Griftlands review
A deckbuilding roguelike with stories and excellent rippling consequences, hooked up to two underwhelming card games
- Developer: Klei Games
- Publisher: Klei Games
- Release: Out now
- On: Windows
- From: Steam, Epic Games Store
- Price: £10/$13/€11
Christ, I’m not sure what to make of Griftlands. At first I was close to adoration. It’s an unusually story-focused deckbuilding roguelike – and it’s from Klei, of Oxygen Not Included and Don’t Starve fame. That sounded wild to me even before I learnt that it’s about moseying around as a bounty hunter in an alien city, doing odd jobs for the locals and building up a network of friends and enemies as you work towards pulling off one last big gig. Parts of it are very impressive, and those parts are very impressively tied together. Decisions constantly come back to haunt you in ways that feel seamless.
Thing is, it gets flabby, and the parts where you’re actually playing cards just aren’t that great.