Solitaire Live Instant Games New Release

We’ve been playing Solitaire all our lives but this is the first time we almost developed RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) from playing it on our mobile devices. Thanks to Solitaire Live, the latest addition to the roster of games available to play with your friends on Facebook Messenger.

When you play Solitaire (or Klondike as it is also called), you usually do it at your own pace, taking your sweet time to see if you’ve moved all the cards that can be moved before you draw another card from the deck. But that is not how you play Solitaire Live, at least not if you want to have any chance of beating your opponent.

It’s now Monday as we write this review, and Solitaire Live was released on Messenger just last Friday. It is only the second card game that was launched on Instant Games, the first one being Solitaire. Yes, you read that right, there are now two card games on Facebook Messenger, and they are both Solitaires. Go figure.

Game Play

Solitaire Live is somewhat of a misnomer, because it is not a game you can play alone. You need to challenge a friend on your list, but worry not if you don’t have any friends online, as the game will expand its search to find other users who are online to match with you. Both players get the same shuffle, same cards, and same order.

The usual rules of Solitaire apply, i.e.  your aim is to move all the cards to the 4 “foundation” piles, with each pile containing only 1 suit, and the cards arranged from lowest (Ace) to highest (King). On the field are 7 columns where you sort cards from highest (King) to lowest (Ace), in alternating suit colors.

In this version, the remainder of the deck is dealt one card at a time, with no limit on how many times you can pass through the deck. But once a player gives up or gets stuck, the opponent is given only a minute of play time before the game is over.

The player who completes all 4 foundation piles first, or gets a higher score at the end, of course wins the game.

Here’s the deal with this version of the game: You can score points and even win a game without knowing how to play solitaire at all! This is because clicking on any card automatically moves that card to an appropriate column or pile.

So it seems to us that this game is not only about being good at manipulating cards, but also about how fast you can click on them.

Graphics and Sound

We give the designers an A for effort, but the low-poly graphics that were used on the suits only made it a little hard to differentiate between them. Nice art though.

We didn’t really want to say anything about the sound effects, because what is there to comment about sound effects in a card game, right? But we wanted to know why they exerted some effort to make the visual design stand out (Athough a bit more animation would have been appreciated too), but somehow neglected the sound department. There are some clicks you make that you expect to have sounds or animation, but they don’t.

Fun Factor and Replayability

People will not play this game when they just want to while away the time. They will play this when they are in the mood for some competition. It’s fun to kick someone’s behind when you’re better than them at the game, but when you’re matched with a better player, it sucks. Especially when they send a stuck-out tongue emoji to gloat. 😛

So we’re still undecided if we would bank on Solitaire Live beating the other “regular” Solitaire game in terms of replayability. Maybe we’ll update this review after a few weeks have passed to see how the two fare against each other.

Conclusion

The original Solitaire is a game that tests your skills of focus and manipulation. But Solitaire Live needs those skills only minimally. Like we mentioned, this one is more a game of speed than anything. The person who can click faster wins. That’s a shame though. We’re sure there are many players who are good at Solitaire when they’re playing alone, but sorry, this version is not for them. And sadly it’s not our favorite version either. We give it a 5/10.