Adecke - Cards Games Deluxe Review

Screenshot of Adecke - Cards Games Deluxe
One of my favourite games in this collection is called "Hockey"

  • Reviewed by: Mark Goninon
  • Developer: Philippe Pelchat
  • Publisher: Philippe Pelchat
  • Release Date: 21 Nov 2018
  • Time played: 2.2 hours

What is it

Philippe Pelchat is a developer from Quebec who has been developing a variety of games and apps for Android and iOS devices over the past few years. Adecke – Cards Games Deluxe appears to be his most recent game and it was released on mobile devices last year as well as Steam.

The game is actually a collection of six traditional card games you can play including "Bull" (which may be referring to the card game "500"), Ass-Hole (seems to have the more family-friendly "President" for the mobile versions for some reason), "Whist", "Cribbage", "Hockey" (a card game which is apparently quite popular in Canada and is meant to emulate an ice hockey game) and "Speed".

How I got it

I actually received a review copy of this game from developer Philippe Pelchat, so thank you to Philippe for giving me the opportunity to review this game! While I'm not by any means that good at card games (I think my wife has far more experience in that domain), I'm always willing to give a game a fair go 😊.

Screenshot from Adecke - Cards Games Deluxe
You can customise the game's look

What I like:


Customisation

The game provides some limited customisation options allowing you to change the look of your avatar, the table, the floor and the cards themselves, which is a nice touch.

Some fun card games to pass the time

Card games in general are a good, casual way of passing the time. I even learnt how to play a whole bunch of new card games by trying this out, and it's fun when you learn something new every day.

Screenshot from Adecke - Cards Games Deluxe
Apparently you need 121 to win Cribbage. 

What I dislike:


Broken English

Look, I understand this game was developed by a French Canadian, so English might not be his forte, but if you're advertising a game as being in English and French, you'd hope that it would be at a level that you're able to decipher, especially when it comes to reading the rules of the game. Unfortunately, this isn't the case, and simply trying to read the rules off an external website doesn't quite work either since there are several variations to card games, which means you won't know which instructions are the correct ones to read.

Also, it might be worth noting that the English version of the EULA is written entirely in French. (EDIT: As soon as I published this review, the developer fixed this issue, so I think it's fair if I cross this one off :))

So, if you're not familiar with French at all, and you're not already familiar with the games being played, you're going to find the games a struggle.

What the hell is going on?

Okay, if the rules of each card game were decipherable, then I probably wouldn't have this problem, but maybe a tutorial system or extra notifications wouldn't have gone astray to let you know what was happening in a game at any given time. There have been several times I'm wondering what's meant to happen next such as what kind of cards the game is expecting me to place down, maybe a pop-up or notification after 30 seconds would've helped for newbies to the game or something along those lines.

Cribbage doesn't appear to be working

From what I could gather from the rules, the first player to reach 121 points in Cribbage is declared the winner, however there have been two times where it says I had a score of 121 and declared my opponent as the winner. Either I'm missing something from the rules (which is entirely possible, since they're hard to decipher) or the game is bugged.

Single player only

It would've been fun to try this game out in multiplayer, but the game was probably always meant to be a single-player game and the idea of introducing multiplayer was never on the cards (no, I'm not sorry about the pun).

No Steam Trading Cards, Leaderboards or Achievements

Steam is apparently still "learning about this game" but at the moment there doesn't appear to be any Steam Trading Cards, Leaderboards or Achievements.

Score – 5/10 (Average)

If you're already familiar with the games included in this collection, are looking for some AI to play against and don't mind the fact Cribbage doesn't appear to be working correctly, then this game could be worth a go. However, for anyone not familiar with the games on offer and French isn't your native tongue, you're probably going to struggle figuring out how to play them and if you're not into traditional card games in the first place, this game isn't going to change your mind.

Is the game worth $14.50 AUD?: No. Maybe if the game was half the price it probably would be worth it, unless you're really into your traditional card games.

If you like this game, you might like…

[ LINK: Steam Store Page ]

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