Cryptmaster Review - It's Marvellous, It's Bespoke... It's A Thing
You've been given a second chance by the Cryptmaster, now stretch out those digits - there's some typin' to be done!
Cryptmaster instantly gets a thumbs up, a seal of approval, a recommendation, and its loyalty card fully stamped so that they get a free coffee on their next purchase… it’s genius, it’s witty, it’s in black and white… it’s a thing!
Speculate all you like; this miscreant necromancer has no power over me to force out these excitable words. Or maybe he does. Or could it even be Paul Hart, Lee Williams, or even Akupara Games? This typing dungeon crawler is so incredibly unique and fresh that I can’t help but type all the good stuff. But let’s save that for the actual adventure, no?
After being reanimated by the shifty death-lovin’ antagonist, the Cryptmaster tasks you with escaping a dungeon and reaching the surface. He can only do so with your help, for he doesn’t possess a physical body to take the Soulstone and scarper with it. With a party of four, you’ll crawl the dungeons, recall every inane word you’ve heard, and type away.
Cryptmaster Review – Tales From Crypt
SMELL, TASTE, REMEMBER, LIFT – these are just some commands you can input into Cryptmaster when searching for clues, who then responds with hilarious results (try typing in some rude words – I dare you). Like any old school dungeon crawler like The Eye of the Beholder or the new Wizardry remaster, there are four directions, one screen at a time, and a mini-map on-screen for your pleasure.
Nobody needs a tutorial on movement, but you need the skinny on how the game works. Your first interaction will be typing in the names of your team to reanimate them (the letters in their names represent their health), then locating a chest and typing ‘chest’ to open it. Upon opening the container, the Cryptmaster hints about the object, and you have to guess, as in Hangman.
There are an infinite number of options, though only a few will work. You might be told that the item is like a furball with a tail—do you have an idea what it is? Type it in, and you earn letters that reveal new skills or character origins. However, you don’t get the item if you don’t guess it right. Consequences – yay!
A S-U-B-H-E-A-D-I-N-G
Cryptmaster plays like any conventional party-based RPG adventure. There’s the option for both real-time and turn-based combat. The former is recommended, but I’d suggest the second simply to familiarise yourself with the commands. For the record, it plays well on the Steam Deck, but a keyboard is faster than selecting with a cursor.
When you begin with your team of Joro, Syn, Maz, and Nix, your abilities (and memory) are pretty barren. Opening chests and exploring will reveal new moves, such as Joro’s ‘hit’. During an enemy encounter, type the word when not in a cooldown, and they’ll perform the move. Watch out as some enemies give a debuff with commands featuring certain letters.
It’s easy to forget your commands, so a quick hotkey of 1-4 will show everything you’ve unlocked as a reminder. You can even try typing in a word, hoping it’ll be part of your party’s repertoire. Also, levelling up a character adds a new letter to their name, increasing their health.
ASDF JKL;
Actions are limited in Cryptmaster, and if you run out, your party will die. New action points are awarded in battle, fishing and scavenging for insects and answering riddles from skulls. Fortunately, health can be replenished from an altar without losing your alphabet loot.
Exploration is encouraged so you can meet the quirky characters, get assigned a side quest, and play the card game Whatever. It’s a stunning setting, but then again, I’m a sucker for black-and-white aesthetics and multiple colour palettes similar to Who’s Lila? That does spell out extra time in faffing about with preferences, however, including depth of field and subtitle appearance.
It’s the innovation that makes this game outstanding. Typing as an input isn’t revolutionary, but there aren’t many games that use typing as an input, arguably because they’re gimmicky or unplayable. Nanotale and The Typing of the Dead are some exceptions. With Cryptmaster, you’ll genuinely be surprised at your vocabulary, but more so when hearing the necromancer read them back to you in a pithy sentence without sounding like Siri. If my phone sounded like the Cryptmaster, I wouldn’t need to call my imaginary friends ever again.
Cryptmaster Review Summary
Cryptmaster is amazing. There’s a chance this could have been geared towards orc sympathisers who love a good D&D anecdote, yet the setting could be a supermarket, and it’d still be mind-blowing. Who could have thought a typing game could be so immersive and entertaining, Mavis? If you don’t want to type, you can use a mic. Just remember, the CIA is listening.