As a kid (decades ago), I used to build structures with playing cards more often than using the cards for their intended purpose. I think the biggest structure I ever made was four-tiered. The adventure of building and developing new ways to use those cards in a structured way was always fun. Now, as an adult with shaky hands and a bajillion kids, the luxury of doing such a thing has long since passed me by, although when my wife breaks out a deck of cards, I still have that reflex to build.
Thankfully, the devs at The Game Band have taken that childhood memory, mixed it in with a very melancholy narrative, and added a heavy amount of puzzle to the equation to create Where Cards Fall. It’s fascinating how well this game works and falls somewhere in the middle regarding fun and frustration.
Let’s break this down.
Puzzling but not defeating
The main crux of Where Cards Fall comes in a few pieces. The first, maneuvering your main character to a memory they once had. These memories are the end goal of each stage and come in single card form, and eventually form into a series of memories that you can put together to form a narrative. Between the character and the memory lies platforms, obstacles, and only enough space to use a stack of cards to move around. Knowing the spatial layout of the level you’re on and understanding the path the main character must take is the first step in solving all the puzzles in this game to acquire the memory on each stage.
The second step in the gameplay design falls within a mobile stack of cards. The cards can be moved around and built into structures. The beginning of the game gives you one type of one-level structure you can build, with the girth of the structure the only real varying part of its construction. The girth comes in a square shape and only a square shape. This means that if you can pull out the stack of cards into a perfectly even square, then you can use the stack to build a structure. You can’t create a rectangle or any other shape; it must be within that square construct layout. When you see this part of the gameplay in action, you’ll understand how absolutely complicated it can get with the square restriction, but at the same time well-structured by said decision. This is what drives the puzzle portion of the game and it’s absolutely brilliant.
The last step in the gameplay design is using the squared structures to traverse the level. Kudos to The Game Band for making the difficulty of their puzzles not overly complicated, while at the same time not easy at all. You will be challenged with the tools they have given you to complete the game. You’ll have moments where you’re staring at the screen for X amount of time wondering what in the heck you’re missing. For example, around the fifth or sixth level, I was presented with three stacks of cards and three tiers on the level. I had to maneuver my person from one tier to the next using said cards, then stack the cards on top of each other to reach the goal. It seems like an easy task until you see that there are certain restrictions on how big your square can get and what route you must take to get one stack on top of another. You can’t simply place a stack on another, you must maneuver that stack onto an even level that matches the other stack to get it to stack on top. Lots of stacks there but stick with it. What I didn’t see in this level immediately is the ability to create a bigger square using one stack of cards that filled in a piece of the level’s missing landscape. Once I did that, I made a bigger square with my second deck and stacked my third deck on it, thus reaching the level’s end. It was crazy how simple it was, but at the same time, the level’s solution isn’t immediately obvious. Sometimes it is like staring at a Stereogram until you see what you need to see.
And that’s basically the entire game.
As you progress in the game, you will get different shapes, changing landscapes depending on stacked decks, and other odds and ends to add more puzzle equations, as well as more variety (which a lack of can make a puzzle game stale). The game is simple and spectacular in its execution. It’s probably one of my favorite puzzle games for this year, and I know there have been plenty out there.
Issue
This is going to sound incredibly complain-y, but here goes – it took a while for me to understand the narrative and what was going on. While I certainly never want a story to say “HEY! This is what’s happening! Let me walk you through everything!”, I still want to catch on to what I’m looking at by mid-game. It took me a hot minute to understand the story, and once understood it was very melancholy, which I certainly appreciate immensely. I do like how the memories are presented about the main character. I enjoy the personality and emotion that go with each one. The Game Band did a great job on conveying emotion. I just wish it was a bit more obvious, but it becomes obvious in the long run.
By no means is this me saying to avoid this game because of this complaint. Rather, just stick with the game and it all comes together in the end. It will certainly give you some fuzzy feelings.
Visually, how does this stack up?
It took me three headlines to get to that pun. Anyway, visually Where Cards Fall is just right for what the game is trying to convey with its design. There’s nothing too serious about it, rather it’s cartoon-y models that have the right amount of visual appeal to enjoy. You will pay more attention to the environments during this game than you will characters and in that respect, the game is visually good, but nothing overwhelming eye-popping. Then again, it doesn’t really need high-end graphics and amazing ray tracing to be visually appealing. Sometimes in gaming, the visuals match the gameplay design and match the story, and this one falls under ‘just right’ when it comes to doing just that in the visuals category.
Long story short, it’s a pretty game that is perfect for its content.
Conclusion
The Game Band did a great job with Where Cards Fall as it is a perfect amount of puzzle, but without a lot of frustration attached. The main gameplay mechanic of moving and adjusting a stack (or several stacks) of cards is clever, and beautifully thought through, and well-executed. It is a puzzle game that I highly recommend.
