Card Shark Reviews
Check out Card Shark Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 21 reviews on CriticDB, Card Shark has a score of:
Card Shark is unlike any game you’ve played before. As a card game where you don’t actually play cards, learning and executing various methods of cheating is a ton of fun. The historical setting contributes to the conspiracy central to the story, while adding its own colorful cast of enjoyable characters in the gorgeous setting of 18th century France.
Whatever the path may hold, all that players can and would experience in Card Shark is beautifully put together, with a fascinating narrative matched by a vibrant and outstanding aesthetic, and propped up by wonderfully inventive gameplay that puts the player in the eye of the storm. In fact, it almost feels like the game has everything stacked in its favor, just like the different plots at play in the quiet confines of high society.
I’ve admittedly not been blown away by any video game offerings from the major AAA studios for a while now. Games have become so expensive to produce that the
Forget deck-builders, let's stack the deck in our favour.
Card Shark is an interesting game indeed. Set in 18th-century France, you play the role of a mute bartender who becomes entangled in a life-and-death experience
Card Shark's premise is that it allows players to become masters at deception. Our hero will be able to deceive his competitors and gain a lot of money. Card Shark is a solid game with an unique concept.
Devolver Digital releases plenty of bizarrely interesting games each year, many of which have been some of our stand out favorites. Last year, they released Inscryption, a roguelike deckbuilding game that took everyone by surprise. Now just a few months later, they’re back with another card-based game, Card Shark, courtesy of Nerial, one of their development studios. While Card Shark and Inscryption are both card-based games with an unusual take on the genre, that’s where their similariti...
Card Shark is a truly unique experience that shouldn’t be slept on. This is the game for those who don’t like card games. The developers have made a very fun experience that builds on itself fluidly in a way that many other games don’t seem to get right.
Devolver has another winner on their hands with Card Shark. Using memorization gameplay to perform real world card tricks is a unique spin to the indie genre. The characters are fun and inviting with just a hint of devilish mischief up their sleeves, including the speechless protagonist. There’s a richness to the storytelling in both form and execution and that’s definitely a highlight in a more uncommon narrative mechanic. Cards on the table: This game is great.
I understand it won’t be for everyone, as at the end of the day it’s a series of minigames heavily testing your perception and memory, but the game is cheap and short enough that if any of this sounds interesting you owe it to yourself to pick this up.
It’s the most fun you’ll have from a comfortable vantage point of shuffling cards and pouring wine.
There’s almost no replay value to Card Shark, but that’s not a complaint. It’s a nice, compact and creative little experience that respects your time while also offering a complete experience. There is a cohesion between the art, setting, and period of history that it’s set that is compelling. Furthermore, the behaviour of the deeply corrupt nobility of the time that it depicts is surprisingly detailed. Backed by genuinely interesting minigames and a good – if stiff – challenge, publishing Card Shark has been another major win for Devolver Digital.
Some dizzying tricks and cheap, sudden encounters aside, Card Shark feels like a genuine and charming mystery interwoven into a very interesting series of mechanics mimicking the fascinating sleight of hand behind card tricks. Don’t get me wrong, the concepts won’t exactly give you the dexterity you need to do these tricks yourselves, but the proper utilization of them throughout the game was a fun aside to a story that’s really about digging into the backroom secrets of 18th century aristocracy. With fun animation, narrative, and music to sell that venture, Card Shark comes out with a purse that’s far more full than it is light.
A wild card of its genre, Card Shark will teach you real card tricks and manipulations as you fleece and cheat your way to the top of 18th century French society.
Solid card trick gameplay and some great quasi-historical presentation helps alleviate Card Shark's occasionally obtuse level design.
Card Shark is an intriguing little narrative set in 18th Century France that stands out right away as something different. In this rags-to-riches tale, you play an unnamed and mute tavern worker who gets taken under the wing of the mysterious ‘Comté de Saint-Germain’, a master cheat at cards. Together, you travel the taverns and playhouses of France, ripping off every poor sucker to lay eyes on you. The journey leads up the aristocratic ladder until you even get the chance to play agains...
Card Shark has a few things going for it, not the least of which is unique gameplay. I've never played anything like this. The watercolor style looks great. But the story feels like an afterthought; it never felt important or drove the actual game anywhere. The card playing part of Card Shark is nonexistent, instead focusing on the tricks you are trying to pull. While the tricking is fun, there is a lot to remember, and some of the tricks feel silly to perform. This might not be Devolver Digital's biggest game to date, but it does have that feel that most Devolver Digital games give off - a unique game with a unique look and feel. Card Shark doesn't fit into a genre, which is something to admire.
Novel concepts are worth their weight in gold, and Card Shark comes out swinging with an idea you’re unlikely to have encountered before. Set in 18th century France, players take on the role of a destitute and mute drink server who is lifted into high society by a puffed-up card cheat. Along the path to riches, a deep conspiracy is uncovered, touching the lives of everyone in upper-class society, and playing out in backroom parlors, Corsican pirate dens, and royal palaces. It’s a clever and appealing setup, but it can only carry the game so far. With gameplay that feels like a chore from beginning to end, I was eager for this card game to reach its final round.
A game about card games is also a rigorous primer in the intersection of crime and magic.
Card Sharks nails its own unique gameplay impressively so.
The moments when the story takes an unexpected turn or the gameplay allows you to influence the story are engaging, and they show the promise of the game’s fusion of card tricks and intrigue. But those moments were too few and far between to keep me excited. In short sessions, the game is an enjoyable enough mix of memory and execution. But Card Shark’s repetitious nature and floundering momentum keep it from reaching its full potential.