Cryptmaster review

The power of words is often overlooked, and I don’t just say that because I’m a writer. A single word can make someone’s day or ruin it. A particular sentence in the right hands can change the world. Words are just as important in the world of video games too, although perhaps in some more than others. Cryptmaster loves words as much as a game possibly could, combining spelling puzzles and riddles with classic grid-based dungeon crawling to create one of the most unique games of the year.

Your party of heroes in Cryptmaster are dead and decaying, but were once household names in the fantasy world. Since none of the four are particularly willing to spend the rest of their days slowly turning to dust in a crypt, the titular Cryptmaster is willing to help them make their way up to the surface (although he might have his own motive for this too). The only issue is that death has robbed our heroes of their memories of both their lives and battle prowess, and they’ll need some of that knowledge to survive the underworld monsters on their quest for sunlight.

In most dungeon crawling games you’d expect to do a whole lot of turn-based monster fighting, and although that’s also the case in Cryptmaster you’ll need to learn some moves first to do so. Each character has a blank space under their name which features the next move, and only by guessing it will you unlock it for use. There are a variety of ways you can reveal letters in these words, and by bringing up the keyboard and typing it correctly you’ll learn how to use it in battle. Each of your heroes is a standard RPG class which will help you figure out the moves. For example an ability starting in Z and ending in P that your mage might use is Zap, whereas musical words are more likely be your Bard’s new skills.

Guessing a new skill without any letters revealed is practically impossible, so you’ll need to find some if you want to expand your repertoire. The best way to do this is by opening chests, and then figuring out what they contain. Each chest has an everyday item inside, but the Cryptmaster will only help you figure it out by answering a few questions. Asking him to remember will see him talk about what he used it for when he was alive, but you can also ask how much it feels like it weighs, how it smells or for a description of what it looks like. When you’re out of questions you can fill in the answer you think is right, and if you’re correct then all the letters in the word will be revealed in your party’s next skills. It’s such a clever system, and one which ensures you feel like a genius when you work out what’s in the box.

As well as chests, there are also talking skulls who will ask you to solve riddles. If you can manage this you’ll be rewarded with some currency alongside getting all letters contained in the answer revealed. Your mileage will vary with these depending on how much of a riddle fan you are, but I thought they were rather clever and rewarding to boot.

Once you’ve unlocked a selection of abilities you’ll be ready to take on the various beasts lurking in the world below the surface. Depending on which play style you choose, fights will either be turn based or real time – although admittedly without a keyboard on console you should probably stick to the slower option. Writing out each word will unleash its corresponding attack, but each letter you input will push the foe you’re facing closer to their action. You also only have as many letters as you’ve collected in the dungeons you’ve explored to type your moves, so being careful with your inputs to conserve them is key.

The actual combat outside of worrying about spelling is pretty simple in Cryptmaster. Some abilities do larger amounts of damage than others, some abilities heal your team, and some knock the enemy down disrupting their attacks. The battle system is fine but not particularly thrilling in basic encounters, but as you progress tougher enemies will appear with different abilities like blocking attacks that include certain letters. You’ll have to really delve deep into your bag of tricks to deal with these pests, and it’s so easy to accidentally trigger one of these enemy counters and feel their wrath because of it.

Cryptmaster is such a creative and compelling game, but above all else it’s the dialogue that impressed me the most. So many lines have been recorded for the titular narrator in order to react to random words you might type, and this is often very entertaining. One particular example of this I appreciated involved one of the game’s altars that serve as save points. To unlock these you need to destroy them so the god defending them clears off, and by typing a word you’ll do this. For the first few I typed simple things like smash and kick which got the job done, but I decided to get a little cheeky with one and typed “piss”. The Cryptmaster then gleefully laughed and exclaimed “give it a good soaking”, as I unlocked this save point with my yellow stream. This is but one of dozens of ridiculous and hugely entertaining moments that Cryptmaster gave me when I experimented, and I’m sure there are hundreds more to discover.

I absolutely adored my time with Cryptmaster, but it does have a few small issues that some may not appreciate. The movement in the grids of the dungeon is a bit slow, and with no way to strafe left and right you’ll need to do a lot of turning before moving especially when looking for secrets. It’s also an easy game to get lost in, and without an overall map to check it can be a frustrating experience when you do.

Cryptmaster is a massively creative game that combines classic dungeon crawling and clever wordplay, and does so with style. Solving riddles and guessing items never ceased to make me feel like a genius, and combat (especially as it gets more complex as the game progresses) is a lot of fun. It may have a few small issues, but Cryptmaster is a hidden gem of 2024 just waiting for you to discover it.