Griftlands

Interesting ideas don't stop it becoming a victim of 'Not Slay the Spire' syndrome

Why

• You want a bit of story in your roguelite, but not too much
• You like the idea of being able to fight or negotiate, and have different decks for each
• Or cards levelling up with use

Why Not

• For a game focused more on story the characters are pretty one-note
• I feel like sticking to a single deck might've allowed for more intersting/creative archetypes

Impressions

I got this for negative money in a bundle with Shogun Showdown so I wasn't that invested in it, but there are some cool ideas here. Having separate decks/health for negotiating or fighting is an interesting idea, as is having wins in one recover part of your health for the other.

I also liked cards levelling up as you use them, though not sure I like that it incentivices you to draw fights out so you can get the most XP for your cards. When they level up you get two options from a pool of choices, and some of them are actually quite interesting. I particularly liked the options which gave your basic attacks/defends a 300% damage boost in exchange for permanently removing them from your deck when used; an interesting take on deck thinning.

Unfortunately like most other roguelike deckbuilders I play, it's just not in the same tier as Slay the Spire and after a few runs I wished I was playing that instead. I really should stop buying these and just replay STS 1/wait for 2 in March next year. I like that they tried to go for more of a story, but unlike Hades where the characters are fleshed out people with their own storylines, everyone here exists just to interact with the main character. There's also no reaction to previous runs that I noticed, outside potentially a bit of Sal's inner monologue at the start of my second.

I think this is a decent game which tries some new things with varying degrees of success. Worth a try if you're really into the genre and don't just want to play your favourites over and over.