Inscryption

Inscryption is part card game and part puzzler, so it’s tricky to drop it neatly into a single genre category – but its evolving card-battling mechanics are the brightest aspect of it for a majority of the playtime. The basics of playing creatures, tipping a scale, and proceeding to the next fight rarely change, but the way Inscryption constantly reinvents all of the systems around those fundamentals is truly incredible. It teaches you how to master one iteration of itself in a way that’s challenging but never frustrating, and just as you get comfortable it will change its art style, its resource system, and even the genre of the metagame around it to start fresh. It’s unrivaled at intentionally keeping you off balance, but the strategic decisions and intricate out-plays those same fundamentals enable never stop being rewarding either. - Tom Marks