Game: Regency Solitaire
Genre: Board Game, Puzzle, Lifestyle, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam, Windows)
Developers | Publishers: Grey Alien Games | Jake Birkett
Age Rating: US E| EU 3+
Price: US $11.99 | UK £9.99 | EU € 10,99
Release Date: October 19th, 2021
Review code used, with many thanks to Grey Alien Games
Regency Solitaire is the creation of Dorset-based Grey Alien Games, with funding from Creative England. As the name suggests it’s a solitaire card game based in eighteenth-century England during the rule of Prince George.
Eighteenth-Century England
The story of our heroine Bella is intertwined with the solitaire card game. Let me explain. Bella is a young lady from a respectable family, she attends social fiction, such as taking the waters at Bath (England), attending the opera and dancing at the assembly. Bella’s family are far from rich and thanks to Bella’s brother’s gambling debts their position in society is further scandalised and put in jeopardy.
Bella wishes to marry and has her sights set on Lord Henry Worthington, but Bella has been lacking confidence ever since her brother Edward gambled away the family’s wealth. To make matters worse, her father wants to wed Bella to their odious neighbour Mr Bleakley.
Play Cards
Regency Solitaire largely assumes you’re familiar with the base game’s rules, and even if you aren’t, it’s not that difficult as the game will show what you need to do. The cards are spread out on a tableau on the screen. Some cards are face up and others are not. You have to click a face-up card on the tableau so it moves to the face card at the bottom of the screen.
The card you click must be either in ascending or descending order. So for example, if you had a five on the deck at the bottom, you could play either a six or a four-card from the tableau. The more you keep this chain going, the better you do and the more points you score.
As you click on the card and it moves to the stockpile it reveals the card that was below it on the tableau. If you can’t make any moves, you can play a card from your deck to replace the current face-up card. You’ve also got a limited number of undo options per level.
Receive Coins As You Clear Rows
You receive coins as you clear rows from the tableau and you use this money to buy customisations and upgrades for Bella’s ballroom by buying items such as paintings and furniture and upgrades for her costume.
Each of the 20 chapters may have a different set of requirements, such as unearthing items hidden beneath the cards or achieving different combo chains, and you’ll even discover different types of cards along the way. Some are fairly straightforward, such as the wildcards that you can play in a pinch or a joker card. While others actually help or hinder the cards on the boards. You may even need to find a key to unlock a locked card, for instance.
180 Unique Levels
Once you have cleared the tableau of cards you move on to the next round. In all, there are 20 chapters with 180 unique levels to play. The card game is fun and enjoyable in short bursts.
I was surprised that there was storytelling in the game. The story is quite enjoyable too and didn’t feel tacked on to pad out the solitaire game. Though I do have one nit-pick with the story as I find it hard to understand how Bella manages to win so much money at cards without putting up any money herself. Regency Solitaire reminds me of a visual novel in a way, with the added bonus of a card game to play.
Visuals
Regency Solitaire is beautifully illustrated without being too busy and over the top, even though there isn’t any animation in the game, it still looks great. I really like the way the game looks, though I couldn’t tell you if it is accurate to the period the game is set in. The music is classical, music that you would expect to have heard at a lavish ball in the finest country homes at that time. It’s quite relaxing to listen to as you play the game.
The developers seem to have put a lot of work into the tableau of cards that appears each time you play. The layout of the tableau is always different and it is a nice touch to add to the game. You can also change the design of the cards in play to one that is more simple in looks.
Controls
Regency Solitare is played either using the touchscreen controls or the joy-cons, I used both and they work as they should, though the touchscreen controls might be more fiddly if you have large fingers.
Conclusion
Regency Solitaire was quite a surprising game for me to review as I didn’t really think there would be that much to the game when I started playing it, so I was pleasantly surprised. It’s an enjoyable, solid game of solitaire, mixed with a visual novel, an unusual combination but it works! Give Regency Solitaire a try and you might be surprised too.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up 