Balatro is fine. It has much more depth than something like Vampire Survivors, but exponentially less than something like Slay the Spire; I think overall it strikes a good balance. There's a lot of variety in the kind of decks you can build and how you influence the hands played, with most hand types being viable (straights still do not feel worth it though). After a couple of solid updates, there's also an expected and fun level of deck-building strategy you can employ with every run on all difficulties (high/gold stakes were previously re-roll RNG fests).

Once you learn the lay of the land though, most runs will easily devolve into the game-breaking dopamine rush that falls in line with the gambling aesthetic, which dampens the long-term replayability. It's most fun when you're still learning how it works, and after that, mid-run before your deck is fully fleshed out and the hand you play doesn't matter. One thing that I have zero criticisms of here is the stunning yet simple presentation; it has been tweaked and polished to premium-yet-retro perfection.

I loved the first one and felt like it had a very strong emotional core while fully understanding the character. There was still room for narrative improvement though, and I really hoped to find that here. The technical prowess on display is awesome to play around with, but after the new sheen wears off, you're left with a game that is largely a derivative, stripped down version of the previous two entries, in both story and gameplay. Miles and Peter play exactly the same, and combat being so gadget focused feels like the spider was taken out of Spider-Man. Bosses are HP sponges that exist to pad playtime and tire you of the combat mechanics.

The story being so incredibly fast-paced and haphazard gives no breathing room to let tension or attachments grow, really hurting the thematic focus of second chances and redemption. The weaker narrative makes the relatively simple combat and checklist-esque structure feel repetitive quickly, especially considering most people have gone through 30+ hours of it already in past entries. There are a few moments where the writing begins to stand out, and some side content is better integrated into the world, but it just never takes the full narrative leap or shows any teeth like the first game to make you truly care about what's going on.