“Scary” isn’t usually a word that comes to mind when talking about digital card games. Some deck builders, like Hearth, include cards that depict menacing monsters, but those creatures will never jump out of the paper and shout “boo!” With careful, turn-based gameplay, deck builders are generally more about building strategies than atmosphere.
Inscryption – reveal the announcement
Encryption, on the other hand, is a complete creepshow. It’s a new game from Daniel Mullins Games, the developer behind the cult indie hit Pony Island, which smashes several genres together. It’s a card game where players build a deck of woodland creatures, each with their own cost, abilities, attack power, and total health. It’s also a roguelike, sort of Kill Spire, where players must complete a series of battles in one successful run. Oh, and it all takes place in the middle of an escape room meta that players can solve between rounds.
And did I mention you have to make blood sacrifices to summon the cards?
Welcome to the creepshow
Let’s take a step back. At its core, Encryption it’s not hard to understand. Players are thrown onto a board with several cards. Their opponent is a mysterious shadowy figure who sits across from them and acts like a sort of dungeon master controlling the adventure. Some spaces on the board allow players to add more creatures to their deck, boost stats, grab useful items that can be used during gameplay, and more. Other spaces trigger battles, which take place on a 4×3 grid. The goal is to tip the scales on the table by dealing a certain amount of damage to the opponent using creatures. The game master will also play his cards, so players will have to make smart moves to counter incoming attacks and win.
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Each area culminates in a boss fight with special mechanics (the first boss is a seeker who can turn your creatures into piles of gold). Build a successful deck, defeat bosses and win streaks. It’s an easy-to-understand card game system with a deceptive amount of depth. I have only just begun to describe the multitude of tools available to players.
All these ideas are soaked with a layer of horror. Encryption it has an unsettling atmosphere, making it an eerie experience that always surprises. Blood and bones replace mana as the currency used to play cards. Teeth are his primary currency. One item allows players to poke out an eye and drop it on a scale to get five points. The side effect is that, of course, it darkens and blurs their vision. Fortunately, bosses will offer players a drawer full of replacement eyeballs after they are defeated. The game is filled with these very strange, unsettling moments — that keep me digging deeper.
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However, it’s the escape room mechanics that make the game something special. The entire game takes place in a small room that players can walk around. It’s full of interactive items like a safe and a cuckoo clock. The more you separate from the roguelike, the more clues and items you get to help you solve the room. I received a Stoat card early, which started talking to me through the paper. He mentions a safe combination that appears in the book. I step away from the board and turn to see a rulebook sitting on the table, acting as a dictionary to explain each card’s abilities. Sure enough, I find a combination scribbled on one page, which starts a chain of room solutions.
This gives the game a great sense of progression. Even failed runs would give me more information, allowing me to unlock more secrets in the room. I always feel like I’m improving and that makes me want to keep playing. Finishing playing the game’s central roguelike is a good hook in itself, but I’m more driven by my desire to figure out who the hell this shadowy figure is and how I can escape this room.
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I’m completely preoccupied right now. Every time I turn off the game, I see it crawling around my brain like a spider. I’m not just coming up with good deck strategies, I’m trying to figure out exactly what that glowing hammer on the wall is and how to take it down. I’m terrified of my suspicious captor, but I can’t help but keep loading the game like an unconscious teenager running towards a serial killer.
Encryption releases on October 19 for PC.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn