Legends of Solitaire: Curse of the Dragons
Platform: Mac, Windows
Solitaire may be pretty simple, but PC owners and office workers throughout the world will always have a soft spot for it. And yet, sometimes you might want to spice things up a bit and play something fancier than your garden-variety card game. Introducing Legends of Solitaire: Curse of the Dragons, a fantasy solitaire game by The Revills Games. Dragons are on the loose, your kingdom is in danger, so hop on your mighty steed and shuffle some cards!
The rules are as follows: select a card from the board that is one higher or lower than the first card in your deck. Try to get a chain going until you run our of options, then draw another card from your deck, until your deck is spent or the board is cleared. Depending on how you do, you will get from one to three stars. The storyline progresses through levels, each consisting of ten hands, so a part of the story is revealed after every level. In order to beat a level, you have to reach several objectives, like collecting a certain number of stars or making a long enough chain. If you fail to achieve all of your goals, you'll have to restart the level. The game will try to trip you up occasionally, by having a dragon set fire to a card, or ivy growing on top of a card so you can't play it. There is a shop at your disposal where you can buy weapons and potions to deal with these nuisances that stand between you and eternal glory, but remember that you can only visit the shop between hands. As your epic quest goes on, various companions will join you, each with a rechargeable special skill.
A great thing about this game is that you don't have to be a solitaire fan to enjoy it. Sure, you're playing a card game, but it feels like an epic quest. The boards come in all shapes and sizes, so each hand feels new, and the random events bring some welcome variety. It's also quite long, taking you on a journey to the four corners of the kingdom to find warriors brave enough to fight the dragons. The biggest downside is that failing a level means you have to replay it from the start, all ten hands, sometimes even multiple times. But if you don't mind taking a more winding road to the final encounter with the dragons, the repeated levels won't feel very grindy. On the whole, Curse of the Dragons has pretty much all you need from a solitaire game. It's got the pretty fantasy-themed decks, calming music and a well-narrated story. It's casual to the core and it's certainly a good place to start if you've never played a really fun single-player card game.
Windows:
Download the demo
Get the full version
Mac OS X:
Download the demo
Get the full version
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