14 DAY TRIAL // 
How come the most played game in the world (and all its variations) doesn't have a proper review? The suite we are discussing here has probably the biggest solitaire games collection. As you know, there isn't just one type of solitaire, so a detailed review could be compared with Sisyphus' sentence, therefore we will have one structured by the following categories (most interesting): Baker's Dozen, Beleaguered Castle, Canfield, Faerie Queen, Flower Garden, Forty Thieves, Four Seasons, Freecell, Queen of Italy and Yukon.
Story and Gameplay:
The reason I'm placing these two together it's because they are very closely related (at least in the vision I have for the current review). I will also comment on one from each category (probably the one that gives its name) because the modes are similar, with very few differences between them. So, without any further delay, let's begin.
Baker's Dozen: This is the story of what actually happened in that terrible morning. Two massive armies that were destined to face each other finally met in this tiny little gorge. They scattered the troops so every one could see his mortal enemy.
The first ones to enter the battle were the archers, but after a quick and useless friendly exchange of arrows they stopped. The armies came face to face only to see the horrible truth. They were all one and the same... and so they started to annihilate each other without a drop of blood spilled. Their souls simply embraced their mirror image and returned to the ones that have created them in the first place, the four Gods of War.
The rules: Even if the rules seem to be quite simple, they make this mode one of the toughest in the whole suite. All the cards are spread in two rows "facing each other".
Objective: complete these piles to win the game - build up in suit from Ace to King - during the deal, the Kings are automatically moved to the bottom of their piles. - build down regardless of suit. - the top card of each column is available for play to another tableau column or to the foundations. - only one card at a time can be moved. - spaces cannot be filled.
Beleaguered Castle: Words cannot describe the horrors seen in that day. After the great battle between Heaven and Hell that has been foretold by prophets and books throughout time, the last remaining armies of Lucifer retreated in the last castle on earth, refusing to bow down to the power of the Lord and at the feet of man.
In the first row of the mighty army of Heaven stood the four Archangels: Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, and Auriel. They were going to set free all the souls the devil kept locked for ages and gather them in Eden. The final battle is about to begin...
The rules: This one is a little simpler, with less cards to look after. The learning curve should be a little smoother than others. A very interesting variation with a lot of replay potential, but probably not because you liked it. If I could win just one time!
Objective: complete the foundation piles to win the game - build up in suit from Ace to King - build down regardless of suit - the top card of each fan is available for play to another tableau fan or to the foundations. - only one card at a time can be moved. - spaces may be filled with any available card.
Canfield: The Earth fell in 2190 A.D. After the unauthorized intervention in another's race development in our sector of space, the Alpha-Tau Council decided that the most appropriate punishment is to push us back 200 years, both technologically and culturally. All our accomplishments as a race have been taken leaving our planet barren so we can start again. Chaos followed soon after. The year 2200 marked the appearance of Universal Courts (a sort of tribunal with unlimited power), the only solution to mass riots and uprisings. They rely on mass extinction and a full martial law. The slightest mistake and you get the death penalty.
You play the role of a Soul Extinguisher, the only individual on the planet with the power to take someone's life, and right know you have to take care of four criminals that await their punishment. Death.
The rules: A very strange selection of gameplay features which makes this one to be replayed over and over again.
Objective: Complete the four foundations to win the game - build up in suit from the base card to the rank just below the base card until each pile contains 13 cards. - ranking of cards is continuous: build Ace after King when necessary. - build down in alternating colors (for example, a 10 can be played on a Jack). - ranking of cards is continuous: build King after Ace when necessary. - the top card of each column is available for play to the foundations or to the tableau. - an entire packed sequence may be moved to another tableau column. Parts of a sequence may not be moved. - spaces are automatically filled with the top card of the reserve. After the reserve is exhausted, spaces may be filled from the waste (never from the tableau). - the top card is available for play to the foundations or to the tableau. - click once on the stock to deal a packet of three cards at a time to the waste. - unlimited redeals are permitted until the game is blocked or won.
Faerie Queen: People have never believed in faeries. We never wanted to accept that simple folklore was the simple truth. The reason we haven't seen any faeries is because only a handful survived after a great cataclysm that happened around the year 10.000 B.C, which left them without all their queens. They struggle for thousands of generation to stay alive (they are not immortal, just have a very long life) and discover at least one of their queens in the distant land of Antarctica.
As faith would have it, the humans made the discovery and named the unknown frozen creature (with an incredible coincidence) Faeries Immortalis. The only problem was that the queen they have found carried a very old and resistive strand of the "Spanish Flu", a deadly disease. The rate of survival was less than 0.02 %. The faeries ruled the planet once more.
The rules: Faerie Queen is a straight forward game with moderate difficulty. There are no surprises here.
Objective: You need to complete 8 foundation piles to win the game. - build up regardless of suit from Ace to Queen. - place cards on top of the first King until an Ace appears. This is placed on a foundation in the row above the Kings. Another King appears. It is placed to the right of the first King. Cards are then dealt and placed on the second King until a third King appears. Continue in the same way until the last King is dealt and the whole deck is laid out in 8 piles of varying lengths. - the top card of each column is available for play to the foundations. - when the stock is exhausted, an uncovered King is the equivalent of a temporary space and any available card may be placed on it. - there is no redeal.
The Flower Garden: This is the story of four young men that woke up one day and started a new life. Their second life began with the murder of Alfred Pope, the gardener. They hid the body in the flower garden he loved and where he had spent his entire life. But the taste of murder was still haunting them. The next victim was their aunt Queen (she had this nickname because she was British), and so the trail of murders continued until...
The spirits became too many and could not reside in the same space. They needed revenge and started to take it on the killers. They became possessed and sentenced to live the rest of their lives with 52 spirits inside. They came back home...
The rules: Simple and elegant, this mode is really fun and relaxing without giving you too much of a headache.
Objective: Complete the four foundations to win the game. - Build up in suit from Ace to King. - Build down regardless of suit. - The top card of each column is available for play to another tableau column or to the foundations. - Only one card at a time can be moved. - Spaces may be filled with any available card. - Each card of the reserve is available at all times: click on any card and move it to either the tableau or to the foundations.
Four Seasons: The separation of the year in four seasons ceased to exist on October 20th 2011, when a massive snow storm that lasted two weeks, hit the Sahara desert and covered it with snow. The Amazonian forest disappeared in the next 20 years leaving several countries and 100 million people in the blistering sun.
What remained of humanity has united in three alliances and for the first time in history they joined forces trying somehow to restore the nature to its previous state. Your job, as leader of this fragile conglomerate is to supervise and make the right decisions for the restoration of the four seasons.
The rules: This isn't one of the hardest but it is one of the strangest; the thing it has in common with solitaire is the card succession.
Objective: you have to complete the four corner piles to win the game. - Build up in suit from the base card to the rank just below the base card until each pile contains 13 cards. - Ranking of cards is continuous: build Aces after Kings when necessary. - Reserve (5 piles, forming a cross in the layout) - Build down regardless of suit (for example, a 5 can be played on a 6). - Ranking of cards is continuous: build Kings after Aces when necessary. - The top card of each pile is available for play to another reserve pile or to the foundations. - There is no redeal.
Forty Thieves: The tale of Forty Thieves isn't just a story; it tells the adventures of forty brave men. Maybe this is not what you have been used to, but it's the truth. The whole story has been changed over time, but the truth is that Ali Baba had been a tyrannical figure. They tried to fight him for years but finally they were imprisoned in the dark and magic cave for four years. All this time Ali Baba defiled the legend of these men and turned them into thieves and criminals. This is the story of their escape...
The rules: This one is particularly interesting because you can't really see the end of it and it gives you the impression that it's quite simple until you reach the last card and discover there isn't any redeal
Objective: you have to complete all 8 foundations to win the game. - Build up in suit from Ace to King (for example, a 2 can be played only on an Ace). - Tableau (forty cards in 10 columns of 4 cards each) - Build down in suit (for example, a 10 can be played only on a Jack ). - The top card of each column is available for play to another tableau column or to the foundations. - Only one card at a time can be moved. - There is no redeal.
Freecell: This is a story of betrayal and shattered hopes. A man was imprisoned on a penal colony that needed no name. It was the worst punishment (except death) for an assassin that tried to kill the emperor. It's not like the emperor holds much power or some major importance, but it was enough for a life sentence. His trust in the emperor's daughter led him to this horrible place and now he is going to trust her again. Because this is love... killing the father and loving the daughter.
All he needed to do now is figure out a way to use all the pieces Adaurra, his love, slipped every day for the last month. After this, no one will stay in the path of his destiny...
The rules: This one is very different from the average solitaire so don't think you can beat it immediately.
Objective: Complete the four foundations on top of the screen to win this game - Build up in suit from Ace to King - These are the "cells" - storage (holding) locations for cards being played to the foundations and the tableau. - Cells can hold only one card at a time. - Build down in alternating colors (for example, a 10 can be played on a Jack). - Move groups of cards if they are in sequence and if there are enough free cells where the cards could be moved individually. - Spaces may be filled with any card.
Queen of Italy: There was a young woman in Rome 2000 years ago. She was born with a birth mark of Diocletian, the roman emperor and in spite of her efforts to hide it, she was soon discovered by accident by Galerius (the one who will resume power in Rome after Diocletian left) in a market square. He instantly knew the danger she would pose, even if there wasn't a woman emperor before. The assassination failed, but she was seriously hurt. After a long recovery, hiding in the outskirts of Rome, she decided to leave to a small village near Salona, where her father will join her many years later, after he abdicated. He will never accept the throne again, spending the rest of his days close to his beloved daughter.
The rules: This is the mode I found to be the most intriguing. I found myself playing over and over again like I had something to prove.
Objective: you have to complete eight foundations to win this game. - The base card for this game will vary. At the beginning of the game, examine the tableau and choose one of the four exposed cards as the first foundation. - Ranking of cards is continuous: build Aces after Kings when necessary. - After the first foundation card is chosen, the rest of the tableau will be dealt. - Only one card at a time can be moved. - Only the card exposed at the end may be built on the foundations. It may not be placed on the tableau. - There is no redeal.
Yukon: Nobody cared too much about Yukon, a huge province in Canada with 30.000 residents. What everybody ignored was a massive build-up in Mount Logan. At first there were some small tremors which in a worst case scenario could turn in a moderate eruption, but the pressure grew and grew for almost a year. Yukon will become known in the history of the humanity as the first recorded super-volcano eruption, similar to the one supposed to have happened 70.000 years ago in Sumatra.
2.000.000 million cubic meters of lava and ash erupted for almost two weeks, blocking the sun for 3 whole years. The world, or what was left of it, will never ignore the name Yukon again.
The rules: As the story suggests, all cards are played at once with no stockpile and no redeal. Maybe you'll get lucky and avert some of the catastrophe, but I'm warning you: it's going to be very difficult.
Objective: You have to complete the four foundations to win the game. - Build up in suit from Ace to King - Build down in alternating colors - Ranking of cards is not continuous. - The top card of each column is available for play to another tableau column or to the foundations. - Any face-up card, no matter how deep it is in a column, may be moved to make a build. All the covering cards are moved with it as a unit. - Spaces may be filled only with a King, a King-sequence or a King with any overlapping cards.
Concept: Everybody knows the concept and everybody knows how to play it and even so is immortal. Whenever you have nothing to do or you are bored with all other games out there, you tend to return to this basic and simple gameplay. The reward? Some clapping and cheers at the end... if you win. Probably we are unconsciously driven to simple and elegant things.
Video and Sound: You wouldn't expect much at this chapter and you are right to do so. There's not much to say. It's a well cared and sharp game, without any bugs (I found none). It features some nice skins and a lot of decks, but the most pleasant feature of all is the cards' looks, they have a cool effect, very subtle, placed on them that makes them seem more real.
And the sound... well if you count listening Christmas songs and Linkin Park while you are playing, you could say this title has an amazing soundtrack. Don't expect Jesper Kidd and the Budapest Symphony, that's all I'm saying.
Conclusion: I had a lot of fun making this review and I guess that, in the end, when you close your computer after a hard day, that's all that matters. Solsuite will provide you with hundreds of hours of gameplay and, considering the price and duration of a standard FPS, I would say it deserves every cent. You will never find better quality elsewhere.
Note: The stories you have read in every category have no connection whatsoever with Treecardgame.com or its product SolSuite 2006. The point is that everyone can play Solitaire and imagine whatever they want. This is the beauty of Solitaire.
