Playing cards date back to around the 15th century according to history and the plethora of games created using them is phenomenal. I’m partial to hours and hours of Poker where time permits. Solitaire is more than likely the most well-known card game out there. Pre Installed onto every Windows PC since the year dot, even the most casual of card players knows how to play this simplistic yet addictive casual flutter of cards. I haven’t really indulged in Solitaire on a console as there aren’t many titles that feature the world-famous card game. Naturally, I was intrigued to give Age Of Solitaire: Build Civilization some time and whilst I spent hours in the addictive loop of Solitaire itself, I had mixed feelings about this one from Eggtart Inc & Sticky Hands Inc. It is a lazy and not well-optimized PC port with time-consuming achievements.

Gameplay

Age Of Solitaire: Build Civilization plays like your standard game of Solitaire. Building the piles from King card down to 2. Aces at the top and then trying to uncover the cards to complete the game. When I first started I was baffled with the controls since it doesn’t explain how to click and drag. You’d think it would be the A button to select and drag a card across but it’s actually B. This led me to believe not much went into porting the game across to the console as it isn’t really the natural button to select something. I attempted to see if I could alter this in the settings screen but each and every time I tried fiddling with this menu the game threw me back to the Xbox Dashboard.

I wasn’t impressed with this for such a basic game but I pursued and the gameplay is almost on par with the Windows PC with some exceptions. If you get stuck you have three hints to point you in the right direction. Failing that then you have a magic option which will pull cards from underneath your piles which will automatically be Ace cards if you haven’t found them yet. To me, this ultimately felt like cheating but it’s a nice feature to have and obviously, you don’t have to use it. Finally, there are three opportunities to undo your last move if you wish.

XP, Building Civilizations & Global Leaderboards

Playing each game will grant experience points. These points will level up your civilization and gradually build them from a blank canvas to something that resembles and thriving area. There are nine of these to work through and I’d say it takes a good couple of hours to get through each, so around 15-20 hours of playtime. I was pleased to see global and friends leaderboards built into the game but then my excitement was shot down as they don’t appear to work or function on Xbox at all. Another broken feature of a simple and basic indie title is not good.

Graphics & Audio

Age Of Solitaire: Build Civilization has a very simplistic UI and menu system. As you work through each civilization the aesthetic of the backdrop changes along with the design of your card deck. Whilst working through civilizations doesn’t really serve a great deal of purpose other than watching them build between games, I did enjoy the animation and design of the blocky area that you eventually build up. It was also satisfying to press one button to send all the cards to the top of the screen once you’re able to complete a game without having to drag each individual card to each pile. Sound effects and audio is very minimal and I had no grumbles here, everything blended well with the game design.

In Conclusion

If you’re a die hare Solitaire fan then you may find hours and hours of enjoyment with Age Of Solitaire: Build Civilization. Personally, I didn’t find it at all challenging in comparison to the one on Windows PC. It is ultimately possible to pretty much win every game if you use the different options such as magic, undo and hints. The achievements unfortunately are some of the most unforgiving and ridiculous I have seen in a game. One of them expects you to play the game for 10,000 hours which equates to around 416 real-time days of gameplay.

Don’t get me wrong, I have ploughed countless hours into some games in my personal gaming archive, but nothing that amounts to that I’d imagine. With much of the game broken, the odd achievements and barely any challenge to the game, I’d say there are better card games out there worthy of your money.