Salutations, my readers, perchance that you have stumbled here to find out about this adventure about bamboozling your opponent in a game of cards. A game that tests your focus, ability to memorize, and think quick using your wits. And not a game that allows you to take your time, no, it requires you act within the moment. But also partake in a frivolous journey of the unorthodox, and eccentric.
Playing Card Shark is like diving into a different world, one shown in low brow Georgian era art, where you not only win card games by cheating with elegance, but learn more about the people you cheated from. It did remind me of titles like Monkey Island, and paradigm, even though those games were point and click, this one involves the player just moving in 2 dimensions, and interacting to start a mini-game.
These mini-games culminate to create a cheat-em-up game. Every time I learned a new mini-game, I had to memorize how to play them, and they were over a dozen of them to play. It's a difficult game because it relies on your memory and quick thinking skills much like real life to pull every trick up the sleeves. Maybe that'll be good for someone who has become a slog, someone like me, of course.
Respectfully Hoodwinking
It all began in an inn, someone who isn't fond of his job and can't speak his tongue, was recognized for having some quick wit by an earnest yet upper class fellow named Comte de Saint-Germain. After a scuffle and some life-changing events, the protagonist goes on a journey to find his hidden talents, and cheat his way into uncovering a big conspiracy in 18th France.
Comte had a lot of things to teach me, one of which is hard to memorize or keep track of, which is why every time before I go to a game meeting, he would ask if I should rehearse the trick or not. Most of them involve shuffling cards, in-jogging, leaving marks, switching to fake decks and then removing the real ones so that there are no duplicates found, looking at opponent's cards while pouring drink, etc.
It's hard to memorize each of them, because the game is relying on the player to be a quick learner, kind of like the protagonist himself. Though, I think that kind of purist design is what really throws any other players off a game like this. Not only that, but checking the game menu to see what strategies I've learned, it doesn't show the commands to pull them off.
Helps to memorize with Comte, but I had to go through several trial and errors before properly learning them. Also, I suck at playing cards. I have a really hard time remembering suits and ranks because I never played them. So this game throws me off a lot, before restarting back to checkpoint just to it right.
Yet I persisted playing because there was a lot of fun to uncover. The game's way of me hiding myself as a charlatan in the arts of playing card adds a lot of intrigue not only because I get to do cool things, but along the way, there's a unique, interesting story to go for. Though I am not sure if tricking people in real life by learning any of this would help, it sure does emulate the feeling of being a complete sleazebag.
Each of these mini-games have intrinsic systems in place, that does make it challenging for anybody to play. Often times, some of them require memory techniques in order to get through, so I appreciate the dedication to making the experience authentic, but it can do wonders making it easier for people to play the game too.
Narrative Joyride
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Taking the artwork of Nicolai Troshinsky, the game comes alive with such color and vibrancy, from the background aesthetics to the characters walking in between them. If there's another thing that piques my interest, it's the color palettes and how all of this is animated.
It's a brilliantly told story based on real life history of France before the French Revolutions took place. There are no voice acting in this, everything's just audio queues and music. But that doesn't undermine the experience, rather adds to the player's ability to interpret their own way. Add to that is the charming wit and humor that also comes along with.
It's kind of a shame that the gameplay had to have such a difficult learning curve before really getting to appreciate the story. That and my brain power, mostly focusing on memorizing everything before I forget the rest. Hard to focus with the two, because of the mental toll.
Well, despite the fact I been intimidated by how hard the game is, I used my own cheating method, well by using Microsoft's DVR to record 30 seconds before I pause the game and check the cards. It was easier this way, plus, you know, staying true to the nature of the game.
This was quite an experience, it throws you off more times than you could count. Not many games out there do that, and so despite its inadequacies, it really does pull off till the end. Sucks you in to the allure of its narrative and flamboyant characters. Almost as if it's a stage play of sorts.