It’s a good time to be a fan of grid-based first-person dungeon crawlers. Once niche, the ‘blobber’ genre—first person party-based RPGs with grid-based movement—has exploded in popularity in the last decade, with games likeLegend of GrimrockandVaporumbeing huge breakout hits. Smaller projects have had equal success in the genre, with the recently releasedDragon Ruinsand kickstarter successHibernaculumboth finding their own niches amongst the blobber fanbase. With such a crowded landscape, new grid-based first-person RPGs need to do something fresh and unique in order to stand out from the crowd—enter:Cryptmaster.
First revealed way back in 2022,Cryptmasterpromised players a weird, dark dive into an underground world filled with sentient doors, living skeletons, and deadly frog-men. Described by the developers as ‘ScribblenautsmeetsD&D,’Cryptmasterpromised to eschew traditional menu-based gameplay in favor of a new typing-based interaction system. Players would solve riddles, attack enemies, defend from attacks, and explore the game’s vast underground crypt, all by typing commands. A river could be jumped over simply by typing ‘JUMP’; The player could make a party member shoot lightning from her fingertips just by typing ‘ZAP’.
Cryptmaster’s Typing Mechanics are Surprisingly Robust
While some were initially skeptical aboutCryptmaster’styping-based game mechanics, that skepticism was washed away when gamers finally got their hands on the game. Focusing heavily on puzzles,Cryptmastertasks players with solving riddles or deducing words from clues given to them by the titularCryptmaster. Players even face puzzles when opening chests and boxes looking for loot—rather than simply acquiring the item within, players ask the Cryptmaster to describe the item using various senses (touch, taste, sight, etc…), and then use those clues to guess the item inside; if the player fails to guess the item, it’s lost forever.
A counterpoint to the game’s relatively slow andcontemplative puzzle solving,Cryptmaster’s combat is a frantic battle of speedtyping and memory. Playing out in real time, players type memorized combat actions—HIT, MURDER, YELL—to bludgeon the game’s various enemies into submission. In order to stop the player relying on the same few words over and over, many of the game’s enemies have strengths, weaknesses, and immunities—such as shields that block all attacks containing a specific letter of the alphabet.
Cryptmaster Has A Wicked Sense of Humour
Harkening back to thetext-adventuresof old, many ofCryptmaster’s characters have a vein of dark comedy running through them—the glib, sarcastic Cryptmaster himself taking center stage, acting as the player’s sardonic connection to the game’s absurd fantasy world. Not every video game is truly funny, especially one that relies so heavily on written comedy, butCryptmasterbucks the trend. The writing and voice acting work together to create a world and cast of characters that are both believable and comical.
Cryptmaster’s Presentation Is Unique and Eye-Catching
With busy, detailed black-and-white art-direction—inspired by the line-art illustrations in oldD&DmanualsandFighting Fantasygamebooks—Cryptmasterdoesn’t look like other games. Taking further inspiration from B-movies and old-school creature features, the game’s enemies and NPCs blend the grotesque and comedic into something uncanny but undeniably charming.
Cryptmaster Has Released to Near-Universal Acclaim
Since its release on May 9,Cryptmasterhas quickly become one of the year’s most talked about dungeon crawlers. With reviews currently sitting at‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ on Steam, and the game continuing to be a favorite of Twitch streamers and YouTube channels,Cryptmasterseems to be almost universally beloved.
Cryptmaster
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SAY ANYTHING in Cryptmaster - the bizarre dungeon-crawling adventure where words control everything.In the ancient past, four brave heroes banded together to destroy a terrible evil, giving their lives to save countless others. But now their eternal rest has been disturbed by the Cryptmaster, a capricious necromancer in whose thrall they must ascend through the buried strata of the city above them - the gloomy Bonehouses, mysterious Sunken Sea and freakish Downwood.With the enigmatic Soulstone in hand, the four adventurers must recover their memories, solve whimsical puzzles and defeat outlandish enemies. From fishing and card games to bardic rap battles, finding the right word is the key to success. Who knows, maybe you’ll even remember a little more than you bargained for…
