Balatrohas landed itself the honor of becoming latest game to earn its rightful place in that most coveted – and hard to pull off – of echelons that so few games manage to achieve. When it comes to battling the preconceptions (and maybe too, the inherent biases we all hold to varying degrees) of its players. Directly one tier above the type of game that exceeds all expectations and surprises to astounding levels,Balatrois among that small cluster of games that does all this in a genre you would so easily dismiss.
As someone who is far from a fan of either the roguelike or deckbuilder craze,Balatro’s ease of attraction and means by which it keeps one invested for hours on end, is an impressive feat. Replicating much of the same genius that games likeThe Eternal Cylinder,Inscryption,SteamWorld Quest,Children of MortaandHadeshave, in recent years, helped convince even the more apathetic folk like myself, to warm up to such things as procedural generation, survival mechanics, card-based battlers and the like. But to pull this off without the affinity of an established studio/developer name or some long-standing IP is an early sign of just how specialBalatrofeels and of the skill developer LocalThunk clearly wields in crafting a game predominantly mechanics-focused and all the better because of it.
Balatrois devoid of much in the way of supportive material. There’s no story, no supporting cast or underlying themes as to what’s taking place, or why. The game plays it relatively straight and honest in the sense of what it wants to be and how it wants to be perceived. A run-based, poker-themed challenge of accruing as many points as possible, through the combination of played hands and supporting unlocks you gather along the way. That’s it, there’s no hidden meaning, subversion or “other” to what’s at stake. Start a run, hit a dead-end, go again, repeat ad infinitum. Whatever secret sauce or formula LocalThunk has employed here, needless to say it’s worked to tremendous effect.Balatrois to deckbuilders what something likeVoid Strangerwas to Sokoban puzzlers. A game of astonishing depth and one that’s offered a more than justifiable shout at standing as one of this year’s best releases.
A Little Means A Lot
The first part as to whyBalatroworks as well as it does is its ease of accessibility and how straightforward its premise turns out to be. Regardless of your own experience as to the rules of real-life poker,Balatrotakes little time to deduce the most optimal and ideal route to success. Easing its players into a system that rewards riskier plays, while at the same time making sure that players understand that any risk is not without the dangers of failure. That the goal in every round of a run is to reach the required number of poker chips, simplifies the process down to a singular reliance on maximizing one value. Unlike something more akin to a shooter of role-playing framework, there are no splintered-off stats or traits to balance out;Balatrois focused entirely on making its handful of numbers as large as possible. Those being the value of specific poker hands being played, the multiplier that’s attached to it and ultimately, the overall pot of chips you’ve accumulated over the course of that round.
For a game that can be as complex and as mathematically-riddled in statistics as poker can be,Balatrodoes a great job at framing that process through the lens of video game mechanics. Mechanics that may not reveal their full extent in one go, but through trial-and-error slowly reveal the depths to which players can not only succeed, but as it turns out, exploit the systems on show to ridiculous lengths. Which leads to the second crucial wayBalatrosucceeds as well as it does: this is a game that wants you, encourages you, to “break” it. To find ways to have the points multiplier – referred to in-game as “Mult” – reach ridiculous levels. Further to that, to have the courage to invest in a booster pack or two in-between rounds, in order to find the optimal deck of playing and support card alike.
The Heart of the Cards
Money earned in rounds, used to buy anything from a Celestial card that levels up a specific poker hand (for example, a Two Pair or a Flush), to a new Joker, to even the possibility of acquiring an extra hand or reduced prices in the shop for the remainder of that run via the more expensive $10 vouchers. There are a lot of routes one can take, yet rarely ever doesBalatrofeel overwhelming or overly convoluted because of its sheer volume of options. Better still, this clustering together of playing cards, Jokers, Tarot cards, planet-themed boosters and so forth only encourages players to see just what kind of output is possible.
Packs that most of the time can offer a singular though helpful boone. In others, apply specific traits or bonuses to cards in your deck, based on their properties. And in others, combine in such a way that you suddenly have in your possession, a wealth of money to spend. In one instance, going from a mere few dollars, but via a combination of assumption and good luck alike, wind up with around $30 a few seconds later because of the order taken. I’ve lost track of the number of times one has stumbled into some miracle-like turns of fate or scenarios that involved certain cards reacting with one another – not knowing what was going to come out the other side. Both inside and outside the confines of a played hand.
Like A Joker: Infinite Wealth
But it’s this unforeseen ridiculousness whereBalatroearns not just an added dose of personality, but its already-established addictive nature ten-fold. A nature that may well sound like a common trait of any great run-based roguelike – the balance between risk and reward, low-stakes and high-stakes – yet one that here feels even greater in impact because of what is possible to pull off. The sheer number of strategies, opportunities and combination of cards. And while there’s a decent number of cards and unlocks stashed away for players to uncover, that the regret or frustration of failing a run doesn’t last long is down to just how compelled one feels in finally getting the better ofBalatro’s systems. You might initially suspect you’re in possession of the optimum and objectively-best grouping of cards in one run, but to fail, go again and just-as-quickly stumble upon an even better hand with greater implications.
Balatropulls this off time and time again, without ever making the round-for-round process stale or that it’s deceiving, even cheating, its players out of a better experience. Repetition reaps the biggest rewards inBalatro, regardless of the supposed class or category of unlock you happen to stumble upon. Sometimes it’s as meager as a solitary new Joker to throw into the back-end RNG for future runs. Your run defined by a solitary unlock. And that’s ok; maybe just maybe, you could wind up uncovering one of the many surprise rarities because of that card. Legendary-grade Jokers, Spectral cards that give you food for thought, hands that make no sense in the world of Poker but here make complete sense.
Every element, even the option to skip blinds for an immediate reward or freebie via “tags,” feels like a means to a potential greater end. Further to that, some of the waysBalatroplays on its main concept of a subverted poker run, if nothing else, draws a wider grin at the prospect at just how many secrets the game is truly storing away to be uncovered. But it’s because the nature of not just how cards react to each other, but how each starting point can be further built outwards from overtime, why each run inBalatrofeels as special and worthwhile as it does. And why failure, paradoxically, is both soul-crushing yet enriching at the same time.
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If At First You Don’t Succeed…
Bizarre and oxymoronic as this might sound, failure in a way feels like another type of success inBalatro. Be that failing to reach the required number of chips in one instance, or more likely, to be bested by one of the many Boss blinds lying in wait at certain intervals. Boss blinds serving as climactic rounds that apply a one-time rule or gimmick. Mildly frustrating it can be to see your run – and all your good work alike – amount to nothing. Especially when you’re hit with a Boss blind that forces you to, for example, hit the required amount in one hand or deducts a dollar for literally every single card played (landing you in the red with minus dollars, even if victorious). In another scenario, these imbalanced Boss mechanics could be seen as too much of a punishment. And sure, if one were to nitpick, you could argue this is perhaps the only time whenBalatro’s necessity for increased stakes can be perceived as having overstepped the mark.
The counter to this argument though – and one I’m inclined to lean more towards – is that like so many other moments present in the game, this uptick in challenge only feeds back into the main lesson the game is attempting to instill in its player. Namely, the necessity to maximize one’s output to the point of “breaking” things completely. And if one look at the requirements for post-run Ante’s are anything to go by (on a side-note, the ability to keep going beyond the victory of the final Boss blind, is a smart inclusion), it’s clear thatBalatrowants its players to keep going, to keep pushing. To see just how far and how wild the numeric calculations can get. To have the multipliers reach into the five-figure amounts. Where you may have once started barely scraping together a couple hundred, you’re now blowing past the million mark in a single hand. Its ludicrous, its a little wild, but it’s doable andBalatromakes that process not only feasible, but delightful to see realized every step of the way.
Great Things Come in Small Packages
All this, without even going into great detail onBalatro’s smaller equivalents. The lesser elements on-screen via its small visual touches and likewise, even for a game of this stature, the brief audio tweaks now and again. The way Joker cards are designed, being the most prominent example. The occasional chuckle at how certain cards are portrayed relative to their properties and/or traits. In some cases, going as far as to play with the notion of actually being a physical playing card. Even something as small as the clunk of the game’s chunky, interactive buttons or the change in musical motif when switching from the main interface to that of choosing a Tarot card. It’s becauseBalatrodoesn’t indulge on production value, special effects or even some sheer volume of visuals for volume’s sake, that in a kind of fitting way, makes these little artistic and aesthetic choices stand out more so.
No matter how many times you find yourself jumping back in for another go, another attempt, there’s always that excitement of the prospect of being introduced once more to a new Joker card. A new temptation, a new combination to consider. Yes, it may seem overwhelming and that there’s a lot to take notice of, consider and even keep track of. Especially for those who may have trouble on the arithmetic side of things. But for those with a bit more of a patient touch and/or willing to properly consider what truly are the best hands to play in the limited number of hands at your disposal, this is a game of immense reward and relief alike. Reward when the added time invested finds the numbers wildly increasing, but relief too when you only barely pass the required amount. For a game to run that far and wide on the emotional spectrum and benefit more so because of it, takes some doing, butBalatroagain does so over and over with little difficulty.
Closing Comments:
Wielding nothing more than a deck of cards and a poker-themed twist on proceedings, developer LocalThunk has conjured something incredible and awe-inspiring withBalatro. What starts as a relatively-novel twist on the deckbuilding format quickly blossoms into an experience that’s equal parts methodical, experimental, chaotic but satisfying all the same. A game that rewards clever thinking, mathematical meddling and having the courage to be just that bit braver in uncovering just how far one can push its systems at play. Wherein success and failure alike stand as equally memorable moments to build off. A paradigm for what roguelikes and deckbuilders should aspire towards,Balatrois addictive, expertly-crafted and the new front-runner for what is easily the best gaming experience of 2024.
