Griftlands

« 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. »

« 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 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. »

« I really like how the deck-building mechanics reflect the dispositions of the different characters. You can see this in both combat and negotiation; Sal is pretty strong all around, which makes them a good choice for your first couple of runs. Rook flips a coin every now and then during negotiation that can produce a powerful boost. Smith builds up a stockpile of empty bottles while in combat which they sometimes hurl at their opponents. The result is a wonderful sense of ludonarrative consonance. »

« 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. »

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

« Absorbing. [Issue#361, p.112] »

« 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] »

« A really nice rogue lite/ deck builder which will require you to master its mechanics to overcome its 3 campaigns. The speed options are welcome regarding the number of retries necessary. The story is quite flat but the choice mechanics makes it a nice slice of life somehow and attenuates the repetitivity of the whole. For a 1€ sale on Steam, a little banger given you like the genre »

« "Negotiation battled" are a neat concept, but it kinda falls flat. The main problem is that actual battles are what really matter in the end, and by negotiating you skip battles, and thus don't get to improve your battle cards. So you'll be playing a diplomatic playthrough, get into an unavoidable battle, and get curbstomped by ultra overpowered enemies with no chance to retry and lose hours of work. »

« Very fun game. Not as challenging as Slay the Spire but still Will scratch the itch. »

« It's a great deck builder that introduces a completely different mechanic to the traditional combat. Diplomacy might sound like it's just combat, but with a different name, but it is not so. Combat works as you'd expect from other games in the genre. Diplomacy, however, functions fundamentally different and has potentially multiple arguments you need to deal with, while also potentially dealing with or ignoring the "side objectives". It's a refreshing mode and you often get to choose between combat or diplomacy. This also features more choices than usual for this genre. Usually these choices end up making someone love or hate you, which can provide different benefits. »

« 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. »

« Deck Building Gem Visual (8/10) I like general sci fy design and drawing characters, but card design a bit average, for example in battle deck you can find a lot of card with same dagger, also after upgrading cards they will have same picture and same design, so you need to double check description, for card game is a minus. Also music is average and almost don't change in different locations. Interface is very important in card games. So my first impression was - emm another one messy over headed interface, but after some games I can say that it's very helpful, you just need to get used yo it. Gameplay (8/10) Gameplay is very addictive because you constantly upgrade your perks, cards, get new one and you can check different playstyles through one party. Great Idea to have more playable characters with different styles and story missions. On the other hand not so many perks are really unique and main strategy is pretty straightforward. Story (7/10) Story is pretty average, but I really like characters. And the fact that to know full picture you need to play this game more than one time. I think that all sci-fi lovers can fnd some references to different universes. So all in all, I like this game and still have it installed on my PC, so I can play it time to time. I definitely can recommend this game to everyone, neither you are big fan of card game, or just want to start your journey. »

« Phenomenal art style and world building combined with great deckbuilding and roguelight mechanics. Here is hoping for future DLC »

« Appalling experience and very overrated game defines Griftlands for me. The stories are rather uninspiring, short to enjoy them and too long for the type of gameplay. The game is repetitive and very slow. The cards offer no enjoyable synergies nor mechanics, poorly explained and unnecessarily complicated. All classes do pretty much the same things just cards are reworded. Negotiation battles are original but don´t add that much value to the overall experience and it´s hard to fully understand what is going on. These just drag the gameplay. Variety of monsters and graphics are about right. Unfortunately, this game looks good but all the mechanics feel very bland, it lacks depth. »