Providing the most unique retooling of Solitaire, Occlude is a fascinating brain burner.
Solitaire (or Patience, as it should be known!) has been around for a very long time. Far longer than my first introduction to it in Windows 3.1 all those years ago. It’s not changed much over time beyond the occasional twists like Spider Solitaire or Solitaire Peaks and the like. Occlude seeks to change that, by applying tricky twists on the classic formula and adding short stories reminiscent of The Room and its sequels.
If you’ve never played Solitaire, I’d be very surprised, but the simple premise is that you need to stack the four suits from a deck of cards in order from ace through to king by moving cards around a tableau. There are a few different rule variants depending on which country you’re in, but the base remains the same. Occlude does things a bit differently, but still keeps the core game mostly intact.
On the table, you’ll have eight columns of randomly dealt cards. You can move single cards from one column to another so long as the destination column has a card of the same suit that is one increment higher or lower than the card you want to move. For example, you can move a six of hearts onto a five or seven of hearts, but nothing else. To the left you’ll have the foundations. In the original game, you’d need to find the ace cards and build up to the kings incrementally. Here though, each suit has two foundation decks with the ace and king already dealt in them. The ace foundation is built with ascending cards, whilst the king foundation needs descending cards added. Your goal is to get all the cards off the tableau and into any foundation they fit into.
This appears pretty simple, especially as there’s a wild card slot for you to pop a card into to get it out of the way for the time being. You don’t even need to draw cards from a blind deck, so in theory you have perfect information, meaning you can map out your route to victory in your head if you can keep track of everything.
Apart from that, things are actually a bit harder. Each stage begins with a short story about someone who has done something terrible and has come across this very deck of cards. The deck will allow them to change what they did, but only if they complete a ritual correctly. There are hints of some eldritch power behind the cards, but I can’t comment on that fully in the pre release version that I tried out. In gameplay terms, you complete each ritual by ending all of the foundations with a specific card, but what makes Occlude special is that it doesn’t tell you which cards you need to end on.
On the table, there are also four coins, one representing each suit. Depending on the rules of the ritual you’re completing, those coins will reveal which cards you need to hold back in different ways. I won’t spoil things here, as a lot of the fun comes from figuring out what those rules are. The first time you work on a stage, you’ll likely either fail to complete it, or finish with only some of the correct cards. In these instances, you’ll get a little paragraph on what happened to the person who failed to complete the ritual, with different endings depending on how many cards you got right. I quite liked this feature as it gave me a good reason to go back and play again even after a success. The fact that which cards are your target ones each time you play prevents rote memorisation.
I also liked the inclusion of a feature to mark individual cards so you can keep track of ones that you think might be your targets. There’s no guarantee you’re right though. This was one of a few quality of life inclusions in Occlude. You get an undo button that allows you to go back as far as you want up until you’ve added a card to a foundation. The limit on it prevents cheating which is nice. The fact that the undo button would flash if you’re stuck was a nice time saver, stopping you from staring at an impossible situation for extended periods. This extends to the restart button too, so if you’re completely stuck you’ll know straight away.
The downside is that once you’ve figured out the rule, it can be a bit of a slog actually actioning it. You still have the issue of getting a Solitaire setup that actually works for you. With that said, the devs do say that all the deals can be completed fully, so maybe it’s more my level of competence that’s the issue here.
Presentation is simplistic to say the least. This is fine as this is a very mechanics driven game, and everything you need is clearly presented. The cards don’t bounce around the screen like Windows 3.1 Solitaire though, so that’s a few points deducted. Audio design is stronger, with a nice, almost eerie soundtrack that’s quite fitting for the near empty room you’re playing cards in. A few ambient sounds here and there would add to the atmosphere though.
Occlude is a very interesting take on a classic card game, one that I’ve enjoyed my short time with. Once the other stages are released I’ll be going back to tax my brain on what I imagine will be ever more devious puzzles. I’m hoping the plot develops further as well, as the world surrounding these cards is interesting in its current state and ripe for further growth. Maybe we could be onto something akin to The Room before long.
Occlude is available on 10th July on Steam.
Comments are closed.