Having put a good ~40 hours into Balatro so far (and I will be putting more into it in the future), I feel comfortable saying that while it's really good, it's not the be-all end-all of rogue-likes.
What Balatro does well is presentation, style, and simplicity. The game is immediately intuitive if you know poker, the music is calming, the spritework is incredible. You can boot it up, and in an hour, have a solid grasp on all the major mechanics of the game. This isn't Isaac, where the rules of the game are changing with every item you get, nor is it Gungeon, which demands a pretty substantial learning curve. Balatro is accessible, stylish, and fun.*
At lower levels anyway. What I've found is that eventually, you hit a brick wall of a learning curve. When you're halfway up the difficulty ladder and going for harder joker unlocks, the sheen begins to waver a bit. On higher difficulties, I feel completely at the RNG's mercy. Whether I get usable jokers, boss blinds that kill me on the spot, or useful skips isn't something I can affect in any way.
While this isn't out of the ordinary - indeed, you'd be a fool to expect a rogue-like without RNG - Balatro feels especially defeating at this hump. This is still poker. A bad series of draws, an unlucky blind, and you're dead regardless of how well you tried to build your deck. And for some, this won't be an issue at all. But as someone raised on easier roguelikes, these setbacks feel more frustrating than anything.
This isn't to be overly negative, however. Balatro is a wonderful game, and definitely worth your time. It's cheap, and even if you drop off at the 30 hour mark, you'll have more than got your money's worth. It feels fresh, and I'm delighted to have such a prominent, popular, new game on the roguelike block. It's probably the best addition to the genre since Vampire Survivors. Just beware the midgame slump, and don't burn yourself out by playing dead run after dead run for hours.
What Balatro does well is presentation, style, and simplicity. The game is immediately intuitive if you know poker, the music is calming, the spritework is incredible. You can boot it up, and in an hour, have a solid grasp on all the major mechanics of the game. This isn't Isaac, where the rules of the game are changing with every item you get, nor is it Gungeon, which demands a pretty substantial learning curve. Balatro is accessible, stylish, and fun.*
At lower levels anyway. What I've found is that eventually, you hit a brick wall of a learning curve. When you're halfway up the difficulty ladder and going for harder joker unlocks, the sheen begins to waver a bit. On higher difficulties, I feel completely at the RNG's mercy. Whether I get usable jokers, boss blinds that kill me on the spot, or useful skips isn't something I can affect in any way.
While this isn't out of the ordinary - indeed, you'd be a fool to expect a rogue-like without RNG - Balatro feels especially defeating at this hump. This is still poker. A bad series of draws, an unlucky blind, and you're dead regardless of how well you tried to build your deck. And for some, this won't be an issue at all. But as someone raised on easier roguelikes, these setbacks feel more frustrating than anything.
This isn't to be overly negative, however. Balatro is a wonderful game, and definitely worth your time. It's cheap, and even if you drop off at the 30 hour mark, you'll have more than got your money's worth. It feels fresh, and I'm delighted to have such a prominent, popular, new game on the roguelike block. It's probably the best addition to the genre since Vampire Survivors. Just beware the midgame slump, and don't burn yourself out by playing dead run after dead run for hours.