Action Solitaire Review

"Action Solitare" comes installed with 70 card game variations. That said, among those 70, there are only about 14 actually different play styles. Those play styles are the bare bones basics that everyone knows. Also making appearances are memory match, adding games, and other matching modes. It's obvious that this game is as complete as possible, which is really great. Some see endless tedium, but beneath all the terminology-based confusion and the unhelpful menus, there is a great control scheme in every game. The gameplay is the section in which "Action Solitaire" excells. Once you figure it out, you can get lost for hours. The controls flow smoothly except for in a few spots. Blackjack and Gaps suffer from slow controls. In Blackjack, the need to drag and click, back and forth, really slows gameplay down. Similarly, Gaps goes from a strategic game, to rapid clicking on whatever looks right, wearing down finger strength and patience. I did mention that the help menus aren't very helpful, and that might be a big deal. If you don't know basic terminology (tableau, suite, etc) or need to learn by example, you're going to be disappointed. It won't hold your hand. More accurately, it will throw you right in while it watches in either silent approval or disappointment. Or at least, you'll wish it was silent. Another issue in this game is the sound. "Action Solitaire" seems to be somewhat stuck in the past, when the best way to show how unique your software was involved demonstrating all the 'crazy' sounds you could play. Another aspect that dates the game is its graphics. The game could use an update, but the advertised update to download new skins for your cards doesn't make them less grainy, but adds cats. Still, the game is easy to get lost in, as I mentioned before. It's fun to kill time with, and even to play with friends and family. It's a true testament to the addictive properties of solitaire games that it could keep me playing for a collective two hours.