Black Jacket

[b]A good game that feels satisfying to finish.[/b] Just don’t go in expecting Balatro’s endless replayability or another Slay the Spire. Runs do follow a similar structure to StS: a branching map, enemies, bonuses, and a boss at the end. But overall, it feels more like a short, story-driven adventure with a simple, pretty sad story. I really liked the [b]art and sound design[/b]. The music, ambient sounds, and character voices all work well together and set the mood. The gameplay is a heavily reworked version of blackjack, with its own rules, modifiers, and different decks. It’s noticeably easier to get the hang of than Balatro, and there’s less math involved. I actually found it pretty relaxing: sit down, play a couple of runs, think through some combos, then get on with my day. [b]A run takes around 35–45 minutes.[/b] Finishing every difficulty level and getting all the achievements took me 25 hours. There isn’t much reason to come back after that, but I didn’t feel like anything was missing either. It’s more like finishing a story-driven game: you’ve had a good time, reached the end, and can move on. [b]My main complaint is the difficulty.[/b] By the end of the story, you’ve figured out how things work, and you rarely lose after that. I beat the final difficulty level, 21, which stacks all the previous debuffs and adds one more, on my first try in about 40 minutes. I wish the game had pushed me a little harder, at least toward the end. No regrets buying it.