Cryptmaster

Cryptmaster is a wickedly clever spin on the edutainment games of old. It combines good old fashioned typing with an underworld full up of gallows humour and eccentrics to meet, including its titular star. Spread the word, Cryptmaster is a must play indie.

I’m confident that close to everyone reading this has played Wordle before. And if you somehow haven’t, then you might’ve played Hangman as a child, or maybe at least done a crossword puzzle when you were bored. Whatever it is, word games are, I think, a pretty universally enjoyed phenomenon that maybe isn’t always given the credit it deserves. They might be simple, but they’re also very fun. Cryptmaster, developed by Paul Hart, Lee Williams, and Akupara Games, who are also publishing the title, is a dungeon crawler in which you discover a mysterious crypt, collect loot, and fight enemies, but...

Cryptmaster is a commendable indie game that stands out for its originality in gameplay and narrative. While it faces technical and design challenges, the overall experience is enriched by its entertaining side characters, engaging plot and clever integration of language-based mechanics. The game will challenge your linguistic and typing skills and pull you deep into its mysterious world, promising adventure and amusement. The game might benefit from refinements in control responsiveness and visibility issues, but despite its flaws, these do not significantly detract from the engaging and enjo...

I’m not sure what I was expecting with Cryptmaster. At first glance, it kind of has a retro-first-person-shooter vibe. Its distinctive black-and-white art certainly suggests something sinister. Turns out, Cryptmaster is nothing like I thought it would be. It’s a genuinely unique combination of an action puzzle adventure game and a lot of typing. You’re probably wondering what that even means.

If the prospect of furiously trying to remember a bunch of words is daunting, there is a turn-based mode for combat–maximum retro–but real-time is the preferred mode. There’s not even a mouselook–maximum retro turbo!–it’s all keyboard. If wandering around a gloomy underground trying to remember how to word good and do other things good too sounds intriguing, well, the narrator is already disappointed and sighing heavily. He will even tell you how to uninstall if you’re particularly bad. It’s a wonderful journey, down in the crypts with the Australian rat people while the narrator sighs at you ...

Cryptmaster is a great idea, yet it stops just short of great execution