One of the better deck-builder games that I've had the pleasure of playing. It's quite playable, fun so far, and of course has that fantastic Klei artwork. Price is $15 right now, will go up as features get added. Since it's more original, I've focused on the conversation deck more, but some of the combat combinations look like they have some interesting deck building. You can definitely focus on one deck over the other, both in what you choose (fight this lady, or convince her not to attack you?), and in where you spend your resources, but you can't totally avoid either you will have to fight, and you will have to parley.
The cards can level up, which lets you upgrade them into one of two different forms maybe one upgrade does an extra point of damage, and the other upgrade does the same damage, but reduces the cost of the card. In both cases you draw 5 cards at the start of each turn from your respective deck, and play out from there. The combat is more JRPG-ish, taking turns with lots of positive and negative status effects that affect the combat. They're both combat systems, but they're totally different mechanics, but both feel pretty good. Part of the shtick is that you have two decks, one for conversations, and one for combat. The story right now is just one character, but I like the world building (probably salvaged from the failed RPG). Like Invisible, Inc., it's run based, but not brutally rogue-like you'll make progress on your first run, but probably not finish, and get better at it. The feel of the game is somewhat of a mix of The Banner Saga (2D "overworld," choose one thing and lose another, a few other feelings) and Deep Sky Derelicts, a game no one else plays AFAIK, but it's got a card deck that you obtain more cards for as the game goes on, as you tune/specialize. I do love that Klei will try very new things. There's also more there about the troubled history of developing this game, which was going to be an RPG but just didn't work out. Anyone who purchased on Epic will get the game on Steam for free, and vice versa. In June of next year, we will be releasing Griftlands into Early Access on Steam.
On July 11, we are going to launch the Alpha version of Griftlands for $14.99. After rebooting the game, Epic approached us as a partner and we felt that this fit well with our process of going from Alpha to garner feedback before putting it on all platforms. Alpha was only available through the Humble Widget as a direct download. Klei has a history of partnering with new distribution platforms when starting new projects, for example the Don’t Starve Alpha was only available on the Chrome Webstore, and the Invisible Inc. We have partnered with Epic to bring the Alpha of Griftlands to the Epic Game Store exclusively for one year, and will launch in Early Access on Steam next June. As with our previous games, we will be running an Alpha period in order to iron out the kinks.