Bite-sized Review:
Into The Grid

By Chris Picone, 24 November, 2025

Into the Grid is a cyberpunk themed deck builder that features all the standard tropes and everything you would expect from the genre. Where it sets itself apart is its use of the map between battles. 

Aesthetics

Graphics are surprisingly good for this sort of game, with nicely detailed cards as well as modern renders of the cyberpunk-themed virtual world and its inhabiting virus monsters. There's also plenty of colour-coding and there's been a good amount of thought put into the layout so all the informaiton you need is readily available. 

Gameplay

Your goal for each run is to make it to the core where you will defeat a boss monster and clear the level. The step in between is a bit of a juggling act; the more minor enemies you defeat and the more data nodes you extract or exploit, the more powerful you will be by the time you get there. But every interaction raises the security level, re-locking gates and spawning new monsters, ramping up in difficulty every time.  Spend too long trying to level up and you may not survive long enough to see the core. Sometimes you can avoid a fight by walking around an ICE to activate a node but other times they block your path. You can often move forward through more than one gate but activating a gate comes with either a cost or a task, sometimes forcing your hand. Like in any good card game, synergy is key to success in battle, but one thing I really liked is that in Into The Grid you actually need to adapt your strategies to counter your enemies.  Sometimes this might just mean defending when a big attack's coming and then swinging in for as much as possible when there's a gap. But often enemies will come with counterparts that work together. For example, one enemy starts shielded and requires you to hit their wings first to expose them before you can do any actual damage. So buffing into a big swing wouldn't work in that scenario. There are different factions to play too, and each have their own sets of cards, passive abilities, and special commands that lead to wildly different playstyles. Deckbuilding is a big part of the game too, with new (or upgraded) cards becoming available quite frequently, making you stronger but also encouraging you to lean into a play style, which lends to more replayability across runs.

Verdict

I'm really enjoying Into The Grid. The developers have made much better use of the between-combat map than in most similar games; moving around levels and hacking is surprisingly engaging.  And while the cards seem mostly simplistic at first, it's their interaction with each other and your passive abilities where the magic happens.  The design of each of the enemies is another shining point for the game, preventing you from just playing out the same combos each battle, and the boss battles are quite clever and challenging.  A great card game, I'm very happy to recommend it. 

Links: 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2576200/Into_The_Grid/