3.5/10
I usually don't even review the Solitaire games I play, though perhaps I should. I love playing this type of solitaire while listening to music. It requires enough concentration to be engaging but not so much that you can't stop to bob your head. I picked up Crime Solitaire 2: The Smoking Gun because it seemed like it might be pretty humorous or have a fun little story to uncover while clicking through the cards.
First, the good news: it does. Not only does the game have a fun little story with voice acting that isn't half-bad, but it even has these ridiculous corny jokes that reminded me of Leslie Nielsen, who I think would make a fantastic Max Stone. Other characters say things to Max like "Can I be frank?" and he responds with quips like "if that's what you want me to call you," etc.
Unfortunately, I feel like the game messes up the one piece it really needs to nail - the solitaire. First of all, the patterns are brutal - very often, you'll have only 3-4 cards you can click at any given time. To complicate matters, your "deck" seems to only have around 12 cards in it. When you've cycled through around 8 of them (with just 4 left), the game gives you this incessant, loud, heartbeat noise. I know the game wants to let you know you've almost exhausted the deck, but it's simply obnoxious. Lastly, I couldn't find the number of cards you need to finish a given level anywhere. On some levels, it's enough to leave 5 cards on the board. On another, I remember having to clear them all.
Thankfully, you can buy cards to help you conquer these ridiculous layouts. You gain money for each victory, and can buy spares, wildcards, and even magnifying glasses (I think I'm remembering this correctly) that reveal all cards. Initially, the levels weren't quite so absurd, and I might need to use 1-2 wildcards/spares to complete them. After a while, however, I would need to use almost my entire stock of spares/wildcards to complete a board. As the amount of money earned per map seems to be relatively stagnant, I soon ran out of money. Because you're spending so much on these items, the fact that you don't know the requirements to win can be excruciating. You might use all of your spares and wildcards when you never had a chance to win on that particular attempt, or try to preserve a spare when you could've used it to remove one more card and win.
At this point, I decided that I was done with the game. The way that the progression worked actually reminded me of a free-to-play game - you spend some time with the game, get used to the gameplay, have a few laughs, but then find that you need to spend actual money to win. The only thing missing was the ability to buy extra in-game currency with actual money. However, this is a retail-priced release! If you enjoy this sort of game, I'd first recommend the Grey Alien releases, followed by those of Revills.
