Mystery Solitaire: The Black Raven

When it comes to poetry, few writers have managed to make the art so dark and depressing as Edgar Allan Poe. Hence, his work is still celebrated to this day, and many horror video games rely on some of his themes in order to create the proper atmosphere. On the other hand, it can be a bit too much sometimes, especially if the game in question does not really have anything to do with Poe’s writings.

Mystery Solitaire: The Black Raven is a simple puzzle game in which you have to match cards in order to clear them from the screen as quickly as possible. The core mechanics are very similar to Solitaire, in the sense that the cards must be matched in ascending or descending order, but the concept is a watered down version of what you might expect from an actual Solitaire game.

To top things off, the whole game is coated in a Halloween theme, especially since Edgar Allan Poe enters the picture as well. Don’t expect to be reading his poems and weep, on the other hand, because most of his influence comes in the form of ravens and the occasional depressing background. In fact, the game as a whole is pretty uplifting and far from depressing.

The story takes you through twelve locations that are in some ways related to Poe’s work and life, although you do not actually get to do anything there but look at more cards. Speaking of which, the main goal is to reach the gold cards hidden at the bottom, which is tougher than it sounds. Thankfully, there are all sorts of power-ups to help you along, including a few that allow you to undo moves and shuffle the cards.

As far as the visual part of the game is concerned, everything looks very crisp and detailed, especially the cards and the interface. The backgrounds are not bad either, but unfortunately you don’t get to see that much of them most of the time. On top of all this, the creepy soundtrack helps with the overall atmosphere, as do the sound effects for every action you undertake.

In the end, Mystery Solitaire: The Black Raven does not really feature any exciting new content or gameplay mechanics, but it is pretty fun in small doses. Thus, you should give it a try if you are a fan of Solitaire games.

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