The free demo for this awesome poker-based roguelike is closing in January, and I legit don't know how I'll cope
It's a great feeling when you find a new nightly game—something you want to sit down and play for an hour or two every evening after a long day. A couple weeks ago I found my newest obsession: Balatro, a roguelike deckbuilder that uses poker rules (and then utterly shatters those rules). Since I found it, not a night has gone by that I haven't played at least a few hands of Balatro, and when I'm not playing it I'm often watching videos of other people playing it.
The amazing thing is Balatro isn't even out yet: the game I've been sinking hours into is just a free demo on Steam at this point. The terrible thing is, that free demo is closing soon. No. No! Except: yes. Starting on January 1 the demo is going dark and my Steam Deck will become nothing more than an expensive paperweight.
Okay, the news isn't quite that grim. A new Balatro demo is planned for Steam Next Fest in February, so I won't have to wait all that long for it to return, and when it does it should be even better than it is now: according to developer LocalThunk, nearly 100,000 players have downloaded the demo and many have given feedback. «Your insights have provided us with a wealth of information, and we are eager to implement improvements based on your thoughtful contributions,» the developer posted on Steam.
I guess that softens the blow a bit. Also, y'know, I have other games I can play on my Steam Deck.
If you haven't tried the Balatro demo yet, you should before it's gone. Starting with a regular old deck of cards, you win rounds by forming poker hands to score enough points against a constantly-rising quota. Each round you win gives you a few bucks to spend in a shop, where you can buy enchanted joker cards that modify the scoring and rules.
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