Griftlands Reviews

Griftlands is terrific at creating a unique and slick battle system that gives you a considerable sense of control - packed with plenty of content, I'm still having a blast with this game after playing it off-and-on since it came out. Despite its seemingly-complicated system, the game is surprisingly easy to learn and even after I haven't played for a while, when I pick it back up I get into it again right away - partially thanks to its great UI. In other words, I can highly recommend the game.

As a seasoned deckbuilder player, this game is a wonderful breath of fresh air. This game is narrative driven with a whole host of well designed characters. Having two distinct play styles, battles or negotiation keeps things interesting. I get immense satisfaction out of destroying my opponents arguments, and seeing the consequences of your actions will keep me coming back for more. Just a couple days into my first run and I am already excited to try out the additional characters and daily run mode. I really hope the developers plan for DLC because they have really crafted a universe worth exploring deeper.

I love this game, I need to put more time into it. In my opinion it's my favorite deckbuilder roguelike since Slay the Spire came out. The option to build your social deck and your combat deck makes this game very unique in my opinion. That and the stories are pretty nice.

A great take on the card building genre, with a focus on roleplaying, world, and story. 3 different characters with different stories, quests, and gameplay mechanics. I like the art, the character dialogue, and choosing different paths which affect both story and card mechanics. I'm not so sure about the roguelike aspect of this. I feel there is as much replayability pursuing the different story paths as there is rising up the ascention/prestige difficulties, both of which pale compared to the strength of the game: the story and discovery of mechanics of each character.

Tons of fun the whole time. Game can get tough, but it is very satisfying beating a hard scenario or going far in a open run. Art style is fun and unique and the game play variety adds a lot of spice to the game. All in all tons of fun and worth the purchase 8/10

skill issue here. I find this game extremely complicated. Just the fact you get to have two separate decks to build and improve with totally different mechanics makes this game so hard to get into. And it seems to me it's not worth the time investment until I get comfortable and start enjoying the game.

Great roguelike (dual) deckbuilder. You have to deckbuild both a negotiation deck and a battle deck at the same time (as in Tainted Grail, the board game). There are 2 very well defined ways to build each deck though, so replayability is kind of low after playing a character twice. Meta progression is also incredibly slow and not meaningful. The stories for the 3 protagonists and the worldbuilding are fun and original. The game is hard, and in my first game I misplayed a hand on the final boss and lost a 8-hour run to this, so be aware that runs are long are difficult throughout.

I can't really recommend this game. I was very excited when Klei announced Griftlands many years ago. The idea looked really cool. It was delayed and took a long time to finally release. I think at one point the genre/direction totally changed too. When it came out as a deckbuilder I was disappointed. It wasn't what I was initially expecting. So I never ended up getting it. I do really enjoy deck builders (Slay the Spire, Monster Train, Balatro). Because of this I eventually picked this up on sale. I kind of regret it. There are some good things, and some not so great things. [h3] The main problem with Griftlands [/h3] You might see some people saying "lots of replayability" and other's saying "no replayability." I think I understand the differences people have here. The game technically has replayability, but imo I'm not sure why you'd want to. Griftlands claim to fame imo is it's greatest weekend. That being the story. The story is what holds this game back in several ways. The stories are fairly shallow/generic. At this point I have not even started the story of the third character because I have no interest. The story technically has branching paths, but only 2 in each case. After you play through those (or even just one path) the story gets in the way of the actual game. So much of the mouse clicking becomes skipping over the story. Yes, there is a setting to "skip text," but even this is insufficient. You still have to click a bunch just to get back into the game. For example: click to exit out of story text, click to exit building, click new location on map, click person in new location, click to end text or start encounter. That's 5+ extra clicks that really have nothing to do with the game. And you do this in-between [b]every single battle[/b]. In other deck builders like Slay the Spire every single click is important and directly impacts your game. It puts you on the edge of your seat and makes the game intense. In Griftlands all of that is removed because the story and navigation get in the way. So even though the game has replayablity (in the form of character upgrades, somewhat branching paths, and game modifiers) I have no desire to replay it because of the previously mentioned reasons. It's just slow paced. [h3] Other pros/cons [/h3] [list] [*]The idea of having two decks is really cool. The only main issue I have with the negotiation deck is that's it's a bit confusing. This is largely because of how abstract it is — the keywords they've chosen don't help this either. [*]I wish your pets could do more. If I remember correctly your pet can only be upgraded once (in a pretty generic way). I was really hoping there was a bunch of different ways you could upgrade your pets. Because of this limitation they're not a useful as they could be. [*]As is expected from Klei the gameplay is very polished. I didn't find any bugs or problems while playing [*]As I said above, I didn't even try the third character. It's been a while since I've played this game and don't find it drawing me back at all like other deck builders do. It just doesn't have that intense fast pace deck builder feel that I look for. I'm not sure how true the statement "every decision is important" actually is in this game like it is with other deckbuilders. [/list]

Similar to Slay the Spire, but more story driven and less variety. It did take me a couple tries to get into the game. I came into this hoping for more Slay the Spire, but Griftlands is not that. The route is very structured for story sake, with branching events that ends up at the same endpoint. I eventually did get into the game and it's great. It has it's own twist in card battler. There's social and combat decks. The decks do have like 2 options to build it. There are 3 characters with their own deck and story. It does lack the replay ability as Slay the Spire, but it's still an enjoyable game. As for some of the cons, story and game play are hard to get into in the beginning. I believe the other characters are locked until you finish the first character's story, so you have a complete run first even if you don't like the character. It was very hard in the beginning to win. Also, no DLCs. This game could've really used any add-on. Not much replay value since getting crazy synergies are hard to achieve, so you're basically doing the same thing over and over.

Amazing play on the rougelite card game! The characters are incredible diverse in their play mechanics. ( / class flavoring, if you're a TTRPG person) The coolest part of the game? You have both diplomatic and combat based interactions - there's one deck for combat, and a separate one for narrative interactions where you can employ various techniques. You can choose to balance between the two, or focus heavily on one and attempt to fully complete the game in that manner. It's a marvelous play on the Slay the Spire gameplay style (rougelite deck-builder), while exploring more gruff and sharp aesthetic.