When in a negotiation, the player has a core argument, which acts as their primary HP pool. You’ll find some nuance in the mechanics available to specific characters in their combat and negotiation decks, but negotiations have a specific mode of attack and support telegraphing that is relatively unique. Depending on the allegiances and adversaries you’ve made throughout your run, you may also encounter additional random skirmishes, which display as unique icons on the world map and are only accessible in between standard locations.Īll of these complexities may seem engaging enough, but there’s also combat and negotiation mechanics. Though many jobs will involve you going directly to a location and confronting a particular culprit, some will have multiple skirmishes on the way towards completion. This allows the game to feel formulaic in structure despite the various branching paths available to the player. Your campaign will unfold over the course of four days, at the end of which you will fight a more substantial boss encounter. You may have to forego your personal morals for the sake of a good run, but it’s important to remember that Grifters are a fluid and flexible lot. Generally, attempting to smooth things over with as many individuals as possible will lead to the most optimal performance, but this is not always an easy task. It pays to be kind to enemies, but if you end up murdering an individual in a non-secluded area, their affiliates will end up hating you instead. While characters who like you can have passive or very active effects, such as their assistance during missions or offering up foraged equipment from their own exploits, characters who love or hate you will grant passive buffs and debuffs to your campaign, whether related to shop prices, combat abilities, or otherwise.
Some NPCs will end up appreciating you (or not) due to your actions during specific missions, and they can end up liking, disliking, loving, or hating you. Or maybe not, since the most impactful element of Griftlands’ negotiations and combat is its NPC affinity systems. These can range from simply intimidating a thug working for another faction, to complex bait-and-switch scenarios that require a great deal of tact. As a Grifter, you are more or less a mercenary for hire, so imagine each “room” or combat encounter is instead presented as a “job.” You’ll receive these from whichever faction you align yourself with early on in your campaign, and the selection of particular jobs will often lock you out of other scenarios.Įither way, you’ll have to travel from location to location on each campaign’s environmental map in order to solve whatever problem you’ve been presented with.
As it turns out, you’ll need to use both brains and brawn during a run through Griftlands’ three campaigns, so you’ll need to balance your attention between the two in order to find success.Īside from its aesthetic wallpaper, Griftlands is similar in structure to a game like Slay the Spire: you have a variety of routes that you can take, some of which involve pure combat, negotiations, or an option for both, which the game shows during the selection of each mission. Not only will you set forth with a deck of eleven battle cards, but you’ll also have access to a negotiation deck- the first of Griftlands’ particular charms. You’ll start your journey with the first of three character archetypes, Sal, as she attempts to set the right pieces in place to enact her endgame. Read on to find out why.įor those familiar with some of the more popular deck-building games, the opening moments of Griftlands should come as no surprise. With nuanced lore, varied campaign branches, and two separate deck-builds per run, this title has shot up my personal list of not just some of the best tabletop-inspired games, but of 2021’s best releases. At first glance, the idea of yet another deck-building RPG might not sound all that enticing, but Griftlands has more to offer than combat alone. Griftlands is the latest to land on the Switch bearing these design influences. It turns a strategic game into an addictive, “just one more run” sort of affair. Many deck-based titles tend to favor this merging of genres, and not without good cause. Of course, an additional layer of randomization can be applied to this formula, which are the lovely folds of roguelike/roguelite progression. Number manipulation and the wonders of luck are inherently appealing and surprising mechanics, which is why I gravitate towards deck-building, dice-rolling, and other tabletop tomfoolery.
If you’re looking for tabletop-related content on our site, chances are you’ll find my name attached to it.
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