Cryptmaster

Cryptmaster is a role-playing game where everything is controlled by typing words. You must explore a dungeon and type the right words in order to attack enemies, loot chests, and gather resources. Cryptmaster’s unusual mechanics and polished execution won it the Most Innovative Game award in the 2024 Thinky Awards.

The game takes place in a black-and-white 3D dungeon with a grid-based layout. A cadaverous narrator informs you that you are a party of adventurers who have died and lost all your memories, and you must travel through the dungeon to regain your memories and relearn your attacks and combat moves.

Each party member has moves, but when you begin, they show up only as a series of blanks. You must collect letters through various dungeon events to fill in the blanks, Hangman-style, until you have enough letters to guess the name of the move. When you guess correctly, the move unlocks, you can use it in combat, and you are given a new move to guess. You have as many tries as you want to guess the names of the moves.

Throughout the dungeon you find chests and boxes that contain loot that you must identify. You can type commands like TOUCH, LOOK, or LISTEN to examine the object and get clues from the narrator, often in the form of riddles. Then you type your guess. If you’re correct, any letters in that word that are present in the names of the moves get filled in. You have a limited number of clues and guesses.

In combat, you must type the names of your moves to use them. There are two combat modes: “realtime” (the recommended mode) and “turnbased” [sic]. In turnbased mode, you have as long as you need to type the moves. In realtime mode, you must type the moves quickly. However, all the moves have cooldowns, which reduces the time pressure and keeps the combat from requiring too much keyboard mashing. The console version of the game includes a virtual keyboard with a predictive text bar to reduce the number of inputs.

To charge your combat moves, you must collect bugs from the dungeon walls. This is also done by typing their names. You can also freely type words at any time. The narrator gracefully, and often amusingly, responds to your input, making the parser-based controls feel smooth and immersive.

Cryptmaster is also notable for its standout production values. The narrator’s Vincent Price-inspired voice acting adds a great deal of emotion and humor, while the Castle Wolfenstein-like square dungeons, rendered with a stylish black-and-white shader, give the game a classic feel. And despite its horror trappings, the game is more funny than actually scary.

This description was written by Gwen C. Katz.