Developer: Double Cross
Publisher: 2P Games
Platform: PC, Switch
Tested on: PC
Sultan’s Game – Review
There are countless video games that take inspiration from fairy tales, folklore stories, and mythology. Comparatively few of these are directly based on the stories of One Thousand and One Nights. There’s plenty of potential in the medieval Arabian setting though, as evidenced by the Prince of Persia games. The subject of today’s review, Sultan’s Game, is cut from an entirely different cloth in terms of gameplay. Like Ubisoft’s parkour platformers, however, it serves as a fantastic showcase for what developers can do with this wealth of source material. Right off the bat, we can tell you that Sultan’s Game isn’t going to appeal to everyone. However, it may just be up your alley, so reading on to find out if that’s the case may be the right choice.
Story
The prologue chapter of Sultan’s Game gives the impression that our protagonist is the titular Sultan. Make it past the tutorial, however, and you’ll find that he is actually your adversary. You see, our Sultan has grown bored with his lifestyle of excessive debauchery and massive riches. This changes when a mage pays a visit to the court. She offers our monarch the Sultan’s Game, a magical card game played by monarchs around the world. Participants draw a card each day, with the cards giving them decadent tasks to complete. These tasks range from bizarre sexual acts to spending ridiculous amounts of money to outright murder. The game immediately grabs the Sultan’s attention, but as he continues to play, his actions become increasingly depraved and dangerous for those around him. After fourteen days, the Sultan can finally be convinced to stop playing. That doesn’t mean that the game is over, however, as he forces one of his ministers to play instead. Without the wealth, power, and lack of morals of the Sultan, can this innocent noble complete his master’s game? And what will the consequences be?
Graphics
Taking inspiration from both its One Thousand and One Nights setting and themes of royalty, excessive wealth, and debauchery, Sultan’s Game presents itself as a rich and lavish board game. Rich red hues and bright gold tones contrast with an overall dark atmosphere. The stylized art style of the characters on the cards, in particular, is striking. Sultan’s Game has an 18+ rating and gives several content warnings when you boot it up, but the most gruesome content isn’t shown; but described. There is nudity in Sultan’s Game, but it is very much stylized and never gratuitous. As you’d expect from something as relatively simple as a simulated board game, Sultan’s Game runs smoothly as well, and we didn’t run into any visual performance issues.
Sound
The dark atmosphere of Sultan’s Game is further emphasized by the game’s soundtrack. The Arabian-styled music takes center stage, as the game doesn’t have any voice acting. There are sound effects present too, but these are mostly just functional and don’t add any depth to Sultan’s Game’s soundscape. All in all, the audio complements the visuals but never overtakes them.
Gameplay
The individual gameplay elements that make up Sultan’s Game are familiar, but that doesn’t mean that their sum is as well. Quite the opposite, in fact: Sultan’s Game combines card and dice mechanics with resource management and decision-making to create a narrative experience unlike anything we’ve played before. The ultimate goal is to destroy all the cards in the Sultan’s Game, of course, but this is easier said than done. The Sultan is impatient, and if you cannot complete your task within seven days, you’ll be beheaded, and it’s game over. Over the course of those seven days, you’ll use your scarce resources and limited entourage to turn the odds in your favor. Since your actions are intended to please the Sultan, you won’t have to worry about breaking the law, although there are moral consequences to what you decide to do.
There are four types of Sultan Cards, each associated with a different type of task: Bloodshed, Carnality, Conquest, and Extravagance. These cards come in different tiers as well. In order to destroy a Sultan Card, you’ll need to meet its requirements with a character of the same tier or higher. A Bloodshed card, for example, might task you with sacrificing a character, while a Carnality card may demand that you lay with a concubine, much to the dismay of your wife. You start with only limited resources, determined by the choices you make when creating your character. As destroying a Sultan Card typically requires building up resources first, you may benefit from having multiple slaves, for example, to generate more income from their labor. Picking a high-ranking servant can let you focus on diplomacy instead. There is a sense of trial and error here, which also helps with replayability.
The way character creation works actually showcases the core of Sultan’s Game. This is a game that is all about making choices, and suffering the consequences of those choices. Mechanically, it’s a very simple game. You place cards in the appropriate slots, occasionally rolling dice or using modifier cards to increase the odds in your favor, and then see how things play out. The strength of the game is in the way every single decision you make influences the outcome of the story. There is a lot of reading here, more than in many visual novels. The story you weave, however, feels like your own story that you are shaping throughout. If there’s one issue we had with Sultan’s Game, it’s that the tutorial only covers the very basics. Some of the finer mechanics are obtuse and need some figuring out. This is a game with a steep learning curve, and you’ll need to give it several goes before you really understand what you are doing. If you can make it past that point, and the game clicks, though, then you’re in for a treat.
Conclusion
A game unlike anything we’ve played before, Sultan’s Game definitely isn’t going to be a mainstream hit. The steep learning curve, themes of sex and violence, and obtuse mechanics all contribute to the game only appealing to a specific niche. If you happen to fall in that niche, you’re absolutely going to love indulging in the depravities and debauchery of Sultan’s Game, however.
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