While the immediate draw of Card Shark definitely lies in the novel premise of scamming 18th century french aristocracy in a gorgeous artstyle, the game luckily also has a solid core that kept me engaged throughout the entire journey. Pros: Even though the gameplay essentially boils down to minigames focused on remembering increasingly difficult patterns, the entire package ultimately wraps everything together nicely. The game pressures you enough (with the occasional surprise to keep you on the edge of your seat) whilst remaning lenient enough to not be too punishing. The aforementioned atmosphere is also superb with a fittingly high quality soundtrack and an enjoyable story that manages to keeps things simple but with enough twist and turns to remain engaging. All in all, very engrossing stuff. Missed poential: While you can technically move freely in some sequences, there's only a few times you actually optionally interact with the environment or characters - otherwise it's only linear inputs. This feels like a shame considering the potential for dialogue with NPCs, studying the environment, side quests etc. In a game where you go from rags to riches, money barely has any function in the game aside from donating it which means you only need to to have enough for minimum required bets. It could have been nice to be able to spend it elsewhere on stuff like items, clothing and the like. The game technically has a handful of different endings, but they don't really differ much or expand in a very meaningful way. However these issues are very minor however and didn't really detract from my enjoyment. If you have even a passing interest in card tricks and the aesthetics of Barry Lyndon, Card Shark is a must play.
I read the reviews about the story being bad before buying, figuring it probably wasn't a big issue. Big mistake on my part. I don't mind a meh story on the side, but Superhot's story completely breaks the flow of the game by subjecting you to what comes off as a 14 year old's half hearted attempt at being deep. The gameplay itself is pretty good once you're getting into it, but it's soured by the aforementioned "story" trying to be clever between almost every sequence. Doesn't take much more than an hour to beat either, and then all you're left with is a meh endless mode and replaying the same levels again with some additional challenges. Unless the slowed time gimmick, and replaying the maps repeadedly REALLY appeals to you, I wouldn't recommend this. There's much better games out there if you're looking for clever story driven games with meta aspects or you just want plain good ol' shooting. Promising, but ultimately disappointing and overpriced considering how little content there is. I bought this on sale and I still feel cheated.
