Bonfire original, reprint please get permission
Author: Tiangong Feihua
The earliest discovery of "Inscryption" was at the funny launch of distributor Devolver's E3 this year.
Among the various strange things, there is a game with a strange and evil style, but it is a "meat pigeon" card game, which instantly attracted my attention.
Just four months later, the full version was launched on Steam, which is not to be described as inefficient.
However, while browsing the store pages, I first noticed who developed this thing:
Daniel Mullins Games。
Even if you're not familiar with it, you've probably heard of their famous madness products, Pony Island and The Hex.
It seems that this time things are not simple.
Crazy Pony Island
I've only just entered the game and I'm already confused.
On the main menu, buttons such as "Options" and "Exit" are normal, but the most critical "New Game" is gray and cannot be used.
What's even more bizarre is that "continuing" is actually an optional state.
Did someone secretly try to take my account? But the program has just been laid down... Play first and then say.
New game sealed
The camera switches to the main point of view, and now there is a long, dilapidated table. On the other side, a pair of slightly empty but malicious eyes stared straight at me.
The mysterious man greeted me in a tone that had not been seen for a long time, and immediately spread out the card roll to invite me to participate.
Although judging from the dialogue, "I" seems to have played many times, but for the sake of "review", he still completed the beginner's guide part in the way of explanation.
Evil Underworld is played like a typical DBG card.
The player's avatar moves on a random map like the Minaret of Killing, and stepping on the marker will trigger the corresponding effects, including obtaining, strengthening, merging cards, etc., basically adjusting your deck.
The battle logic here is not unusual. At the beginning of the round, the player can draw a random card from the library unit card to add to the hand, or get a squirrel card that is dedicated to sacrifice without consumption.
There are four empty seats on each side of the battlefield, and those who meet the conditions can bring a single position into it.
In addition to the regular settings of cost, attack power, and stamina, the unit itself comes with a variety of keyword abilities.
For example, the "air raid" that can directly damage the player by crossing the opposite unit, or the "hoarder" who can retrieve any card in the deck. The number of keywords in this game exceeds 30, which is large enough.
There are two main resources used to hit a unit: health and bone.
The former relies on the sacrifice operation to obtain, simply put, if you want to get the next unit of 1 health cost, you must first destroy one of your own units, if it is 2 health costs, you must eliminate the cumulative two. The latter automatically gets one whenever a unit leaves the field.
Through flexible resource allocation, gradually occupy the battlefield initiative, and finally achieve victory, the card game idea is still easy to understand.
However, the card playing session of Evil Meditation has a very big feature: the player's health is extremely limited.
There is a balance on the left side of the long table, and there are five gears on each side of the dial, representing the lives of the enemy and the enemy. Whenever a player is attacked by an unobstructed unit, an equal number of teeth will be placed on the corresponding tray.
That's right, teeth.
Depending on the weight of the tooth, the scale of the balance shifts. Under this rule, the lives of both parties are mutually exclusive, and as long as the scale of one side exceeds five stops, it is judged to be a failure.
Five blocks of life is really too little. As long as the card caught in the starting hand is slightly stronger, it is easy to quickly cut the opposite side under the horse in one or two rounds. Except for some cases of tug-of-war, the fighting went on very quickly for the most part.
In addition to playing cards, there are two other things worth noting.
The first is a card in the starting deck called the Stoat. Unlike other units, this stoat seems to have its own mind, always trying to communicate with the player, and will also chatter about some inexplicable words.
There is also the fact that the "I" in the game can actually get up and leave the table and explore in this strange little room.
There are too many things in the house to be aware of. Flipping through the card game's instruction manual, you'll suddenly find a string of passwords that you can use to open a safe in the corner; follow the prompts for a painting on the wall to place your cards, find a pot of plants that provide a card change function; transfer the wolf statue to the right place, and get a sharp knife to dig out your eyeballs...
There is a lot to explore in the house
A rule book for hiding passwords
Obviously, playing cards isn't all there is to Evil Hades. As the process progresses, more and more bizarre things will emerge.
Eerie random cards
Finally, after passing through three maps and going through difficulties and obstacles, I finally defeated the mysterious man in a round of cards.
I thought there was some reward waiting for the pass, the screen suddenly changed into a camera panel perspective, and several videos taken by real people suddenly appeared on the screen, which was incompatible with the game style just now.
The protagonist of the video appears to be a card videocaster, with footage documenting certain things he experienced over the course of several weeks.
During an unpacking video, he found a strange pack of cards he had never heard of and found coordinates from one of the cards. In the spirit of not being afraid of death, the broadcaster found the coordinate location and dug out a disk from the ground.
A game called Evil Hades comes with the disc.
The first layer of truth of the game is finally revealed. It turns out that the person who played "Evil Meditation" has always been the podcaster, and he used the camera to record the whole process while playing.
And we, the off-screen players, see everything that this camera records.
The flower work here is just the beginning.
Now, we have to go back and play cards, use some of the items we find in the house to get clues, and finally "dispose" of the mysterious man who thinks he controls everything outside of the poker game.
The reward for success is a somewhat familiar button.
Yes, at this point, if you return to the main menu of the game, you will be pleasantly surprised to find that the "New Game" button can already be selected.
Entering a new game is like opening a new door. Now, I'm dealing with an RPG that's gameBoy's image quality.
Welcome to the New World
It feels like a different disc, and the gameplay has changed completely. Players must control their mini-figures to move around, collect card packs and defeat the guardians of the four zones.
The combat part, although it basically follows the previous card battle rules, has become a mode similar to Hearthstone to build its own hand, and the Roguelike element has disappeared.
Speaking of which, you probably already know what Evil Hades is: a meta-game cloaked in cards.
After that, the content of the game will change many times, and all kinds of crazy things will continue to appear (you even have to read the files on your computer and use the size of the files to launch attacks!). ）。
The video clips that are constantly unlocked like fragments allow players to gradually piece together the horror truth of the event.
What the process looks like after it enters the third stage
Some clues may even have to go outside the game, to the manufacturer's official website and social platform to peel off the cocoon.
Even the mystery of "keep playing" that bothered me at the beginning will also reveal the true face of cruelty.
It took me about 12 hours to play the ending, but I missed a lot of unsolvable puzzles in the process and didn't fully understand the whole story.
According to Daniel Mullins Games' usual routine, he may still be quite far from the so-called "true ending".
Meta-game essentials: self-deletion
As a meta-game, although there are some old bridges in "Evil Underworld", it does have the magic to keep people playing.
Even leaving aside the meta element, the card part of the game is interesting enough. If possible, I would very much like to have a mode that leaves aside the puzzle element and is completely only playing cards.
It has also received explosive acclaim on Steam. If you haven't tried it yet, I really recommend you to give it a try.
After all, who wouldn't like such a crazy, expressive work?