Griftlands Review (Nintendo Switch)

In the first 48 minutes of a game, you should be able to know enough about the visuals of the game, the story, the mechanics, the gameplay loop and many other things. Even better, within the first 48 hours, you will know if the game has done enough to get its hooks into you whether or not you are going to come back, because we both know that if we don’t return or want to return to the game in the first two days, we likely aren’t coming back after that

If you weren’t aware that Griftlands was a rogue-like, you could easily assume that it was just a deck builder. It quickly becomes apparent that there is something else going on under the surface with RPG elements and rogue-like tendencies. You start out as Sal, the first of three characters, a bounty hunter who has returned home after ten years to her old home of Havaria. You only have one thing in mind, eliminate Kashio, the debt broker who sold you in the first place to labor on another planet.

You can’t just get straight to work since you're new. You need to make some friends and grease some wheels first. You start out going to see an old friend who can send you in the direction of people who need work done from a bounty hunter such as yourself. This is the beginning of where Griftlands begins to carve out its own identity. The backstory that we have been introduced to before touching any controls builds a solid foundation for what lies ahead.

Grifferances

The big difference between others in the genre is that Griftlands takes RPG elements and during each run gives you the option to make different choices, choose different paths of violence, make different friends with different results. Throw in the randomness of typical deck builders with different hands during battle and negotiations and you are looking at very different runs based on new choices you will make. Especially when you have three characters who explore different lands with different people. On your second character you play as a former spy who has now turned to freelance work and is exploring the world of Grout Bog.

Making friends and doing jobs is done by viewing a 3/4 aerial view of Havaria, which is minimal but looks great and is easy to navigate even on controller. Havaria is a futuristic sci-fi dystopia that is filled with all kinds of different races and alien life forms that gives the world personality. Griftlands isn’t only about making the right choices but it’s also about the choices you didn’t make. As with any good RPG worth its salt, choices have consequences and many of your decisions will gain you enemies that will affect how certain negations, battles and vendors work.

There is a lot of depth to the deck aspects of the game and this can be overwhelming if you are new to deck builders, even if you aren’t. One of the great aspects of Griftlands is that you have two decks that you are building throughout the game. One for negotiations and one for battle as the game lets you decide for many events which path you want to take. Sometimes it feels worth it to try to negotiate your way out first and if that doesn’t work there is always plan B. What makes Griftlands interesting is the RPG elements that helps create emergent narratives all based on the choices that you can make during each run. Conversation and negotiation is just as important as sharpening your blade.

Rogue likes have seen many variations added onto the genre over the recent years with games like Slay the Spire adding deck building to the genre and Hades adding an engaging story that keeps you hanging on at the end of every run just for another small morsel of story. Griftlands looks to blend elements from both of those excellent games together and similar to Hades, Griftlands doesn’t feel rushed. It was first released into early access back in June 2019 and after two years of updates and fixes from Vancouver based Klei Entertainment has now seen version 1.0 released into the wild.

Rogue-Like: Grift Apart

During the first run, which in my case lasted over four hours, there is no indication that this is a rogue-like. One major area that kept people away from games like Returnal wasn’t the difficulty, but it was how long each run is. There were times where runs could take two plus hours. The big difference for Griftlands is that, at least on the Switch, the rest feature works great and the game is divided up by small objectives and bounties that you can do for people in short bursts. Griftlands is a very easy game to pick up and put down, but it also has the power to capture your attention for hours.

One way that Griftlands looks to avoid the crushing blows of defeat that might force you to quit is by adding in a little forgiveness. Having died on the 5th day, I was crushed that I got this close to Kashio but Griftlands gives you the option to start the day over once per day, which means technically you could die every day and learn from your mistakes. I like the idea of adding in a touch of forgiveness but being able to die every day and continue seems to be anti rogue-like.

Griftlands also doesn’t give you any type of story or reasoning as to why you were able to do that, some type of implant or you somehow survived the fight which is surprising as Klei seems to have built a lot of story elements into the world. The good news is that this forgiveness is only available on the lowest difficulty setting which you have to start the game on until you unlock the next difficulty tier. Once you get the hang of the game and move onto harder difficulties, Griftlands takes off the training wheels.

Ad-deck-tive Qualities

To speak of the addictive quality of this game, not only has it brought me back day in and day out but I actually brought my Switch to bed with me one night. The last time I brought the Switch to bed likely would have been The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. There was always one more conversation to have or one more step in the quest to take or one more negotiation to attempt as each step of your journey never takes too long.

In many rogue-likes, the more you have to repeat the run the less enjoyable the game gets as things start to feel repetitive. Griftlands seems to have enough measures in place to avoid these classic genre pitfalls. Different locations, Different playable characters, different NPC’s and different choices unfold every single time. Playing the second character feels nothing like the first character as there are even different mechanics built into each characters abilities with negotiation and battle, similar to how Slay the Spires different characters forced you to take a different approach to each engagement.

On the surface, Griftlands is much more complex than games like Slay the Spire but once you begin to understand the systems, it feels like a natural progression of the genre by adding in rich story elements. Instead of climbing a spire or descending through the levels of hells to ignite a spark on a train, you are completing quests during your five days. If you liked Monster Train or Slay the Spire then Griftlands is an easy recommendation. If you’re new to deck builders or rogue likes altogether then this game has enough elements of many other genres that it could be a gateway into the world of decks and rogues.