Swords & Poker Adventures Review

What do you get when you cross Poker with an RPG, then throw in a Candy Crush Saga-style series of progression? Swords & Poker Adventures, to be exact. It's a title that's a little heavy on the freemium mechanics, but it's a kind of fun crossover.

Working much like Candy Crush Saga you'll work your way through a series of levels, hopefully gaining the maximum 3 stars in each with an aim to unlock the next level and so forth. There's no story to speak of. Instead, your focus is squarely on progression and acquiring new weapons.

Each level consists of a board of cards. In the center are the starting cards with each player given a hand of four in order to hopefully create a winning poker hand. Each player is provided with a series of health points with the likes of pairs causing minimal damage, while a Full House or Straight is much more effective.

It's kind of fun setting up useful hands and trying to plan ahead strategically. For instance, as the board fills up it's possible to arrange a series of combos, which is where the serious damage occurs. It's still a bit of a cold experience though as each level is roughly the same as the last, just a little harder. It's fine, sure, but don't expect it to stick in your memory two minutes after you finish playing.

Swords & Poker Adventures also offers a fairly restrictive energy system. Patience or paying $4.99 to unlock infinite energy circumvents it, but without either of those you're going to find yourself with little to do often.

So, Swords & Poker Adventures is fine but little else. It needs to be more appealing than it actually is. As it stands, it has the requisite elements but it lacks some much needed personality to truly grab your attention.