Nearly five years after the initial release of Reigns, the studio Nerial is back. Still edited by the nuggets scouts at Devolver, the new adventure of the British studio offers its new production: Card Shark. This is an adventure game putting the player in the role of a cheat at card games. A superb game full of surprises.
The tongue of a mute is better than that of a liar
Card Shark’s story places the player in a pre-revolution France. We take control of the employee of a mute inn who will meet the Count of Saint-Germain. The latter, looking for a partner to carry out his theft around card games, introduces a colorful scenario and plays around historical characters of the time.
Everything is presented in a artistic direction with beautiful pastel colors. Every screen in the game appears to be a artwork straight out of the workshops of Claude Monet. All this, accompanied by a perfectly adapted soundtrack, places us in a unique atmosphere.
Card Shark’s backgrounds are superb
It is in this superb atmosphere that the Count of Saint-Germain will take our hero on various adventures. If the scenario of the game is astonishing, and presents many characters going up to the king of France, Louis XV, it is especially by its gameplay that the game shines: the Count of Saint-Germain will teach the players all his tricks in order to handle the cards.
The ace of clubs that stings your heart
The whole of Card Shark indeed revolves around card games and subterfuges in them. The Count of Saint-Germain taking the hero under his wing will teach him several tricks allowing him to cheat at card games in order to deceive his opponents. For instance, look at a player’s cards over their shoulder and then pass them to the Count via a secret code. In all, the Count teaches his apprentice nearly thirty tricks.
The principle of the game is then clear: we decide on a place to move forward in order to play a game of cards there. Two phases are presented as follows: the trip with the Count so that the latter shares the secret of a new one with you, then a scripted game of cards in which the player must put into practice the theft learned. Everything is done around mini-games, on the whole, extremely well done.
Card Shark therefore offers simple mini-games to help the Count cheat. Putting a card up your sleeve, rigging the distribution of a deck, it’s all original. And, the gameplay offered is very clever. By using the joystick or the buttons on his gamepad, we really the impression of handling a deck of cards. No knowledge of maps is required. You will have to show dexterity.
Each round requires the player to observe, analyze and sometimes react. Because, each error or too long wait will increase the level of mistrust of the adversary. If the latter is too suspicious, the Count and his apprentice will then be thrown in prison (or killed, if necessary) and you will have to start the level again. If from time to time, especially at the end of the game, the latter can be frustrating (especially when you miss a manipulation after several minutes of play and you have to start all over again), the consequences of your mistakes enter the scenario and are intelligently brought.
Some late-game turns require thought
To note that the game offers an easy mode where you can skip certain mini-games or do them with hints. Conversely, the game offers a fashion permadeath leaving no room for error. Nerial developers have made sure to make their game accessible to everyone.
Find below the first twenty minutes of Card Shark:
Card Shark – a winning hand
Offering a gripping and intelligently set up adventure in a universe with shimmering colors and a pleasant soundtrack, Card Shark is a very good game. Certain aspects can make it sometimes frustrating or repetitive, especially at the end of the game. developers have done a lot of work to make their production attractive and accessible to everyone. Even allowing itself to offer a nice scenario to follow and full of twists, Card Shark will give you an excellent ten hours of play in order to make you more skilled than Pat Poker.
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