I’m glad the OSX support is coming soon! That is a nice surprise. I haven’t replaced my gaming PC since its gradual death a couple of years ago, so I’ve only periodically checked in on Griftlands by booting into Windows on my daily driver laptop. Now I might play through the new characters!
And I’m sure I’ll end up grabbing it for Switch as well, assuming the controls are reasonable. This game feels made for the portable format.
this is my most anticipated game in years
That’s awesome - I just installed again after a 9 month hiatus to play again, so great timing.
Game is out. I just bought it for 7€ in EGS. Thanks Tim!
Played a good bit of this today and… I really like it! I bought it very early in Early Access because, well, it’s Klei. And as expected I’m having a great time with the game. I can see hints of some pretty deep mechanics already. Good stuff.
Aaaaargh, I keep telling myself no more games, but it’s only $6 and I really liked Slay the Spire. Please give me more in-depth impressions and convince me not to buy.
It’s six dollars? Just get it and play it later!
It seems you can get a Steam key with your EGS game, following these steps
Although I’m not receiving my verification email :/
There is literally zero reviews of the game. I guess even Klei indie games are still too indie to be noticed by sites and journalists.
RPS did one when it first launched into early access a year ago.
The verdict was it had a ‘disappointing card game’, which is unfortunate given it’s… a card game. Admittedly the reviewer was deep into Slay the Spire and Monster Train at the time.
And I’m pretty sure the game improved considerably since then, so…
Thats what early access games shouldn’t get reviewed.
I think it’s interesting that for an increasing number of games ‘launch reviews’ become every bit as meaningless, over time, as ‘EA reviews’. Phoenix Point and No Man’s Sky both became must-plays for me despite rocky beginnings and not having EA phases.
I think EA reviews do have their place; despite being ‘incomplete experiences’ they are, after all, charging money for it and the most mercenary view of what a review achieves is to try and answer the question ‘should I buy this?’.
I just don’t think we’re quite there, culturally, in fully acknowledging that this is a question that very much changes over time, EA or otherwise. Though I can understand the reluctance of reviewers unwilling to retread what they feel to be old ground.
In principle, games can improve a lot in Early Access. In reality, that review still rings true today. The game didn’t change much since then. Griftlands is an ambitious attempt that is less than the sum of its parts. Worth playing, to see how Klei is trying to develop and expand Spirelikes in new directions. It’s innovative – who ever heard of a “double deck-builder?” It’s visually stunning (it’s basically the same art style as Invisible Inc). But, ultimately, it’s just not fun.
Again, it’s interesting and worth experiencing. I just wish it was better and I respect Klei for trying. But now we’re in for another 50 Don’t Starve expansions. Ugh.
Cool, thanks!
The card play portion seems pretty similar now to how it was then. It’s Klei, so it was in good shape when it launched. I struggled to enjoy it much then (even though I wanted to since it’s Klei), and playing it now I still don’t really feel it. :(
What I noticed is the negotiation battles, even if they are interesting tactically speaking and novel, can feel … somewhat abstract and detached, only for the fact that instead of being concrete things like a poison dagger or a whirlwind axe attack, or defending with a shield, you have instead resolve, composture, arguments, influence, dominance, intents, etc, and it makes harder grasp on it.
This is useful, transfer progress from EGS to Steam (or other way around)
Your save files and profile are compatible between the Epic and Steam version of the game, and you can transfer saves from to the other.
The files for both games are in your Roaming Profile:
C:\Users[Your windows user name goes here]\AppData\Roaming\Klei\Griftlands
The Epic files will be in a subfolder that is just a long string of numbers which corresponds to your epic account ID.
The steam files are in a directory called “steam-###############”, where the ############### part will correspond to your steam account.
Once you find the two directories, you can copy the contents from one into the other. The most important file is “profile.lua”, which tracks your unlocks and prestige levels.
The game progression at first can be a bit confusing, this should help:
There are 3 heroes available, each with 2 decks, negotation and battle decks.
Three modes: story mode (normal), story (easy) and brawl (less focused on story and characters, and more being a bounty hunter taking random jobs during five days). Brawl unlocks after finishing the story mode, it reuses content of the story mode too, but it’s there to not bore the player telling the same story dialogue he had read several times.
Progress during the duration of the run
-New cards can be bought, obtained as rewards, etc
-They can be removed too by some npcs or random events
-Cards have a xp level, after use can be ugpraded (for the duration of the run)
-Items can be bought (powerful cards with 3 uses, they are destroyed after that).
-Grafts, they are similar to the random items from STS, they apply boons to the card combat. You have a maximum slot number for them, which can be upgraded too, but at a hp cost.
-Graft can be upgraded with xp once, like cards.
-Every character in the game has a social boon, a social bane and a death loot. The social boons are passive positive effects, like ‘at the start of each battle gain 2 temporary power’ or ‘once a day, you can ask a member of this faction to help you out’, and they are gained if you get a character to love you. Social banes are negative effects, gained if someone hates you. Death loot is a card gained if you kill them.
-Your reputation also can give your new cards, for example when you kill several people you will get a card about it.
-You can gain pets, which serve as ally in both combat systems, and can be upgraded (trained) too.
Metaprogression
-Successive runs unlock cards permanently for that hero as card sets. Card sets can be toggled on/off but then you are in a custom game where you can’t progress the Prestige.
-Unlock perks, maximum of 3 active perks to choose for a new run, from a list of 40.
-Perk points are obtained by ‘grifts’, in game challenges like ‘doing x damage’ or ‘gaining x gold’ or ‘winning x battles’. Common to the three heroes.
-Mettle, a rare currency obtained in game (and can be used ingame too) to that improves each hero slightly, but the upgrades are permanent. Upgrades aren’t super big but unlike perks, there is no limit with active slots.
-Once you finish a game, you unlock the prestige mode, to increase difficulty Prestige - Griftlands Wiki
-The game also has a system of mutators for custom games Mutators - Griftlands Wiki You have to finish the game first once.
