Griftlands

This ingenious blend of RPG mechanics, visual novel-style storytelling, and deck-building roguelike gameplay is a beautiful recipe for a kind of game I never knew I wanted. Even though I’ve already spent the past week getting through each of Griftlands’ campaigns multiple times, I’m still looking forward to my next run – and the run after that. Campaigns are short and challenging, making them highly replayable and memorable adventures that reward your time. It’s kinda absurd that such an eclectic group of mechanics work together in such harmony, but once you’re bitten by their charms it’s quite hard to put Griftlands down.

Griftlands does what it sets out to do, offering a wholly compelling and unique take on its genre influences. It's yet another excellent entry into roguelike deckbuilding experiences and is immediately memorable thanks to its reliance on world-building and character depth. Even better, the story of Griftlands is a fun jaunt through a sci-fi world that is buoyed by an even more exciting card game. Those who loved Hades, Slay the Spire, or similar games will find just as much to love in Griftlands.

Griftlands is an atypical deckbuilding roguelite with an addictive gameplay formula and a top notch narrative. I can see myself playing this game for a very long time while trying to master everyone of its aspects.

Griftlands’ middling, insubstantial story and dull dialogues draw attention away from the game’s undeniable strengths: excellent negotiation mechanics and a pretty good combat system. [09/2021, p.42]

Absorbing. [Issue#361, p.112]

Griftlands is the new champion in the deck-building roguelike games arena, thanks to its original gameplay mechanics and deep/entertaining narrative nature.

Shortcomings aside, Griftlands is another slice of low-key brilliance from developers Klei. Is there a genre they can't do? The balance of narrative and deck-building made for a much more engaging experience than I often have with card-based titles, even if it feels like more could be done to connect those systems and bolster the storytelling. Still, I'm going to remember my adventures with Sal and the little moments of friendship and betrayal throughout each run. I like playing as a grifter; it ain't much but it's a living.

Best deck building game I played so far ! The replayability is there. There is only 3 characters/stories but I keep cycling through them and its really enjoyable

A good deck builder needs good variety. This is where Griftlands falls short, core gameplay is simply unsatisfying long term and gets stale too quickly. Slay the Spire or Monster Train are much more engaging in this element. The main thing Griftlands does get right is the story elements. The heists are and jobs are rather engaging and there is some variety that makes you want to do at least one more run. But once I had the perfect genocide and pacifist runs, I lost all interest in rerunning the game.

My biggest problem is that it's not clear what all cards do. For someone new to this kind of game I was utterly lost and just lost any motivation to keep playing when a lot of things aren't explained.

confusing game. and the chat fights are just boring. You have much better games out there from this genre

It was okay. The fight system was very unique. But the enemies were way too overpowered making the game extremely unfair. The story was okay. The main plotline made sense. The rest of it did not. The graphics were okay. Overall, skip it unless you're really into the genre of visual novels and dark-souls kind of tough fights but in a different mechanic with turn-based manner.