Reviews

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  TrueZeref

  Oct 3, 2022

  It's boring and repetitive after like 5 dynasties
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  Slash

  Dec 4, 2022

  I told the Church to go to hell and they burned me at the stake and sent me to hell instead.
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  自殺男の子

  Aug 12, 2016

  Reigns is a relatively fun game. It's not without it's flaws, but it has it's moments. I think the problem is that it feels kind of repetitive, there are apparently about 1000 cards to swipe through in total. Having played for about 90 minutes, I experienced just under half of them. A lot of the cards you read will be the same card you've read several times over, and while the game's progress seemed to be moving along at a decent pace for the first 40 or so minutes, it hits a plateau around then. What I mean by this is that you end up with a checklist of goals that you're supposed to accomplish to progress the story and unlock new cards. You end up waiting for well over a hundred years in game for the corresponding card to appear, and there's little or no noticeable reward for performing the tasks to complete your goals. The other aspect of the gameplay is the resources management, which is seemingly nonsensical, but it serves it's function adequately. You need to balance your citizens, the power of the church, your treasury and your military powers to keep everybody happy. For example, your Bishop may ask to buy executive power, causing your religious and monetary spheres to rise. If any of these spheres raise too high or drop too low, your monarch will die and your heir will take over at the beginning of the next year. It's worth mentioning that you will automatically have an heir, so you can die during your first year in power with no consequences. Each new year is marked by a new event, represented by a card. You control the response to the events of the card by clicking to the left or right of the card. Sometimes, you trigger an event with a side effect like "Money is perpetually rising on a timer which operates opposite and contrary to the rest of the game's mechanics to make life more difficult". The game is structured in such a way, typically, that you can take as long as you'd like to decide which reaction you'd like to pick in response to each card drawn, and the timer implemented by these events makes it damn near impossible to form even a rudimentary strategy. Especially because of the way the UI is laid out, which makes it wholly unclear whether your decision will lead to increases or decreases in each sphere. Taking into consideration that this game is only $3, these things are likely forgiveable. It's got a nice art style and minimally irritating audio. It's a good time killer for a few hours, maybe more if you really enjoy the mechanics of the game. I guess I'll give it a cautious recommendation. Worth a try when it's on sale.
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  roadwarder

  Aug 12, 2016

  The first half of the game was fun, but by the second half I was seeing the same cards over and over, and it got old pretty quickly. For three dollars, though, it wasn't a bad way to spend a day.
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  shivablast2022

  Aug 14, 2016

  About as dangerous and twice the fun of Tinder.
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  Saluki

  Aug 14, 2016

  This is surprisingly fun and has a great central mechanic. Well worth the tiny cost! Also it really takes some sack to release against NMS.
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  Whitetailfox

  Aug 16, 2016

  Manage the world's most unstable medieval kingdom with a collection of incompetent traitorous and corrupt advisors, enemy nations and raiders all around. A kingdom so mismanaged that if you disappear for a few years it'll be run to the ground on its own. Also note the variety of ways you can die. Get killed by usurpers, relatives, monsters, diseases, fanatics, oligarchs, your own hubris... Basically this game is everything you could want for 2.99 €.
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  Mr Goombas

  Aug 17, 2016

  Spending $3 on Reigns was better than $60 for No Man's Sky
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  Baron Calamity

  Aug 22, 2016

  I had a lot of fun playing this game. It harkens back to the early days of computer games. Simple but fun life management sims, . Instead of a text interface of Ys and Ns, uses an interface similar to Tinder. The game is wickedly funny and visually appealing. Its also ridiculously cheap.
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  Blucia

  Dec 7, 2016

  Great game but I dont think it is worth the time on PC. 10/10 would recommend on a mobile device.
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  papermana

  Dec 27, 2016

  [i]Reigns[/i] is a small, ported-from-mobile game that is nonetheless very interesting. You "swipe" left and right (more on that in a moment) to perform decisions which will affect your kingdom. The land is represented by three groups, the Church, the people, and the army, with the last factor being your treasury. From a pure gameplay perspective, the difficulty comes from trying to balance all four "meters", because both too little and too much focus put into any of them leads to a game over. This is hard at first but after a while, you simply remember what each card and each decision do, and learn to act on them instinctively. You may actually be surprised that there is a story to this game — a kind of meta-storyline that occurs in between the lives of your many monarchs. I don't want to spoil anything here but the game maneuvers very deftly between a funny and light-hearted atmosphere and something more horror-like. The atmosphere in the game, by the way, is overall really great. The soundtrack features something like a medieval monk choir, the illustrations are simple but fantastic, and even the flavor text, anachronistic as it is, somehow manages to reflect, in a humorous and irreverent way, the realities of the middle ages. The game, unfortunately, has some flaws, mostly related to the interface. The controls were clearly designed for touchscreens and just don't make as much sense in a desktop environment. Whilst they're nice when you get used to them, for all their simplicity they were surprisingly hard for me to figure out initially. The game offers very little in the way of explanation (of anything, really), so that didn't help. Also, scrolling feels sort of laggy for me. (There is also the obvious fact that the game, even with its hundreds of cards, is rather small when compared to many other, especially mainstream games. I've seen some people complain about that in other reviews. You really should be able to tell what you're getting by looking at the screenshots and the description, and the price is entirely appropriate. Also, if you aspire to find out all the secrets this game has, it will still take you many hours.) A thing that I find very interesting about [i]Reigns[/i] is that it is one of the few, I think, games that bridge the divide between "casual" and "hardcore" gaming. I mean, I don't believe there are many "gamers" who could honestly say they never played any timewaster mobile game. But still, there is a big distinction between the kind of video games one part of the population tends to find enjoyable and the kind that the other part prefers. [i]Reigns[/i] reminds me of [i]Plants vs. Zombies[/i] in that I could see it being enjoyed both by a casual gamer looking to occupy themselves waiting in a queue and by a mainstream gamer wanting some unusual storytelling.
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  Hobbitnaut

  Dec 30, 2016

  The game play mechanics of Tinder now with political intrigue!
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  Leonardo Da Sidci

  Jan 9, 2017

  Tinder meets ruling a kingdom. It's an interesting game mechanics, probably more suited to mobile in all honesty. However, the stories and characters are interesting. The ambiance is well tuned. The art design is consistent and unique (in regards to everything else out on the market) and easy on the eyes. The combat is simplistic and aimed to work with the basic mechanics that they've attached of swiping left/right in a turn-based way. It works for the game and it does feel satisfying when you win. If you're going to play this, and I recommend that you do, play it in small bursts. Don't try and complete the story or entire dynasties in long sessions. The games mechanics become very tired and you'll see a lot of the same cards over and over again. Play it in 10-30 minute bursts and you'll get an ongoing and pleasant experience.
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  Gordon Zola

  Feb 6, 2017

  Simple concept, minimalist, tons of possibility. Reigns is a card game with Rogue elements. In some words, you are a king, and each years are symbolized by a card, including a member of your court coming to talk to you about a problem, a request or a simple information. You have to choice of answer, each influencing one of the four "pillar" The "pillars" are Religion, People, Army and Money. If you reach the top or the bottom of one of the pillar, it's game over, you have to find an equilibrium through the years and beats the high years score. + Tons of possibility, tons of cards plus the one you unlock by completing side quests + Some gameplay changer with Dungeon, Cruisade, Fights etc... + Die and Retry mechanic to is best, you have to know the card to predict the effect she'll do. + Relaxing and smoooth OST. + Difficulty is balanced. - Minimalist (maybe too much for some players) - If you know all the cards, no more contents and no mods allowed for the game 3,5/5
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  Hallos21

  Jun 14, 2017

  There's a story behind it. A really good one, but dosen't really appear unless you play it a billion times. It's on android as well, which I did most of my experimenting before coming here to quickly beat it. Good soundrack and characters, I gotta say it's a solid 8/10. Sure it feels like there are things that go on repeat, but it wasn't till then I started noticing patterns and whatnot. In fact, RNG is not much of a contribuitng factor at all. Certain things actually do/lead to certain events and whatnot. It's a good game and very meaningful with a genrous amount of warm fuzzyness at the end. (If you get the correct ending)
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  Sloth

  Jun 17, 2017

  This feels like something that I shouldn't have spent so much time in, but I don't care that much.
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  Archimedex

  Jun 24, 2017

  WTF!! Unfair, insane, creative, funny, and ridiculous. Everyone should play this game, at least for a bit.
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  baby corn

  Jul 4, 2017

  >forced to marry by threat of war >wife gets pregnant >must choose between either wife or new born son to survive the labor >choose son, raise him to be my heir >farmer informs me cows are bleeding from their udders >doctor determines it was just a prank... by my son >confront son >son accuses me of being the devil incarnate >son comes at me with a sword, i die 10/10 would tear apart my family again
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  cirreal7

  Nov 24, 2017

  Your choices matter in this game. Results may be unpredictable and there is no guarantee of satisfaction or success but the game itself entices you to keep coming back for more in hopes of finding all characters/deaths/endings/secrets/cards as each playthrough is unique with thousands of cards available to be shown. Actual gameplay is very simple and intuitive: swipe either left or right to make choices that impact your reign which is represented through four distinct meters at top of the screen (church, citizens, army, and wealth). Every decision that you make influences one or more meters in one way or another and it is imperative that you keep all four meters balanced so that none becomes either completely filled or empty--doing so would unquestionably bring your reign to an end. Though sometimes the results of each decision may be completely arbitrary or nonsensical such that the effect on your four meters will often leave you scratching your head and wondering what had just happened. Most of the time, you will also likely wonder what would have happened had you made a different decision. Unsurprisingly, gameplay feels more natural and fluid on mobile platforms due to game being designed for touchscreen devices; it is perfectly suited as a time-filler for killing some time when on the go or you feel that there's nothing else better to do. The mobile app-like design make this all the more reason to buy the game for your mobile device first and foremost if you are strapped for funds. But luckily in this case you can have your cake and eat it too since both mobile and pc versions can be had for the price of a latte.
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  MoArtis

  Jul 11, 2018

  I lasted 26 years by pressing left and right randomly... It gets boring and extremely repetitive quickly. The combat system and some events' outcomes feel random and unfair. Might feels better on a smartphone when you are bored to death in the subway, but I really cannot recommend such experience on PC.