Klondike, properly — and then it shows you the bill. Seven columns building down in alternating colours, four foundations building up by suit from Ace to King, and a deck you may turn over as often as you like. No cycle limit, no punishment for patience, no clock unless you ask for one. What makes it this Klondike is the Reckoning. Your score is not a number ticking away in a corner; it is an itemised ledger you are shown at the end of every hand. Every card sent home, every card turned over, every detour through the waste, every undo and every hint is a line in it, with a total that always adds up. Because undo and hint are the point. They always work, they never run out, and they always cost — and the price is written on the button before you press it. Fifteen points to take a move back. Ten to be told what to do. Every pass through the deck you did not need pays a bonus if you win. Move by move, you are choosing between a better board and a better score, and the game never decides that for you. Four ways to play. Classic Draw-1 is the forgiving one. Classic Draw-3 is for purists and far fewer deals are winnable. Speed Run puts five minutes on the board and turns every second you have left into points. Daily Challenge is one deal a day, the same deal for everybody, and it is the only one that goes to the leaderboard — the other three say so on their own end card. A hand ends the moment it is decided, not when you give up on it: when nothing on the board can move and nothing the deck could still turn up would fit, the game says so — and shows its working, down to how many cards are left and how many of them the deal can ever reach. Played with one thumb, or with the arrow keys, or with a pad. Two to four minutes a hand. Nothing flashes, nothing shakes, nothing is timed unless you chose the mode that is. Every card is drawn rather than loaded, so it runs offline and the whole game is smaller than a photograph.
Leaderboard
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