Very cool single player mobile card game with a surprising amount of depth and some really fun risk/reward mechanics. The game seems to be heavily inspired by the Thief series, with a similar aesthetic and time period, and familiar thief tools like a variety of arrows, potions, the trusty blackjack, etc. Much more interesting, however, is the way these stealth mechanics are translated into a card game.
The game is played on a 3x3 card grid in which you, the player, must move around your thief card, dealing with obstacles until eventually reaching the end of the deck, pilfering the chest card and making a swift exit. The two main mechanics that provide the majority of interesting interplay are managing your stealth points, which decrease after dispatching enemies and are restored after gathering sneak cards, and dealing with light, which are provided by torches and make sneaking past obstacles much more difficult. This rather simple conflict is made more interesting via a pretty solid variety of enemies, obstacles, and thieving tools at your disposal. The tools are unlocked and upgraded by performing specific tasks, some of which actually do force you to play much more differently than usual, which I always really appreciate especially in card games, where it can be really easy to just meta-deck your way through 90% of the time.
The game has a variety of risk-reward mechanics which allows the player to naturally take a gradient of risky actions for a much larger score. Perhaps my favorite example of this is the path difficulty mechanic. Every so often, certain cards will randomly gain a path difficulty modifier, which will basically multiply the numbers of every subsequent card in the current path, i.e. the current 3x3 card grid. Bigger numbers mean tougher enemies, but it also means larger stealth restoration and more jewels. Managing the multiplier to maximize reward and minimize loss becomes a supremely interesting game of careful forward planning and clever tool use to craft the perfect path through, which can feel genuinely satisfying.
As fun as the game is, there's unfortunately not that much content. There's only like three areas and after completing the second area I honestly felt like I "got" the game. This honestly isn't the worst thing, as the design pretty much feels about as tight and focused as it could be for a game like this.
Overall though, it’s a well-designed, smallish card game perfect for your 10-15 minute breaks when you just want to feel like a smart little thief for a bit. Pretty good!
The game is played on a 3x3 card grid in which you, the player, must move around your thief card, dealing with obstacles until eventually reaching the end of the deck, pilfering the chest card and making a swift exit. The two main mechanics that provide the majority of interesting interplay are managing your stealth points, which decrease after dispatching enemies and are restored after gathering sneak cards, and dealing with light, which are provided by torches and make sneaking past obstacles much more difficult. This rather simple conflict is made more interesting via a pretty solid variety of enemies, obstacles, and thieving tools at your disposal. The tools are unlocked and upgraded by performing specific tasks, some of which actually do force you to play much more differently than usual, which I always really appreciate especially in card games, where it can be really easy to just meta-deck your way through 90% of the time.
The game has a variety of risk-reward mechanics which allows the player to naturally take a gradient of risky actions for a much larger score. Perhaps my favorite example of this is the path difficulty mechanic. Every so often, certain cards will randomly gain a path difficulty modifier, which will basically multiply the numbers of every subsequent card in the current path, i.e. the current 3x3 card grid. Bigger numbers mean tougher enemies, but it also means larger stealth restoration and more jewels. Managing the multiplier to maximize reward and minimize loss becomes a supremely interesting game of careful forward planning and clever tool use to craft the perfect path through, which can feel genuinely satisfying.
As fun as the game is, there's unfortunately not that much content. There's only like three areas and after completing the second area I honestly felt like I "got" the game. This honestly isn't the worst thing, as the design pretty much feels about as tight and focused as it could be for a game like this.
Overall though, it’s a well-designed, smallish card game perfect for your 10-15 minute breaks when you just want to feel like a smart little thief for a bit. Pretty good!