Inkulinati: Early Version Preview

Inkulinati is a game in the style of medieval manuscripts. Only while Obsidian offered a story-driven adventure, the novelty called Inkulinati is a turn-based tactic with a side-by-side view. It’s in early access on PC and Xbox for now, but we can already draw some conclusions at this stage.

Game Mechanics

In the world of the game, the master insulators are part of a society entertained by drawing on the pages of manuscripts. Two combatants paint self-portraits (mini-inculinates), and in the empty spaces beside them, draw wild beasts and other creatures with live ink. Thanks to such unusual mechanics, the game has become very popular to download on piratebay. The ultimate goal is to bring the health of the enemy mini-incarnate to zero by giving orders to your beasts, summoning new fighters, and using the rest of the features.

Unlike games like Heroes of Might and Magic, the battles in Inkulinati are like chess battles. Here, both teams take turns, but we choose which of our squads will move at any given moment. Before the battle begins, we choose which warriors we can summon into battle and which skills we can use. There are two ways to win. The first is to kill the enemy Inkulinati by depriving him of his health, the second is to throw the hero off the battlefield.

The point is that our space is limited, but is not an invisible wall, so sometimes it’s easier to shove an enemy into the abyss than to fight to exhaustion. As in Heroes of Might and Magic, we have different obstacles and bonuses on the battlefield. We also can not fight indefinitely, at a certain point the map starts to decrease, and we have to act much faster.

The most interesting thing about all of this, aside from the tactical maneuvers, is our troops. Each warrior is unique, in terms of skills and drawing, but we’ll talk about appearance in the part about graphics. There are three modes in the game so far – training, campaign, and quick battles. The tutorial, which is logical, tells you about every aspect of the game and makes you master them by example.

The campaign is a story and open maps with points of interest and choices on which path to take. Also, the company is pumped with prestige – the level of the profile. For prestige, we open up new warriors, talents, and skills. And lastly – quick battles. In them, you can choose any hero, troops, talents, and against whom to play. So battles are provided not only against the computer but also against a live player. The AI difficulty is selectable between light, medium, and heavy, and the battle against the player implies a network component.

Prestige Points

Prestige points also unlock new starter abilities for the mini-inculinatus, called gestures. He can always move targets (and himself) left and right, but in addition, he can heal beasts, temporarily boost their stats, or even blow up his comrades. Bonus gestures as you go, you buy them in the store – there’s also the ability to put one enemy to sleep and the ability to wound an enemy with your finger. In one turn you can use all the available gestures, but they need time to recover – every turn to heal your partners, of course, will not be allowed. And the range of the gestures is small – you need to be quite close to the target. But all the same, they can be very useful, and more than once they save the day.

Conclusion

A seemingly simple situation can turn into a complete failure. Each battle must be approached responsibly, to plan what animals and skills you take. For example, passing training had to get stuck on one battle, with two snails for about half an hour. And in the company, thoughtless behavior can easily ruin you.