Hearts is a classic card game that can be played individually or with a partner. Each round consists of the player receiving 13 cards, which they must lay down one by one and hope that they do not win a trick that includes a Heart card or the Queen of Spades.

There are three ways of securing a low score, the first as mentioned earlier is the avoidance of the Heart suit and the Queen of Spades, whilst the second and more popular method is to win all the Hearts and the Queen of Spades to ‘Shoot The Moon’ giving every player except yourself, 26 points. The hardest and most rewarding method is ‘Shoot the Sun’, where you must win every trick from the very beginning of the round. You would think that this is an individual game but most regular players will know that you might have to sacrifice yourself for the sake of the team in order to stop another player from ‘Shooting The Moon or Sun’; of course this doesn’t help you but it’s better to score a few points rather than everyone being given 26 points. Sounds simple enough but in fact this game involves a lot of tactics and memorisation of previous tricks with a little bit of luck thrown in for good measure.

Hardwood have included the ability to change the rules to suit your style allowing you to alter how many points needed to end the game as well as incorporate the ‘Jack of Diamonds’ rule, which brings a whole new dimension to the game as this card is worth minus 10 points and what might work tactically in a basic game could possibly be your downfall in this version. Another type of game included is ‘Spot Hearts’. Instead of each heart being worth one point, they are now worth the exact same value as the card, 2=2pts all the way to Ace being worth 14pts. The Queen of Spades is now worth 40pts instead of 13 and if you are going to play the Jack of Diamonds rule as well, than the Jack would be worth minus 30 points. The slight game variations bring an otherwise one dimensional card game to a whole new level of play.

Graphics.

Graphically intensive this game is not. I mean how can it be since it is a card game but the background scenery can be changed to suit your style or mood. There are ways to display your feelings towards other players by using ‘Fooms’. Fooms are simple graphical gestures such as lightning bolts, snowballs and snubs for when you are upset with someone, to the more pleasant ones, like four leaf clovers for good luck, rainbows and coins. You are also able to change the background image to suit your mood.

Sound:

I have to say the music can be replaced with whatever you have stored on your hard drive as the tune that accompanies the game is damn right annoying. Cards are dealt with some nice sound effects as well as the ‘fooms’.

Longevity:

Hearts has no lifespan that can be defined because it is so easy to just play one game here and there but every time a new game is released on the 360, it does seem harder an harder to find human opponents.

Overall

Overall, I find this game a welcome relief to play after having a manic session of Ghost Recon; where I can just sit back, relax and play a few games without having to worry about being shot in the back. I believe it is good value for money at only 400 points especially if you don’t own a PC where Hearts is a pre-installed game.