The surprises start early in Inscryption. When we fired it up for the first time, the New Game button didn’t work – we could only select Continue. But we hadn’t played this before – had we? And why did we find ourselves held captive in a cabin, forced to play cards with the ominous man sitting across a wooden table?

Buckle up: The mysteries don’t stop.

Despite the eerie vibes, we couldn’t stop smiling as we built potent decks of creature cards (everything from bullfrogs to grizzly bears) and beat the Game Master’s alter egos: the Prospector, Angler and Trapper. Nearly every match revealed a new wrinkle, like flying cards that attack over the top of defenders or a hook for dragging opponents’ beasts to your side of the table. That’s our great white shark now!

As much fun as the card battles are, it’s what’s happening around you that makes Inscryption so memorable. Get up from the table to examine the disconcerting trinkets around the cabin, like a bloodstained rule book or oddly nondescript cuckoo clock. By solving escape-room-style puzzles, you’ll earn talking creature cards – who, bit by bit, will help you figure out how to flee the clutches of your shadowy captor.

After solving a devilishly clever sliding tile puzzle, we discovered the caged wolf – a special card with no attack power. Weird! But when we later sacrificed the card in battle, it revealed a statue in another part of the cabin, which helped us access a dagger and a mysterious eyeball – all leading to a game-changing artifact. Card battles and the cabin’s puzzles intertwine beautifully – riddles within riddles!

Inscryption was born during a 2018 game jam where participants created a game over a single weekend. Indie developer Daniel Mullins was fascinated by the notion of a collectible card game where you deliberately destroy cards. (The game was originally called Sacrifices Must Be Made.)

Keep an eye out for weak cards with powerful sigils (symbols that bestow special abilities.) Sacrifice these cards at an altar to transfer the sigil to a different creature. A mantis god won’t last long in battle, but a wolf or a moose with a sigil can unleash massive damage with a three-way attack.

Daniel Mullins is the maker of Pony Island, a psychedelic combination of point-and-click adventure and infinite runner that blurs the line between player and game. Based in Vancouver, Canada, Mullins previously worked as a programmer for small games studios – including one that ported the Sega Dreamcast classic Grandia II.