Inkulinati
Developer Yaza Games
Publisher Daedalic Entertainment
Format PC, PS4, PS5, Switch (tested), Xbox One, Xbox Series
Release Out now
The visuals are cleverly thought through. Creatures aren’t coloured in until you commit to placing them. Circular halos let you identify anointed units, and black marks the heretics who have attacked them, thus risking double damage
The presence here of Pentiment’s Andreas Maler inspires a delightful thought. We begin to imagine this turn-based strategy being played in the margins around the story that is written by your actions in Obsidian’s game, perhaps by the very scribes tasked with inking the same manuscript. After all, medieval (or early modern, as Josh Sawyer would doubtless correct us) marginalia was often an outlet to relieve the tedium of the illuminator’s job. Which explains the playful puerility of some of the tactics here, from monkeys leaving a toxic stink behind to rabbits mooning mammalian rivals, leaving them with movementstunting headaches. With ravenous snails, blue-skinned goblins and hairy devils with faces in their backsides, Yaza Games offers up plenty of stuff and nonsense to amuse, but its absurdist approach belies a game of surprising tactical depth, and no little variety.