Other Media Review

Game Review: Regency Solitaire

When Emily Z. sent us an email about Regency Solitaire, I took one look at it on Steam and let out an audible “Huh?” But then I started reading the reviews and saw one by Felicia Day:

“Um, Steam just told me I spent 32 hours on Regency Solitaire in the last 2 weeks.”

And if it’s good enough for Felicia Day, who am I to judge?

So I dropped the ten bucks and fired it up on my brand new MacBook Pro and the next eleven hours of my life were a blur.

Aside from the card game aspect of it, there is a bit of a story. You play as a heroine who’s been promised to your cantankerous, villainous neighbor because your brother has a gambling problem. Evil neighbor is willing to overlook your brother’s debts if he has your hand in marriage, and you dad essentially has no choice because your awful ingrate of a brother has blown through your family fortune. However, your heart belongs to another man who you’ve longed for from afar and now, of course, you assume he’ll never want your penniless butt.

Throughout the course of the game, you uncover items or earn gold to buy things to spruce up your home’s ballroom for one last shindig – a coming out party. These items also give you special abilities or ways to increase your playing, so there is some benefit to gathering these things.

Screenshot of the all the chapters in Regency Solitaire

Each chapter is ten hands long (Yeah, it lasts a while) save for the beginning, tutorial hands and there are different challenges you have to meet before you can pass the entire chapter, such as earning a certain amount of gold or uncovering an item – you get the idea.

I played the normal mode of the game, though there is a hard, and because I’m an awful perfectionist, I would not move on to the next chapter until I earned perfect scores on every hand. Beating the game would probably take less time for you, if you’re not as obsessive and just clear the chapters by meeting the goals.

The solitaire isn’t really what you’d find on a regular solitaire card game you’d play on your computer, but rather you have a card and either match it with the card above or below. So if you have a seven, you could either play an eight or a six on it and then build from there, until there are no more cards you can play from the board in that particular sequence. Then, you turn over a card from the deck and see if you can go from there with another chain.

Screenshot of a solitaire hand from Regency Solitaire

Honestly, I really loved this game. I loved it so much that my Flux chided me with updates. (Flux is a program that helps regulate your computer usage and also adjusts the lighting depending on the time of day for less eye strain.)

“You will be waking up in nine hours.”

“You will be waking up in seven hours.”

I KNOW, FLUX, OKAY! BUT I REALLY NEED TO GET THIS PEARL-STUDDED CHOKER SO I CAN IMPRESS LORD WORTHINGTON AND INCREASE MY WILD CARD PERCENTAGE.

Some of the later challenges to beat the chapter are super tough, like making a combo of twenty cards. Powerups and wild cards becoming essential in beating these, so definitely don’t feel like you have to be stingy with them. Plus, the hands get increasingly difficult with different things to block you or prevent you from accessing other cards on the board.

The action can get tedious, but it’s so addicting and I’m doggedly persistent in most things. My only real complaint is that there’s no opportunity to go back and replay a previous hand if you moved on. I don’t mean a chapter, but the individual hands in each chapter. For example, there are ten hands to play. You do get the option to replay a hand once you finish it, if you want. But if you tend to be too quick with your mouse and click next, there’s no way to come back to it. You’d have to start the chapter all over again.

Screenshot of the levels in Regency Solitaire

 

Since beating the storyline, I don’t know if I’ll go back and replay it, but I know others who wouldn’t mind playing chapters over again or going through the hard mode if they’re just looking for a time waster.

Regency Solitaire is available through AmazonSteam, and Big Fish Games for both Windows and Mac.

Right now, Regency Solitaire is 40% off ($5.99) at Steam until February 12th

Add Your Comment →

  1. nightsmusic says:

    I passed on this when it first came out (I’m a BFG member) because I thought it would be too schmaltzy. But after reading your review, I bought it. We’ll see how I like it.

  2. Julia aka mizzelle says:

    I love this game. So many hours lost. It’s so addictive and surprising amount of replay value for price. I have won it on both easy and hard levels and if you thought the upper levels were hard on “easy”, you ain’t seen nothing yet, especially the multipliers and getting X of cards in a row challenges. I do agree about replaying hands. I almost wish they’d added more story options but I can see how that’d be a headache for the devs.

  3. And for those of you who buy it from Big Fish, my paycheck thanks you in advance. ;D

    (Said the BFG employee!)

    (Ooh, hey, there’s a Mac build. I feel a spending of a game club credit coming on!)

  4. Vicki says:

    It’s $2.99 today at Big Fish games!

  5. Crysta says:

    And it’s $5.99 on Steam (Lunar New Year sale) if that’s your platform of choice. Thanks for reminding me about this game, Amanda. I had heard of it a while ago and was intrigued but never followed up.

  6. Jake Birkett says:

    Thanks for the awesome review, we’re glad you liked the game.

    Much as I love BFG, if you buy it direct from our website or Steam, more of the revenue will go towards making the prequel Shadowhand, coming soon. Thanks!

  7. Tabs says:

    I really wish there was an ipad version of this game. I’d buy that in a hot minute. I won’t buy the comp version because I know I won’t play games on there and it’ll just sit unplayed.

  8. Kate says:

    I bought this game from the developer when it came out. Played all the way through on normal and now I’m slowly working my way in the hard mode. It’s a very good golf style solitaire game, but with a fun story line. I rushed through the game the first time because I wanted to know what happened next and I loved the ending.

    The $2.99 price at BFG is only good if you are a member of their game club, which is only worth it if you plan to purchase games on a regular basis. Personally (as a former BFG club member) I would buy directly from the developer or from Steam.

  9. Anony Miss says:

    SMTB: costing me money online since 2008.

    (Just bought at Steam, see you in a few days…)

  10. Amanda says:

    @Anony Miss: Let me know how you like it! Don’t forget to eat!

  11. Jessica says:

    If you like the gameplay, I recommend Fairway Solitaire (not the free-to-play version, though). The game is similar, minus the Regency trappings, but I think the gameplay itself is stronger: where I occasionally found it a little tedious in Regency, I never did in Fairway. I really enjoyed Regency Solitaire, but Fairway Solitaire is a game I’ve returned to again and again over the years.

  12. Susan says:

    I’m so happy to hear there is a prequel coming! I have played through multiple times now, and I’m ready for a new storyline. I agree with the review that the one thing I wish I could change is the inability to replay a specific hand.

  13. Teev says:

    This looks great so just went and got it. I’m also the kind of player who likes to go back and change those silver stars to gold (when I’m frustrated at the current hand/puzzle/grid/whatever I’m playing it is soothing to go back and get the gold on an old hand that was hard at the time but now I’m way better at it) so that will grate but it still looks fun!

  14. catses says:

    Bought it and enjoying it!

  15. Critterbee says:

    Bought through steam, downloading now, will report back later!

  16. Cammy6 says:

    Bought. This game reminds me of Heartswild Solitaire from many years ago. Just as soothing. Thanks for the link!

  17. You can play free for an hour at Big Fish to see if you like it. (Maybe elsewhere too?).

  18. GA says:

    Any recommendations for other romance themed games?

  19. Julia (@mizzelle) says:

    If you like paranormal, there were a pair of hidden object games based off Marjorie Liu’s Tiger Eye book.

  20. Carole says:

    Another romance themed game – I think BigFish had a Search and Find Game based on Nora Roberts Vision in White.

  21. Litty says:

    I would love to find a similar game that’s available for iPad. I just don’t sit at my computer long enough (when not working) to play games, but I’d like to be able to play games while waiting for doctors, etc. Any suggestions for such games? Or, heck, can SBTB start reviewing mobile-device games that romance readers would enjoy?

  22. Dani says:

    @GA and @Litty OOH ROMANCE GAME RECOMMENDATIONS? I HAVE SO MANY ahem um I could help with that maybe. >_>

    Here’s a few good ones to start with!

    Choice of Romance, from Choice of Games, is a web based text adventure that’s also available in app form. You play a young broke aristocrat going to court to try to land a wealthy spouse in what is I think a Spanish inspired fantasy kingdom. You can choose your character’s gender AND which gender of suitors you prefer, you can raise your stats in booksmarts, charm, subtlety, or magic in order to overcome various challenges you face, and of course you have a variety of bachelors/bachelorettes to choose from.

    The Royal Trap, from Hanako Games, is a visual novel (illustrated choose-your-own-adventure story) where you play a young lady who’s the bodyguard to a prince, in an alternate fantasy version of Europe where power and property is passed through the female line and men are the ones who have to make pretty and woo a powerful wife. At the coming out party for the young princess Cassidy, you can either woo the prince you came in with (WORST CHAPERONE EVER) or one of the others hanging around hoping to be a future king. Cassidy has lots of suitors, she won’t miss one or two. Oh, and there’s also a little assassination and kidnapping to deal with. No big. There are multiple bachelors and a couple of bachelorettes, though the bachelorettes’ stories are kind of hidden and not nearly as fleshed out as the menfolk’s. There’s also trans representation, but it’s a bit clumsy and occasionally cringeworthy. They tried but didn’t always succeed, basically. On balance I do really enjoy the game, though. The writing and worldbuilding are engaging, the characters are fun, and the heroine is one of the best I’ve seen in this type of game.

    In Your Arms Tonight is a visual novel for iOS and Android devices, my favourite so far from the immense catalogue of such stories from Japanese publisher Voltage inc. You play an office worker at a Tokyo interior design firm a few months into an arranged marriage, who discovers her new husband has been screwing around. After playing the free intro that introduces the situation and the available bachelors, you can purchase the individual stories of the bachelor you would best like to dump hubby for. (I recommend Stern Boss with a Heart of Gold, personally! Or Boy Next Door, he’s okay too.) Voltage games are fairly low key and hands off. You get a multiple choice dialogue option every chapter or so, and it determines whether you get the Just Okay ending or the SUPER AWESOME ending. These are games intended for weary commuting office ladies to relax with on the long train ride home, essentially. (A warning that many voltage games, and Japanese romance games in general, do have a lot of Alpha Assholes floating around. That’s still a big fantasy over there. If you LIKE somewhat jerky heroes, I have fantastic news! If not, well, the nice thing about multiple choice romances is you can usually pick a different hero, relegating alpha asshole to occasional annoying side character status. :P)

    If you want to find more, a useful term to search for is “otome game”. Otome (oh toe may) is Japanese for “maiden”, and it’s the term they use for games aimed at girls and women. Generally that means visual novel and simulation games with a strong romantic element. If you do a search for “otome” in the app store, google play, or the steam store, you’ll find a lot of interactive romance novels of varying price and quality to check out.

  23. Kerri says:

    And I’ve just lost 5 hours to this. Have had to force myself to shut it down so I can do some studying 😉

    Thanks for the rec.

  24. Megan S. says:

    Just wanted to come back to this post to say thank you for the rec! I bought the game and just finished playing on not-hard mode, and it was a nice way to relax this past week.

    Although now I’m, like, “Okay, now the sister needs a sequel!”

  25. Anony Miss says:

    @amanda spent WAYYYY too many hours on this, but it’s great. My husband likes it too (well, not the romance, and btw totally feel cheated out of a duel!). Isn’t the music GREAT????

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