Griftlands
Review

Griftlands (2020) is an adventure game where you use cards to fight and negotiate your way through a broken-down sci-fi world. You will die or fail often, but then use your knowledge and growing deck of cards to have a better chance of survival on your next round of the game.

As you play you make important decisions about the jobs you take, the friends you make, or the cards you collect. Death comes quickly, but each play offers new situations and strategies to explore.

You play as an adventurer out for profit and revenge or an ageing spy working his own agenda. These two characters will be joined by other heroes as the game is updated in the coming months and years.

How you treat other characters you meet in the game matters deeply. Killing foes results in the wrath of their friends, but sparing them leaves a dangerous piece on the board. This creates not only a battle game but a complex web of allegiances and relationships that are different each time you play.

Along with your character's unique negotiation and combat decks, you gain powerful item cards from fallen foes or as rewards. Hire mercenaries, find pets, or impose upon your friends to accomplish your goals. The characters also have their own unique story arc and environment, with different factions and locations to explore and exploit.

It's a deck-building rogue-like game. This means, as we've described, that you collect and choose which cards to play and that you are supposed to die and try again. Learn from each attempted run through the various stories of the Griftlands. Encounter different combinations of enemies, quests, and events every time you play. Your fate is determined by your choices, and by fate.

Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Griftlands 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 11 weeks ago.