Ugh, was gonna wait until I had more hours in the game before writing a review. Wanted to learn the systems better, and complete at least eight antes. Wanted to do all sorts of things.

Well, here's the review because after only 2.4 hours I'm going to admit that I've got the Balatro Bug. I like complexity, I like options, I like tinkering, I like poker - this game delivers on all of that, and then some. It also perfectly encapsulates that, "Just one more game," vibe that I've been really putting a choke hold on for the time being - I've got to spread my time between multiple games afterall.

So, here's the scoop. Buy it because you like poker. Buy it because you like any card games. Buy it because it's cheap, can be played offline, has tons of customization/options. Or... Don't buy it because you don't want to lose track of time and get sucked into a Balatro-abyss. Don't buy it if you own a Steam Deck, as you'll find yourself playing it on a plane, train, boat, or the toilet.

Frankly, I couldn't care either way at this point, as it's too late for me...now, I've got to get back to it. I came soooo close to completing a run.

Oh yeah, if there were one bad thing I'd have to say - the game disables HDR whenever I launch it, and I have to manually turn it back on after quitting the game.