After All That’s Been Said, Why Not Play it? | Balatro 2025 Review
The Game I’m Always Open to Playing
The Game I’m Always Open to Playing
Balatro has slowly become one of my favorite ‘comfort’ games. After my initial 20+ some odd hour binge on purchase, I’ve settled into a very comfortable relationship with it. When I don’t feel like playing any other game? I am always down to play Balatro. Trying to pay more attention to the show my wife is watching? Balatro. Depressed and want to be a vegetable? Balatro. It is my gaming Swiss army knife for any discarded free-time I have in life, and I honestly love that it does that for me.
At its core, Balatro is pretty simple. You typically start with a normal deck of 52 playing cards. You draw a handful of them on your turn. You play up to 5 at a time to make common poker combos. Each of those is assigned a score, and the score can be multiplied in interesting ways by collecting joker cards, that have unique effects. Score above the threshold to win the round, then repeat until you get as far as you can go.
So in any given session, it’s all about the chase for that perfect high scoring combo, and just trying to make the game work with what you have. How will I ‘break’ the game today? What progress will I make? Am I going to augment my deck? Will I think deeply about my strategy, or just let lady luck take the wheel?
There are so many fun combinations you can try, and a lot of jokers interact with each other in meaningful ways that make it so you never know how the game is going to go when you start. There are many ways to increase your score, defeat a boss, strategize a built deck, and at the core of it all is just the right amount of luck.
We might not be gambling with money, but we are certainly gambling with our time. If I play for 10 minutes, could I find the right cards for a game breaking combo? Maybe 30 minutes? Maybe two hours?
It’s crazy how dull I’m making it sound, but you really must try it for yourself to see just how addicting all of its systems are when they come together. How it feels to get that first game breaking high score. You don’t need to know poker hands, or how decks of cards work or any of that to get to that point. You just need to be willing to read, and willing to give it enough time to think up a strategy or two. It’ll probably have you hooked by then, don’t you worry.
Ultimately, I highly recommend Balatro, and with it being available on all major platforms and mobile devices, it’s super accessible, and begging for you to jump in and play it. After all the praise that’s been given to it, I’m not sure why you wouldn’t.
Originally published at https://steamcommunity.com.