Griftlands

every mechanic in this game is perfect - either beautifully familiar or magnificently novel

这真的是一个非常标准的无论哪里都很好，看着被人玩也会让你觉得很好玩的游戏。唯一的问题就是当你自己玩的时候，他莫名其妙的变成一个你无论如何都玩不下去的游戏。 他真的哪里都好，就是不好玩。

Being a fan of Don't Starve and some popular deck builders, I was hoping for a game that was more polished with better balance and deeper gameplay dynamics, synergies and everything else that makes card games like Slay the Spire exciting and challenging to play. Griftlands was fun for a few runs and the narrative story arc pushed me to keep playing to completion but I stopped playing soon after. On some level, the game feels unfinished and abandoned.

[h1][b] TLDR: A narrative-rich deckbuilder that flips the genre on its head with branching stories and NPC relationships, but underwhelming cards mean it works better as a roguelite story game than a true CCG. [/b] [/h1] [h1]PROS: [/h1] ➕Two different styles of card gameplay ➕Massive story focus ➕Choices matter, influence and NPC relationships have a positive or negative effect ➕Three different characters, each with their own story, deck, and mechanics ➕Art style [h1]NEUTRALS: [/h1] 🔹Story seems good, but doesn't work well with a roguelites repetitive gameplay 🔹Achievements are very hard to get [h1]CONS: [/h1] ➖Boring cards/lack of builds ➖Can't see passive item (graft) effects before you buy ➖Disappointing roguelite (Mettle) upgrades [h1] [b] Content (Game world/Narrative) – [7/10] [/b] [/h1] The game world consists mainly of two different types of maps - the world map, and the area map. The world map is basically like Slay the Spire, but transformed to be spread across a city-like environment, meaning there are also a few options to go to places, but generally you’ll have between 1–3 choices for progression. The area maps are where there are NPCs and where you undergo the card fights or simply chat with NPCs and view their stock if they are merchants. The maps and areas are not terribly impressive, it’s all pretty much the same with just slightly different backdrops. There’s not much exploration, as you can only go to places on the map with a reason to visit them. I also didn’t notice any secrets. There is a super strong focus on the narrative in this game. There are three playable characters, each with their own story that contains multiple choices and paths to take. Sal is the first character the player unlocks. She has a fairly typical story centered around taking out a high value target. Rook is the second character, and by far my favorite story. He’s a spy and has some great double-agent paths to take. Smith is the third character and focuses on getting the inheritance from his family through some rather unsavory means. [h1][b] Gameplay (Mechanics/Difficulty) – [7/10] [/b] [/h1] The mechanical loop consists of picking a quest, then completing multiple battles to finish the quest. Do multiple quests and you get an ending. It’s very similar to other roguelike card games, like Slay the Spire, with some differences. First, this is a rogue[i]lite[/i] game - you can spend currency (mettle) to enhance a characters abilities. This is neat, and while I do like this, I found the upgrades to be rather insignificant, and have read you can’t even use them on higher difficulties, making the grind pointless. Second, the game actually has two different distinct combat styles, each with their own mechanics, and each character has different mechanics for those styles. You often get to choose between initiating a negotiation or combat during encounters. For the boss fights, combat is inevitable, but you can still negotiation to get them disadvantages. Third, there is a relationship system that can greatly impact your gameplay. Having a love or hate relationship with NPCs offer a boon or debuff, respectively, that impacts your gameplay. This adds a clever aspect where you must consider how you interact with NPCs. If you kill them in an open area, you’ll have people that will hate you, and you’ll get debuffs for the rest of the game vs. accepting their surrender and only having a dislike, which gives negative. I did find the game to be very challenging - I played it multiple times with Sal and lost each time. I changed the difficulty to the “Story” mode then found it more approachable, if a bit too easy. [h1] [b] Graphics (Quality/Technical) – [6/10] [/b] [/h1] Art style is good. The game appears mostly hand-drawn. I’d say its of PS3-era fidelity as there’s not a lot going on, but still HD and crisp. Game ran fine, though I played it almost entirely on my Steam Deck. I didn’t notice any bugs. 1440p @ 240hz | installed on SSD [h1] [b] Audio – [5/10] [/b] [/h1] Music doesn’t really seem notable. There is kinda voice acting, but it's all “Sim-ish” speak, where its jumbled words. [h1] [b] Replay Factor (Longevity) – [6/10] [/b] [/h1] There’s good replay value here. Aside from the Slay the Spire-like increasing difficulty, you also have branching story paths to choose form. There’s a daily run. Unfortunately, no leaderboards or much of an online presence, and the achievements are notoriously difficult to get. [h1] [b] Final Verdict – [6/10] [/b] [/h1] Griftlands is an interesting concept. It takes the traditional roguelike deckbuilder, like Slay the Spire (StS), and turns it upside down, adding a massive focus on the narrative, two types of decks for each character, and a small roguelite system. I wasn’t impressed with the cards themselves, but what really interested me was how integrated the narrative is with all the CCG mechanics. Things like NPC relationships are how you would gain trinket effects in StS. This adds some very interesting elements to an otherwise overpopulated genre. I’ll be honest though, from a [b]card[/b] standpoint, the game did not impress me. I was disappointed with the cards and their effects, and how most of the characters mechanics interact with the effects. To me, this makes the game less of a CCG and more of a roguelite story game with some card elements. Perhaps this was done on purpose, so that builds wouldn’t be contingent on finding a card needed to operate, but what’s left is simply not even being excited about what cards are available to draw. Like StS, you unlock cards by playing games as the character, and I only got Sal up to unlocking about half her cards, so maybe the really cool cards are some of the later unlocks, in which I would still say this is not great design to put the best things so incredibly late within the game. Overall, I would say that if you want to experience some good stories with some okay deckbuilding, then get this game. But if you only care about the cards and decks, then avoid. I fell into the latter at first and almost bounced off this game until I approached it from a different perspective with the story side. [h1] [b] Recommend? (Price) [Y/N] [/b] [/h1] [h1]Yes[/h1] $20 is a bit much, but I can see spending over 20 hours in this game. The historical low of $7 is much better. You can find my curator page here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Synik_GR

I am confused why there isn't more of this game or a sequel. This is one of my favorites and I believe its super underrated.

一开始玩超级好玩，框架、美术和风格都很新。不过轻度rouge的话，长线养成终是没有尖塔的深度。文本挺有意思的，5年了，希望还能有续作。

This game looks like it has a lot going on, but underneath it there isn't a lot of depth or personality to it. Most of the quests are just different versions of a few templates, and the characters, while unique, don't really do much in the story. Also the main draw of the game, the card battle system, just isn't that fun to play. Enemies seem to have far more advantages than you do, and a lot of the cards have specific synergies or uses that aren't easily accessed because it uses the same deck-building system as slay the spire where you are picking and removing cards constantly. Even when you upgrade cards they don't seem to get much better, and you pretty quickly hit a wall where the enemies outscale you and none of your cards feel satisfying to play because they don't accomplish anything.