Single player review

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Silver Creek Entertainment Hardwood Hearts
★☆☆☆☆
1.5
12.0% of users recommend this
  • Addiction Level

  • Graphics

  • Value For Money

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209Coleman's review of Silver Creek Entertainment Hardwood Hearts

“Single player review”

★★☆☆☆

written by 209Coleman on 27/08/2017

The AI for the other three players can often be pretty lame. The only way the software can make the game "challenging" is to manipulate the deal. Apparently not much work went into infusing the computer players with any ability. You are essentially playing a game of one-against-three, which is not the way Hearts is supposed to work.

Once you get any kind of lead you will see that one or two of the other "players" often takes tricks in order to protect the one player still close to you in score. If one of the AI players threatens to "shoot the moon," i.e., take all the points in a hand, the onus will be on you to prevent it. The other two AI players will do nothing to defend against one of their own.

There are two different rules for a player shooting the moon if one of the players is near the end (close to the point total for ending the game). If one of the AI players shoots the moon and any other player is close to maximum points (and you are not in the lead) the game will allow the other three to take 26 points each. If you ARE in the lead when one of the AI players shoots the moon the game will execute what it calls a "safety shoot." The player that shot the moon will have their score reduced 26 points effectively keeping the game going and denying you a victory. I've never heard of this tactic before and no one I ever played with in the real world would accept such manipulation of the game.

You have to play this game to see the way it manipulates the deal in order to provide any level of competition. It's free, so one can't expect much. Overall it's a fun way to kill some time, but one quickly gets exasperated with the blatant manipulation and the three-against-one play.

  • Addiction Level

  • Graphics

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