Balatro Reviews

Extremely good rogue-like, extremely addictive, BUT. The top difficulties are way too RNG-reliant, which is kind of a bummer, as the gameplay in gold stake kind of ends up being "restart 25x until you have a good first skip bonuses, good jokers, and before these good jokers, good hands". For this reason I find it hard to have fun in the top difficulties. Still, the game is awesome and very worth its price.

I'm rather sad that it's not as good as I've expected. Does the game *look* great? Yes. The UI is nice. The sound is too. But the gameplay itself is meh. It's just yet another HEAVILY RNG based roguelike. I like roguelikes, probably my 3rd favorite genre, but I despise them if they're absolutely unforgiving. The only time I could forgive something like that is not even the same genre and it's Fear & Hunger where that goes well with the theme of the game. To compare with other examples, The Binding of Isaac or Cult of The Lamb - most of the time you finish with a victory and the game just waits for you to do it once again whenever you please. And they give meaningful rewards - new characters or resources needed for survival. Your skill also matters there. Even if you have awful luck, if you're cracked at the game you can still pull it through. Balatro on the other hand - There is no final victory ever. There aren't even any opponents to defeat. You're just praying to god to get good items in shop and nice card drops and then you count them. Eventually you just don't get the needed items or cards. And then that's it, you lose and there goes your progress. Back to the menu where you can start counting cards again. ????? Like, at best I assume that you just get more various cards unlocked with different effects. Awesome, next time if I'm insanely lucky I may get to use my full exodia of sparkling diarrhea which has 10x smell multiplier. (I'm sorry for this one) It shouldn't be like this, but base poker feels way more balanced and fun than this. You have more moves and control there than here. Just with a good bluff, or in another way, when you spot a bluff, you can win. Here your only counters are cards. Which, are again, RNG based. Inscryption too genuinely has it better where your strategy, skill and your opponent matters. Not just luck, and where you don't just count the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cards. I'm actually happy for the dev and stuff, but how did this end up being a contender for GOTY back in the day, exactly?

The base game of Balatro is absolutely addicting and I cannot recommend this game enough, having played it on PC, Xbox, Switch and Mobile. I absolutely cannot wait for the expansion for this game, but if you haven't checked out any mods yet, it is an absolute must. The community for this game is amazing and the work they have done is phenomenal. The quickest way to mod your game is to visit BalatroMP.com and run the Multiplayer Launcher, which will automatically set you up with the required dependencies for most mods (Lovely and Steammodded) and the Multiplayer mod itself, which is genuinely so much fun to play with others both casually and competitively. The rest of the mods you want can be dragged and dropped into %appdata%/Balatro/Mods For QOL mods, I personally run the following; Handy is amazing for card selection, allowing you to hold down your mouse and drag which cards you want to select. Joker Display is great for quick showing the effects of jokers. Saturn allows you to raise the game speed even higher and skip animations, making the game play faster in the higher ante's. Talisman removes the scoring limit, meaning you can go above naneinf. Cryptid, TOGA, Pokermon and Yahimod are my personal favourite overhauls, all adding a lot of content to the game. These are a mix of a challenging but fun experience, and absolute unbalanced insanity that eviscerates the Number Goes Up part of your brain. Other cool mods I use are the Blueprint mod, which changes the art of the Blueprint card to match the card it's copying (Which is useful cause I honestly forget which card i'm copying sometimes). The Card Sleeve mod, which allows you to add an additional decks effects to your chosen deck, Malverk allows texture changes, which I personally use to turn Card Seals into actual Seals, and Deck Builder, which lets you make your own deck with your own rules. There are loads of other mods available, but I wanted to mention some of my personal favourites to get people started if they haven't experienced this game modded yet.

You can see my hours. This is not a multiplayer game. I did not mod it until I 100% it, then cut off the mods to beat the 100% the base game on another profile, for a second time. Buy this game. Play this game. Its the best roguelite I've ever played.

Phenomenal game! I had never tried Roguelike Deck builders before playing Balatro, this game got me really into the genre. There's something to be said for an addicting gameplay loop that respects your time. Each individual run is different, obviously, but the majority of runs do not take long once you figure out the how the scoring works. I would recommend checking out some YT content from the community. Even if you're not actually playing the game or intentionally watching something "educational" for the medium you can learn how other players make decisions use the different game mechanics (successfully or otherwise).

Took me 104h to reach my goal: win a gold stake. Just played a 4h sprint, didn’t even see time passing. As someone who struggle to focus, this game showed me that I, in fact, can lock in for long period of time. On a deeper side, this game has been a real solid base to bring structure back into my life. Thank you LocalThunk.

I went into this game with zero prior knowledge of poker. Turns out, that didn't matter! Before I got this game, I honestly couldn't understand all the reviews claiming how addictive it was. After awhile of eyeballing the game, I finally caved and got it and I see it now. This game is simple, satisfying, addictive, and has an amazing replay value. As someone who was initially skeptical about playing Balatro for the longest time, I highly recommend. It might actually be my current favorite card game!

The good: This game is a demonic pact wrapped in pixelated poker cards that hijacks your dopamine like a Vegas slot machine on bath salts. Every run turns you into a mad scientist mixing Jokers, Tarots, and seals until your score explodes like a fireworks factory staffed by caffeinated squirrels. The synergies are so deliciously broken you'll cackle maniacally as a Flush House rains chips like a broke uncle's divorce settlement. It's impossibly easy to learn yet deeper than my existential dread at 3 AM. One more run? Famous last words before sunrise. Pure roguelike crack cocaine. The bad: The difficulty curve is a polite suggestion until it suddenly dropkicks you into the sun on higher stakes. Boss blinds feel like they were designed by a sadistic mathematician who hates fun. You’ll chase one perfect build only for the shop to offer three useless vouchers and a participation trophy. Completionist++ achievement is a giant++ kick++ in the nuts. Could’ve used a slightly less evil progression or at least a “please sir, may I have some multipliers” button. The ugly: That “fundamental design flaw” where you can’t see exact scores before committing? Chef’s kiss of psychological torture. It’s like playing poker against a dealer who smirks and says “trust me bro” every hand. Occasional visual bugs and joker interactions that make the math gremlins cry in the corner. Cloud sync errors when you finally quit at dawn, as if Steam itself is judging your life choices. The real ugly? Your Steam playtime after “just trying it.” Hide your clock from your family. The verdict: 10/10 - Roguelike Deck-Building Poker Addiction Simulator

When I play a five of a kind ace flush in real poker everyone accuses me of "cheating" but in Balatro it's just normal.

Idk how they managed to make crack digital but it's just as addictive and somehow perfectly legal.