down with the ending. I thought Luke’s ending was anticlimactic. I really enjoyed his videos and I thought there would be more. I didn’t find all the story Easter eggs and tid bits, but it felt like there was going to be more too it. Still a fun weird game.

Final Score B+