![]() As I did it in the "real world," the exact same things worked fine, and I never had any trouble with it again. For example, a tutorial for a specific mechanic would keep telling me that I was failing until I got frustrated and skipped it. Most were ignorable, like simple visual glitches, but one I got on a handful of occasions was the game not properly registering that I did something right. One complaint I had is that there were a few annoying bugs. The soundtrack is also quite good and does a lot of heavy lifting for the atmosphere, assuring that even simple visuals carry the weight they need. It's charming, and screenshots don't quite do it justice compared to how it looks in motion. Everything has a pleasantly messy hand-drawn feel that fits the tone of the game. The visual style of Card Shark helps it stand out. It's straightforward, but the plot manages to keep it engaging. Your goal is to complete the main story, but there are some options available, including potentially grindable "free games" where you can choose the exact scam you're going to run. Profits are used to get into higher-stakes games and donate to a community fund for the group of vagabond allies. In challenging areas, you can increase the bets you make, which increases suspicion more quickly but can earn more profits in the long run. Each area has one of the aforementioned gimmicks. The core game design involves you moving from area to area, most of which earn a new trick. They add some tension to the mix and make the act of cheating genuinely feel like a trick. I likely wouldn't play them outside of the context of the game, but that's not really a criticism, since they were designed to be part of the gameplay. No minigame commanded my attention, but a few outstayed their welcomes. Overall, the minigames add to the atmosphere and tone of the game. Each one adds some flair, but the gameplay remains largely similar. It can get more extreme, such as an attempted arrest mid-game, two philosophers who want to use your cheating to advance their own theories, or a game played at gunpoint where you need to keep it going long enough to figure out a way to escape. Sometimes you're part of the game, and other times, you're disguised as a servant or waiter so you can pour wine (and spy on cards). ![]() Sometimes you have multiple people at once. Sometimes you're fleecing a rich man for his money. There is an easier mode that limits these consequences and has a hardcore mode where you don't get a second chance at all, for those who like some spice in their game.Įach card game has its own gimmicks. At its worst, your save game can be deleted to force a fresh start. Mess up, and the consequences are more severe. You're offered the chance to cheat Death at cards, and in doing so, you get a second chance at life. When you die, you're confronted by Death, who is nothing if not a game player. With that comes your almost certain untimely death. People will accept losing under suspicious circumstances, but the moment they know you are cheating, out come the pistols and swords. Why is suspicion important? Nobody likes being cheated by a card shark. Suspicion is carried from round to round, but if you lose a round, it resets some of the enemy's suspicion. ![]() What makes them stressful is that every moment you spend on a minigame is one moment longer for your opponent (or opponents) to get suspicious of why you're taking so long. Many are simple timed button presses or memory games, but a few get more complex. ![]() They are all straightforward and simple, but your goal is to do them as quickly as possible. The minigames sort of make me think of Warioware. I found myself looking forward to each new gimmick if just to see how clever they were. This makes the game lightly educational in a fun way. With very few exceptions, the tricks are grounded firmly in reality and are based on actual card shark tricks. Before each trick, you can get a tutorial on how it functions. The coolest part of the experience is that it serves as a simple guide on how old-school card sharking worked. Each one corresponds to a specific trick, and while there is a lot of overlap between tricks, each one has its own foibles and mechanics. The game is built around a variety of minigames. If you're a successful con artist, there's no need to actually play the game. Instead, the cards are a medium for what you're really doing, which is scamming people. At first glance, you may think Card Shark is a standard card game, but the trick is that you aren't playing cards.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |