Cryptmaster

[b]My Playtime:[/b] 21.2h (100% achievement, finished the game) [b]Grindy Achievement(s):[/b] No. [b]Optional Achievement(s):[/b] Yes (21 achievements). [b]Difficult Achievement(s):[/b] No. [h1]Intro[/h1] [i]Cryptmaster[/i] is a game with riddles. It allows freedom in which you can type any letter you want throughout the game to do anything, whether it's just talking to NPCs or fighting enemies. [b]Pros:[/b] - Type anything you want in the game - Many riddles to be found and solved - Accessibility options [b]Cons:[/b] - It's easy to get lost - Some riddles require you to understand difficult English words [b]Specs[/b] AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT [h1]Should you buy this game?[/h1] [i]If you enjoy riddles, you'll feel at home.[/i] [hr][/hr] [h1]In-Depth Review[/h1] [h3]The Game[/h3] [b]Gameplay[/b] Ah, so you are dead. Dead but alive. Your corpse is rotting, and you have no recollection of who you are. The Cryptmaster, the one who resurrects you from your slumber, is guiding you in every step that you take, all for one purpose: reaching the surface. As a party of four located at the very bottom of the world, you must make your way up through different cities, each ruled by different people. You have to either cooperate or trick them to go to the next floor. Most of the time, you’ll just talk—they are pretty chill and have no ill will towards you. Or if you still feel lonely after all that, you can talk to Cryptmaster instead. You can type any words whenever you are not doing anything to talk to him, and he’ll respond to them. Be prepared to get roasted or belittled, depending on what you say, though. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3436177467 In [i]Cryptmaster[/i], word is power. It's all you have and need. Need to open a chest? Type. Need to cast a skill? Type. Need to answer a question? Just type! You can type anything that you want as long as it's one word. However, although the game already caters to a wide range of responses, some words will (obviously) not be supported. You can't type to walk, though. You need to use the arrow buttons to move around, and movement is tile-based. Since the camera is first-person, it's easy to get motion sickness, especially if you look at every nook and cranny to search for secrets. Many chests and riddles are hidden just behind certain walls that you won't see unless you look at them from a certain angle. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3603477747 During your travel, you will be provided with a minimap that shows the points of interest. However, due to the dizzying movement and the connecting rooms, it can be easy to get lost even with this. A full map of the region would be helpful, but sadly, the game has none. Your main objective might be clear, but your next objective might not be the same. [i]Cryptmaster[/i] lacks any way to let you know where to go next; you must scour the map blindly, several times if you are unlucky, to find where you are supposed to go and what to do. [b]Riddles[/b] Riddles come in many ways. Some collectibles, namely skulls and chests, require you to guess their contents to get the reward. These are optional and will reward you with letters. Other riddles are related to progression; you need to guess a word combination that is used in a lock to open it, or answer an NPC's question to go through an area. All of these will have hints somewhere in case you get stuck. While easy riddles exist, the harder ones are more numerous. You have to think hard to figure out the answer, and sometimes, the answer might use a very complicated English word that non-native speakers might not be aware of. That being said, the harder riddles usually have simpler answers to compensate for their difficulty. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3669112025 [b]Combat[/b] Combat can be turn-based or real-time depending on your choice. To attack the enemy, you need to type a skill to let a party member use it. Sometimes, enemies have some special effect, such as being unable to be affected by skills with a certain letter, and you must use other skills besides your regular rotation to beat them. Even with all of that, the combat still feels repetitive. Since you have to type the same letters several times, you end up memorizing several skills that suit your playstyle. I didn’t feel incentivized to try out new skills unless I’m having trouble with an enemy. Even when a certain letter was blocked, I’ll either temporarily use a new skill from the available skills or just let that character stay idle until the fight ends. [b]Skills and Memories[/b] Skills can be obtained by typing a word when you are not doing anything. More clues can be obtained by adding letters from fishing or beating an enemy, and once you have an idea what to guess, you just need to type those letters in and submit them. Sometimes, they will also unlock a new memory that is related to that character instead. Unlocking all skills and memories can be time-consuming. The game has a lot of skills that can only be unlocked once you start the latest chapter, and there isn’t much content in that chapter. You won’t have time to unlock them all normally unless you grind a lot. [b]Length and Difficulty[/b] I finished the game in 21.2h. If you discount the riddles, it's easy to beat the game. Those will take most of your time, even more so if you are doing it blind. Some accessibility options are offered, including for answering riddles if you fail to guess them, although it only works for chests and skulls. That being said, solving most riddles is not necessary to finish the game. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] [i]Cryptmaster[/i] is one of the games that you try due to its unique mechanics. Everything that it offers feels fresh, and the riddles will leave you thinking. It's a perfect game for those who like riddles, even more so if they prefer the harder ones. If riddles sound interesting to you, buy this game. [quote]Follow our Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41449676/]Summit Reviews[/url], to see more reviews regularly.[/quote]

Cryptmaster is a fantastic adventure game with options where you can choose to play a turn based adventure or a real time do everything you can to survive mode. I chose the real time cause i like the adreanaline it gives when i have to do something fast and efficiently. The concept of 4 dead adventures who comes back as undead because of the person who callles himself the Cryptmaster and begins the quest of getting into the human world was cool to me. The silly and sometimes questionable past of the 4 undead was amusing to read. I absolutely loved the background scores. The spooky CRYPTMASTER THEME, the beautiful ADGA THE CHASTE SONG and the kinda goofy RATS SONG. Every song was perfect. All the characters in this game was well written . Their discint personality and past stories really made it easier for me to love this game. I especially LIKE VITUS THE PIPER. His rap song was a banger. The voice actors did their jobs really well. LIKE TOOOO WELL. The VA for the Goddess of flirtation ISS is the best example. Good job VA's. There was nothing for me to criticise in the gameplay of the game. The riddles were funny ,witty and fights were really properly entertaining. Although the black and white way of the game was kinda irritating for me at first. Thats my problem for not properly looking into the options available in the settings. Overall this game is fun, entertaining and brain teasing. I could definitely see the work the devs put into this game. A 10/10 game that i ABSOLUTELY recommend anyone to play atleast once.

There's definitely something to it, it's not really a bad game. It's funny, it's interesting. Ultimately though I just didn't want to play more of it once I took a break. It didn't pull me back in.

This is a good game edging towards a great game, let down by a few small problems and one large one. It's a dungeon crawler that feels like you are playing Wordle - and that's the part that's great. It's full of riddles and other word problems, and they are often good, but the difficulty and level of forgiveness in them varries wildly. The riddles you get as many attempts as you like, and it will give you the answer if you fail. The guess the object from weird clues puzzles you get one try at, and if you fail, you have no idea what the right answer was. But the flaw at the centre of it all is the combat. You have a few basic skills, and then, as you level up through clever word guessing mechanics, you unlock new skills. The problem is that while the new skills are often really clever, from a pure min-max perspective, your starting skills are better 90% of the time - making combat usually borring when it could have been interesting. And given that it's a dungeon crawler, combat is the activity you will do the most of. But the writing is good and the world building is fun, so all told it's still a good experience.

90% of the game is the same thing you did in the tutorial: remember words for attacks, and use those that the opponent is not immune to. There is nothing more to it. I've been running around for almost two hours, and it has just been killing low level mobs by typing the same stuff, and trying to figure out new words. Not to mention, when the game has an "open-ended" question, it only lets you use a few preset words, and using ANY synonyms is not recognized which is really stupid. 2/10

"An exemplary display of the power of language": Tabletop D&D, dark fantasy, punnery, riddles, spelling and satire combine to make a near-perfect creation of old-school dungeon crawling made from ingenious programming that emulates an AI with whom you can interact with any word in the dictionary, great writing carried by mustache-twirling voice actors at their hammy best, and dry British wit that make every moment spent with this tour de force time well spent.

You ever wanted to play Scrabble with Vincent Price on the deck of the Obra Dinn? Well have I got a game for you, ya lunatic!

An excellent experience I was not prepared for. Good writing, good riddles, good game. The amount of skills/memories to unlock was a bit too much for the length of the game, but otherwise a great time.

Cryptmaster is built around an incredibly clever idea that, unfortunately, never quite lives up to its full potential. A hangman-inspired typing RPG is delightfully unhinged on paper, and Cryptmaster never lacks personality. The sheer amount of narration is just staggering.The number of lines the narrator must have recorded is borderline absurd, and the team deserves genuine credit for committing to such an ambitious, wildly impractical idea. The core concept alone deserves loads of praise, but the execution struggles to sustain that initial spark, and as a result it gets old pretty fast. The riddles and chest puzzles are mostly underwhelming, rarely pushing the player to think in interesting ways. Combat, while novel at first, quickly becomes confusing with the sheer amount of options you have, and then repetitive once you settle into a handful of reliable word combos. What initially feels inventive gradually turns into a routine. Visually, the game leaves a strong impression, with a grungy, monochrome aesthetic that is very striking and cohesive, perfectly matching the tone of the experience and doing a lot of heavy lifting when the gameplay itself starts to falter.

I sadly cant recommend this game, only because it isnt really a typing game. Its a barebones dungeon crawler where instead of clicking the action you want to do, you type its name. That's it. There is also a cooldown to using abilities, so there is no reward for being a fast typer. It has a great aesthetic, a dark-silly premise, but ultimately I found myself too bored to continue