BENGALURU : Klei Entertainment has made a name for themselves over the last decade, with a string of great games — the Shank series, Don’t Starve, Invisible Inc and Mark of the Ninja. Their latest game, Griftlands, has been getting a lot of buzz lately and it just released out of Early Access, so obviously I had to give it a try.
Griftlands is a deckbuilder, which is one of my favourite boardgame mechanisms but has seen some success when used in the videogame format — Slay the Spire, most notably, but also Roguebook among a few others. Griftlands evolves the concept in a few interesting ways, best of which is that you actually have to manage two decks of cards. You’ll use one deck for negotiation, and one for battles. This was immediately fascinating to me, as somebody who usually prefers to talk their way out of trouble in RPGs and the like, and it’s wonderfully executed in practice. There’s a different rhythm and tempo to the two halves of Griftlands, but they flow wonderfully; and indeed can flow from one to the other seamlessly.
There are three characters included in Griftlands, each with their own story/campaign to play. None of this is very long, although you probably won’t beat them on the first try. Each character brings with them a unique twist on the deckbuilding formula — Sal, for example, has a weakness for sharp things, while Rook likes to gamble every chance he gets and Smith is...well, an extremely loose cannon.
As far as the story goes, this isn’t Red Dead Redemption or anything but is still surprisingly engaging for what it is. Once you’ve finished a character’s story, you’ll unlock the next one as well as a chance to run through Brawl mode — a randomly-generated series of challenges. As you level up each character more and more, you’ll unlock additional packs of cards and difficulty levels to try. I don’t usually like to replay games without any new story or character development in this manner — something like Hades was perfect in that regard — but Griftlands is just so satisfying that Brawl has been very enjoyable thus far, as have the various daily challenges that appear.
As always, Klei has imbued the whole of Griftlands with all-pervading charm. From the lovely design to the excellent music to the nonsensical ‘language’ everybody speaks, it is simply wonderful from start to finish. Little touches such as the flavour text on the cards or the word balloons that appear during a negotiation are so incidental and unnecessary, but have clearly had so much effort put into them. This is quite clearly a labour of love.
I did mention earlier that deckbuilding is one of my favourite genres of boardgame, and so it’s hardly surprising that I love Griftlands. What was surprising to me is just how good it is on a mechanical level — how it manages to feel fresh with every character and card pack, and constantly provides new ways of chaining effects together to create wild new possibilities. It’s a delightful sandbox, and one I’m going to enjoy playing around in for a long time to come.
What’s New?
Shank
This was my first Klei game, and I was not expecting to like it as much as I did. A side-scrolling beat-em-up, Shank was just high-octane fun, as was its excellent sequel.
Invisible, Inc.
Turn-based strategy games have always held a special place in my heart, going back to Jagged Alliance 2, and Invisible Inc definitely lived up to those expectations. Sneaky and overall just brilliant, this is definitely one you should try.
Mark of the Ninja
Arguably Klei’s greatest hit to date, Mark of the Ninja is just one of the best stealth games out there as well as being one of the best side-scrolling games around. If you have any interest in either of those genres, you need to play this one.
The midyear slump is well and truly upon us, so instead of looking at new releases, let’s take a look at some of Klei’s older work.