The Overlooked Genius Of Griftlands, Where Debates Are Battles And Choices Matter
Griftlands is a ridiculously good video game. After a long stint in Early Access, Klei's stylish roguelike/deck builder mash-up launched for real in 2021 and emerged as one of the best games of the year. Not enough people played it, though. I remember reading a whole bunch of GOTY lists and being disappointed that more people didn't mention it. But that's besides the point. I love Klei because it has this incredible knack for taking an established, popular genre and making its own idiosyncratic mark on it.
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Don't Starve gave the resource-gathering survival sim a darkly comic Tim Burton twist; Mark of the Ninja is a supremely elegant side-scrolling stealth game designed around light, shadow, and sound; and Griftlands is the studio's take on card-based strategy games, focusing heavily on rich characters and compelling storytelling—an aspect of the genre that's often pretty incidental. It's amazing. Go play it. Seriously.
Griftlands is a sci-fi game set in a grimy galactic backwater that owes a lot to Star Wars' lawless Outer Rim. It's the forgotten, unloved arse-end of the galaxy: a harsh, unfriendly outer space Wild West where mercenaries, scavengers, hustlers, gangsters, cultists, and other unsavoury folk congregate. There are three very different playable characters, each with their own unique perspective, motivation, and personality.
Sal is a bounty hunter searching for a crime lord who sold her into slavery. Rook is an ex-soldier working undercover while monitoring a tense dispute between two warring factions. Smith is an amphibious alien and drunken waster who has been denied an inheritance he feels he's owed. They're all interesting, nuanced people with flaws,
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