Balatro Review (PC)

The shop has been selling planet-based upgrades that have made my two-pair hands worth a little more than a classic straight. My deck also now has more than the four normal Aces and a gold Queen. My Joker line-up gives me access to an improved multiplier, which is one of the most important elements when it comes to hitting the bigger money targets.

It’s time to play poker, even if the normal rules don’t fully apply. I have three discards and I quickly use one to drop some low-value cards, fishing for pairs that use face cards and hoping that the gold one pops up of the pack. It doesn’t but I manage to play two pairs of Kings and Jacks, which hits pretty hard with a solid card score and strong multiplier.

But I get bad cards on the draw and my next two discards do not improve the situation much. I play a hand just to get rid of some cards and even that doesn’t much improve my situation. The boss that devalues spades isn’t the worst of the bunch but, despite another strong pair, I fail to beat it. It’s time for another run with a different deck and, hopefully, more powerful joker choices.

Balatro is developed by LocalThunk and published by Playstack. I played it on the PC using Steam. The game is also on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, as well as older consoles from Microsoft and Sony. The title takes the familiar concepts of real-world power and adds a roguelike structure and some interesting twists.

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There’s no narrative associated with the many hands each gamer will play, which is a wise idea. There’s an anthropomorphism Joker card that takes players through a short tutorial, which is pretty short and informative. Balatro adds tarot cards to the mix and introduces keyword modifiers and more, but there’s no attempt to create a deep universe around all of this. The writing is clear and informative, although it will take players some time to get all the keywords and their effects.

The structure of each run is simple: players have to engage with a Small Blind, thenb a Big one, and then a boss-level Blind. Each of them involves making enough money to get past a preset value and to do that players play cards from their hand, aiming to create everything from pairs to straights and flushes. Scoring is close to real-world poker but with a few twists.

Gamers get a clearly indicated number of plays and discards. Over time, they will unlock decks that modify these values, allowing them to tweak their approach. Balatro assigns values to the cards themselves and they influence each hand’s score, alongside a multiplier value. A range of modifiers, introduced via jokers, tarot cards, and more, increase the value of cards and improve the multiplier.

Jokers, alongside card packs and vouchers, need to be bought from a shop after each round. Players also have the option to skip a blind to get a tag that will affect their entire poker run. It can be a little much initially, but it soon becomes clear that success requires playing decent hands of power and, more importantly, finding synergies to boost their value and break the system.

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Balatro’s greatest asset is how it expands on the familiar concepts of poker in a variety of directions. Jokers are situational and only five can be active at a time (you can sell those that no longer fit a strategy) while booster packs will put new cards into the deck, allowing players to do things like play three different versions of the ace of spades.

Different decks deliver starting bonuses as they get unlocked. Vouchers tweak how the shop operates. Tarot, Planet, and Spectral cards change cards, the way suits operate, and how various hands play out. It takes time to learn how to work around the special abilities of the Blinds as bosses. The game delivers a constant feeling of discovery.

And despite the many tools players have at their disposal to control their hand and the multiplier, luck always plays a role. I sometimes beat a Big Blind using just two hands because my initial draw and first discards delivered just the right cards. And I once failed to defeat a boss even though I had a straight flush to play as soon as the game started.

The game can become a little frustrating after several consecutive failed runs. But runs do not take long, and it has a lot of variety, making it the kind of experience that works best in shorter sessions, at the start or end of the day.

Balatro is built on the foundation of a game that basically consists of 52 cards and a flat surface, so don’t expect a complex presentation. The game’s interface is designed to show players how all the extra mechanics affect their hands and their scoring. The card value and the multiplier are the most important elements and it’s easy to always hover over a card to get full details about what it can do.

The game puts a CRT filter over everything, maybe to simulate an old-school video poker machine, and the nostalgia element mostly works. The sound effects are pretty limited, there’s no voice acting for the tutorial joker, and the soundtrack is decent, but this is not an experience that shines when it comes to audio design.

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The Good

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Conclusion