INTRO:
A deck of suite cards is a versatile thing, as players who have more time to spend on idyllic pastimes than actual work have discovered. One of the games that they can be played with is solitaire, otherwise known as “patience”.
At its most basic, solitaire involves drawing away cards from arranged stacks, the topmost being the ones that can be validly removed. Most real-world arrangements are simple-looking, often composed of rows and columns. More outlandish arrangements can be done, but these involve considerable preparation, of which players may not have patience for, ironically. With the help of computers though, these arrangements can be quickly set up, albeit digitally.
Regency Solitaire is one such game that makes use of computers for this. It is not strictly based on any real-world permutations of patience, but has its own additional things that are only possible on a digital platform.
PREMISE & STORY-WRITING:
Before describing the gameplay, the story that has been tacked onto the game has to be mentioned first. The story is perhaps what the word “Regency” in the title refers to, because it is set during the rule of Prince George of Britain in his father’s stead. This era is – for better or worse – known for its bourgeoisie opulence.
The story centres around a (presumably) noble family that has been beset by misfortune that is caused by their wayward son. Their youngest daughter wishes to marry another lord, who is likewise interested in her, but has been lacking confidence ever since her brother gambled away the family’s wealth. To make things worse, her father wants to wed her to their odious neighbour, whose appearance gives away his role as the dastardly blackmail-resorting villain almost immediately.
The story is very much a disposable one. Much of it is just exposition of the aforementioned plot, and there is considerable plodding. Moreover, certain parts of the story and their writing suggests that even the writers consider the story to be disposable.
For example, there is one point where the aforementioned other lord confronts the villain and challenges him to a duel, which does not happen because the latter is too much of a coward for that. Yet, the villain inexplicably kowtows to the other lord’s demands, and even expresses indignation and disbelief that he is acceding to the demands so easily.
At least most of the dialogue is well-written, from a linguistic point of view. For example, one of the characters, who is the uncle of the protagonist, says that there are only seven stories, but thousands of ways to tell them. This is a reference to a reductive simplification of the overarching tropes of storytelling, as written in The Seven Basic Plots (2004) by Christopher Booker. (There were, however, far earlier works on the analysis of story-telling.)
GAMEPLAY – OVERVIEW:
As to be expected of a variant of solitaire, Regency Solitaire’s gameplay is about dwindling down stacks of cards, with the most visible ones (e.g. topmost and unobscured) being the first to be drawn and cleared. However, Regency Solitaire has some gameplay elements that make it quite different from other solitaire games.
TABLEAU ARRANGEMENTS:
The main goal of every session, or “hand” to use in-game parlance, is to clear all the cards in the tableaus. For the uninformed, in solitaire, the tableaus are the randomly arranged cards which are prepared prior to the beginning of a hand. The player is to draw cards from these for disposal.
As had been mentioned earlier, the card arrangements are outlandish when compared to the tableau arrangements which are used in real-world table-top solitaire. Most of the content in Regency Solitaire involves a wide range of tableau arrangements, each one different from the previous. Unfortunately, this is perhaps the only convincing source of variety in the gameplay.
DRAWING CARDS & FACE-DOWN CARDS:
Cards can only be drawn from the tableaus if they are the topmost cards and are not overlapped by other cards. For example, a mostly visible card cannot be drawn if just a little bit of one of its corners is covered by another card. The eligible cards are rendered a bit brighter than the others.
The overlapping of cards would not be a problem if the cards’ faces or corners can still be seen, e.g. their ranks can still be discerned. However, there is the complication that many cards start face-down. Therefore, the player cannot plan his/her moves to obtain a consecutive string of draws (more on this later).
FOUNDATION STACK & STACKING RULES:
The foundation stack is where cards drawn from the tableaus are placed on, if the cards fulfil only one rule: a card from the tableau can only be placed on the stack if the topmost card on the stack is one rank lower or higher than the card that is to be added to the stack. (“Wild cards” do not follow this rule – more on these cards later.)
The suit type of the cards does not matter, e.g. a two of clubs can be placed on a three of hearts. On the other hand, there are no rules concerning suits either, e.g. a two of clubs is functionally the same as a two of hearts.
This means that the player might want to keep track of how many cards of a certain rank have already been placed into the foundation stack. Theoretically, the player could end up in a scenario where a card of a certain rank cannot be placed onto the foundation because all cards with ranks both below and above that rank have already been absorbed into the foundation. (However, this generally only comes about due to bad play on the part of the player.)
STOCK:
Any cards which did not start on the foundation and which are not used for the tableaus go into the stock. The topmost card on the stock can be drawn and placed onto the foundation at any time. Generally, the stock is there for the player to change the topmost card on the foundation stack, in case there are no legible cards on the tableaus that can be drawn.
However, all of the cards in the stock are placed face-down and are randomly shuffled (as are all solitaire stocks which are done well). Therefore, the player is not guaranteed to find a convenient card.
After the stock has been exhausted, it cannot be restored. In fact, the “End Hand” button appears over the empty stock area; clicking on the button concedes defeat. Chances are that by this time, the player is already irreversibly stuck.
ENDING A HAND, STARS & “PERFECT” RUNS:
There are two ways to end a hand: having the stock run out and conceding (this is the only way to concede defeat), or successfully clearing all cards in the tableau. Once a hand ends, the player’s score is calculated based on the number of cards remaining in the tableau.
Obviously, the player scores best when there are no more cards. In this case, the game gives the player three stars and a “Perfect” rating, regardless of how clumsily or how deft the player has been in clearing the cards. If there is one card remaining, the player is given two stars and a “Great” rating, and if there are two cards, one star and “Good”. If there are three cards or more, the player gets nothing.
To players who have experienced a lot of scoring systems in many video games, this can seem rather lackadaisical.
“COMBO”:
A better measurement of the player’s performance is the “combo” counter.
Before elaborating on this, it has to stated that technically, the player could make as many draws from the tableau as possible, and then draw from the stock when that is no longer possible. Almost all hands can be completed in this way. However, the player is encouraged to avoid drawing from the stock for as long as possible through the “combo” system.
The combo counter counts how many cards the player can draw and clear from the tableau without having to draw from the stock. The player lengthens the combo by planning strings of draws, using wild cards to start new strings (more on wild cards later) and using any of the three powers to make new openings (more on these later).
BELLA’S HOME & UPGRADES:
Bella’s home is the representation of the upgrades which the player has purchased for the tools which he/she can use for clearing hands. For example, buying a lady’s fan for Bella allows the player to collect and store wild cards for later use. It can seem a bit arbitrary and silly that opulent furniture and clothing articles represent the upgrades, but it is part of the charm of the game, if it can be called as such.
Some of these upgrades are ‘free’ (and incidentally, they are needed for executing some very long combos); they are found by uncovering pictures of their associated items when playing certain hands. Once the items are found, the player can later obtain their associated upgrades without paying a single coin.
MONEY & MULTIPLIERS:
Speaking of coins, there is money to be collected from each hand. Whenever the player clears any of the bottom-most cards, the player gets 10 points of money. Yet, this can seem mundane, and even more so when the player realizes that there are few other ways to get more while playing a hand.
When a combo of 5 cards or higher is ended, it is converted into a multiplier that will be applied on the money that has been collected through the aforementioned method. Obviously, a higher combo leads to a higher multiplier. The last highest multiplier that the player has obtained during a hand remains until the player scores a higher combo which leads to an even higher multiplier. The maximum is x5, which is achieved by getting a combo of 30 or higher.
The player also earns money by getting a “perfect” attempt at clearing a hand; the reward is 500 points. This is much, much more than the money that could be obtained by clearing the bottom-most cards, even after getting a high multiplier. Therefore, the incentive to get a high combo and thus a high multiplier is not as strong as it should be.
WILD CARDS:
Wild cards are introduced after the first few hands. If they appear in the tableau, wild cards can be drawn onto the stack immediately, effectively resetting the chain sequence to whatever ranks that the wild cards have. Wild cards can also appear in the stock.
However, if the player has the fan upgrade (and he/she should), the cards are stored onto the fan (which appears in the user interface). The cards can then be played at any time that the player wishes. Any wild cards which have been stored are also retained from hand to hand.
This is obviously an incredible advantage that the player should utilize, especially when trying to rack up high combos. However, there can only be so many wild cards that can be stored. Therefore, the player might want to dispose of the less versatile wild cards and replace them with the Joker cards, which can have any card of any rank stacked on top of them.
POWERS:
The aforementioned three powers which help the player rack up combos are not immediately available. Like the ability to store wild cards, they are obtained by uncovering pictures for items while playing hands and then purchasing them for Bella’s Home later.
These powers cannot be used all the time. “Charges” have to be built up for them, typically by clearing cards from the tableau through means other than using the powers. All of the powers are charged simultaneously and at the same rate, but depending on when the player used them, they may reach their next full charge at different times.
The first of the powers is shooting an arrow at a card which the player wants removed without having to satisfy drawing conditions. This is perhaps the most reliable of the powers, because it does not rely on the factor of luck to be effective. It becomes even more useful later, when it can be improved to fire two arrows, or just one in return for keeping half of the charge for that power.
The second is reshuffling the cards in the tableau; the pattern of the tableau arrangement itself is not affected. This power is usually best activated if the top-most cards are just not convenient for a long chain of draws. Hopefully, the player would get a more convenient permutation, but the random shuffling can result in a permutation that is just as lousy as the one before the activation of the power.
The third is a random burning of up to three cards. Again, the factor of luck is significant in its effectiveness. It might well be the least useful of the three powers.
Like the wild cards, the charges for the powers are retained from hand to hand – something that the player should keep in mind when achieving chapter goals (more on these later).
LOCKED CARDS:
Some cards just cannot be interacted with. There are two types of these: key-locked cards and royal locked cards. These cards are always revealed at the start of any hand, and they are not affected by any of the powers.
The first type of locked cards appears as a card with a keyhole as its face. This card prevents the player’s progress, at least until the player locates cards with keys on their faces. The latter cards can only be used on the cards with keyholes, but any key would do for the removal of the locked cards. Obviously, the player should locate these cards as soon as possible, lest he/she gets stuck.
The second type of locked cards can only be unlocked by clearing tableau cards with royal ranks. These locked cards have numbers which show the amount of royal cards left before they are removed. Any royal card which is cleared reduces the numbers on all of these locked cards by one, though different locked cards can have different requirements.
CHAPTERS & OBJECTIVES:
The hands are grouped into ‘chapters’. The player can start any chapter, but once he/she does, the only save-game slot in this game records the player’s progress through this chapter. If the player quits the game and refuses to continue the chapter after resuming the game, any progress through that chapter is lost. However, wild cards, upgrades, power charges and money are retained.
Every chapter has one to three goals that the player has to achieve in order to unlock the next level for playing. These goals include achieving a number of stars, a number of “Perfect” ratings, multipliers and combos of certain minima, etc.
However, since these variables are already dependent on each other, e.g. multipliers and combos, achieving the goal involving one variable would lead to the achievement of another goal which involves a dependent variable. This can give the impression that the designs of the goals are not sophisticated. Furthermore, the goals are often repeated, only with higher and higher numbers, further strengthening this impression.
VISUAL DESIGNS:
Most of the artwork in the game are hand-drawn backdrops. They are quite well-detailed, though how well they match the settings of the Regency era of Britain could only be ascertained by players who actually have considerable knowledge of that era. (On the other hand, the credits do mention that the designers – a certain wedded couple – have done their research on this era.)
As to be expected of scenes in the genteel locales of Britain in the opulent era of the Regency, they are lavish, perhaps to the point of gaudiness (at least by today’s standards). Players with proletariat streaks may even have the impression that the scenes, and the characters, are a tad too bourgeoisie for their liking.
Speaking of the characters, they have been designed to look considerably different from each other. There are only two characters who appear to have similar facial structures, but they are sisters and even then, one of them is a blonde and the other a brunette. Different postures and gestures further differentiate their otherwise static artwork.
The characters also appear on the faces of the cards. This may help some players, since their distinct silhouettes and the colour schemes of their clothes do aid in recognizing cards which are partially obscured (assuming that the player is not capable of counting the cards according to their suites and availability).
Speaking of the cards, these are the only things in the game which are animated. There are particle effects for the powers, but these are all there is to anything that visibly moves in the game.
SOUND DESIGNS:
There are only music and sound effects to be heard in the game. According to the credits, the former is sourced from a database of Imperial era European music, though it would take considerable research to verify whether the aesthetics of the music are indeed of the Regency-era. Nonetheless, it fits the opulent and regal artwork well. As for the latter, they are adapted from databases of stock sound clips, though to the developer’s credit, they have been modified considerably that they do not sound immediately too familiar.
CLOSING WORDS:
After weeks or months of playing games which demand more attention, it may be refreshing to play a so-called “casual” game, of which solitaire can be considered to be one. Regency Solitaire offers that, and a bit more complexity than the usual games of patience.
Yet, it is unfortunate that Regency Solitaire has some tepid designs, such as the dull ramp-up of performance targets and how the targets are practically dependent on each other. It is drawbacks such as these which remind one that the dismissal of “casual” games being inconsequential by some is not without merit.