Sights & Sounds
- Just looking at screenshots, you can tell this is a Klei game. If they weren't so sci-fi, the characters look like they could be found in Shank or Mark of the Ninja. Here, moreso than those games, the characters are very expressively drawn and bursting with personality
- The music is kind of a let down. It's not bad, but every track sounds like it would be the menu music for a less interesting game
- The sound design is otherwise okay. I get that the Simlish-like VA work is meant to signify alien languages, but the game would have been fine without it
Story & Vibes
- Avoiding spoilers, there are actually three narratives (one for each of the three protagonists). Each one plays out as an interesting little sci-fi character study. Sal's story plays out like a classic revenge tale, Rook's is more subdued and full of intrigue, and Smith's is a bit funnier with several doses of comic relief
- It winds up being a bit of a let down that these stories don't play into each other much. Sure, you may see one of the other two characters pop in to make a cameo, but nothing noteworthy. It really feels like a lost opportunity
- One thing that I did appreciate were the plot-altering consequences. For example, choosing to save an innocent trader from a pack of marauders may net you a reward, but you can bet those bandits will be out for revenge. Screw someone over in a negotiation? Well, hope you're prepared to weasel yourself out of the consequences once your duplicity is discovered
- Vibes will depend on which of the characters you play as. I enjoyed Smith the most. Even though he was the worst at combat/negotiations, I found his story to be the most enjoyable to play through
Playability & Replayability
- I won't go into a deep mechanical explanation of the roguelike deckbuilder; they're mostly the same in term of things like action order/economy. I'll just try to share some observations regarding how it's unique
- In Griftlands, you actually use two separate decks: one for battling and one for negotiating. Which one you use depends on the random event you choose to navigate to on the world map first
- Given the binary focus, you'll typically want to choose events that play into the deck and character upgrades you've received that run
- Griftlands also features partners and pets. Some of these can be very helpful in tougher battles or negotiations
- You can also employ the use of run-altering "mutations", which can provide buffs or nerfs for you to take advantage of or work around
- Unlike many other roguelike deckbuilders, there's very little metaprogression. Sure, you'll unlock cards for future runs (6 per character), but you won't be, say, permanently increasing your HP or the number of cards you can play per turn
- In that way, there's not a ton of replayability in Griftlands once you've completed each character's story. Sure, there's other endings to see and dailies to play, but I wasn't interested in remixes of the same content I'd already played through
Overall Impressions & Performance
- It's a fun game, but doesn't quite reach the upper eschelons of the genre like Slay the Spire. I may not be the most trustworthy of opinions on the matter as I'm not a huge card game player and have just recently started being able to tolerate CCG gameplay
- I didn't encounter any audiovisual issues or other bugs, and the game performed very well on my good-for-2019 setup
Final Verdict
- 7.0/10. It's probably a better game than my score implies, and the presence of a narrative (or three) helps make the plodding gameplay pace a little more tolerable for someone who's lukewarm on CCGs
- Just looking at screenshots, you can tell this is a Klei game. If they weren't so sci-fi, the characters look like they could be found in Shank or Mark of the Ninja. Here, moreso than those games, the characters are very expressively drawn and bursting with personality
- The music is kind of a let down. It's not bad, but every track sounds like it would be the menu music for a less interesting game
- The sound design is otherwise okay. I get that the Simlish-like VA work is meant to signify alien languages, but the game would have been fine without it
Story & Vibes
- Avoiding spoilers, there are actually three narratives (one for each of the three protagonists). Each one plays out as an interesting little sci-fi character study. Sal's story plays out like a classic revenge tale, Rook's is more subdued and full of intrigue, and Smith's is a bit funnier with several doses of comic relief
- It winds up being a bit of a let down that these stories don't play into each other much. Sure, you may see one of the other two characters pop in to make a cameo, but nothing noteworthy. It really feels like a lost opportunity
- One thing that I did appreciate were the plot-altering consequences. For example, choosing to save an innocent trader from a pack of marauders may net you a reward, but you can bet those bandits will be out for revenge. Screw someone over in a negotiation? Well, hope you're prepared to weasel yourself out of the consequences once your duplicity is discovered
- Vibes will depend on which of the characters you play as. I enjoyed Smith the most. Even though he was the worst at combat/negotiations, I found his story to be the most enjoyable to play through
Playability & Replayability
- I won't go into a deep mechanical explanation of the roguelike deckbuilder; they're mostly the same in term of things like action order/economy. I'll just try to share some observations regarding how it's unique
- In Griftlands, you actually use two separate decks: one for battling and one for negotiating. Which one you use depends on the random event you choose to navigate to on the world map first
- Given the binary focus, you'll typically want to choose events that play into the deck and character upgrades you've received that run
- Griftlands also features partners and pets. Some of these can be very helpful in tougher battles or negotiations
- You can also employ the use of run-altering "mutations", which can provide buffs or nerfs for you to take advantage of or work around
- Unlike many other roguelike deckbuilders, there's very little metaprogression. Sure, you'll unlock cards for future runs (6 per character), but you won't be, say, permanently increasing your HP or the number of cards you can play per turn
- In that way, there's not a ton of replayability in Griftlands once you've completed each character's story. Sure, there's other endings to see and dailies to play, but I wasn't interested in remixes of the same content I'd already played through
Overall Impressions & Performance
- It's a fun game, but doesn't quite reach the upper eschelons of the genre like Slay the Spire. I may not be the most trustworthy of opinions on the matter as I'm not a huge card game player and have just recently started being able to tolerate CCG gameplay
- I didn't encounter any audiovisual issues or other bugs, and the game performed very well on my good-for-2019 setup
Final Verdict
- 7.0/10. It's probably a better game than my score implies, and the presence of a narrative (or three) helps make the plodding gameplay pace a little more tolerable for someone who's lukewarm on CCGs