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Klondike Review: A Crisp, Clean Classic

3K View2022-05-03

How does one write a review for what is almost certainly one of the most widely-played games ever? You may not know it under the name Klondike, but if you were alive during the ‘90s and had access to a Windows computer—as around eighty to ninety percent of computer users during that period did—then you’ll know what I’m talking about. Klondike is one of the names for Solitaire, the built-in Windows card game that some of us watched our parents lose dozens of hours to, seemingly without ever losing interest.

There’s a reason that Klondike was so endlessly engaging, a reason it became iconic as a pack-in for the Windows operating system, a reason that Microsoft once called Solitaire “the most-used application for Windows.” And that reason is: It’s fun. It’s a fun card game. That’s all there is to it, and it’s as evident as ever in this polished new version of Klondike from developer Seaview.

First things first, for the few in the audience who (somehow) may not have heard of this game before, let’s go over how it works. Klondike is a single-player card game (thus how it picked up the title “Solitaire,” which is actually a generic name for any single-player tabletop game). Using a traditional deck of fifty-two playing cards, the player lays out the cards in seven columns increasing in length, with only the top card of each column revealed. All the remaining cards are placed in a single stack, where they can be turned over either one or three at a time, depending on the rules being used.

Klondike is essentially a logic game about organization and carefully planned movements. Your goal is to unveil the columns of cards you’ve laid out and slowly build four stacks—one for each suit—that go in order from ace to king. However, your ability to move cards around and reveal new cards in the columns is limited; you can only move a card into another column if it’s below the next highest card, and even then only if it’s the opposite color of that card. So as an example, a red queen could be moved under a black king, but a black four could not be moved under a black five.

What may sound a little complicated in text to the uninitiated turns out to be one of the most approachable and natural feeling card games ever. It helps, of course, that you’re not in competition with anyone else. Your only opponents are the random whims of luck, which can occasionally lead you into unwinnable positions, and your own ability to logically work through moving the cards around.

So what does this app version of Klondike add to the mix? Well, not much, honestly, but that’s less of a criticism than you might think. Seaview has taken on an understandable “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, and when you’re dealing with, again, one of the most-played games of all time, that feels fair. Anyone who’s looking to play this classic game probably isn’t looking for flashy new modes or big changes to the formula they love.

What this iteration of Klondike offers, however, is a perfectly clean and stable virtual environment for enjoying the game. The app looks great, and it runs without hiccups. It has a few minor bells and whistles, like leaderboards. There are a couple of rule options and difficulty settings for those looking for a little more challenge. And that’s honestly it. All it has and all it needs.

Oh, one other extremely notable elements: Klondike is free-to-play and has no ads. In this sense, it mimics the endless replayability of Solitaire on Windows. While that may not be notable by 1996 standards, in 2021 it’s almost unbearably rare to see a game that is completely free and not monetized via forcing players to watch ads between games. There’s really no downside here, which surprised me.

It’s possible that Klondike could receive further monetization in the future. The developer has promised an achievement system that is currently unavailable, as well as more classic card games that could potentially be paid. But as long as the core game mode, the real star of the show here, remains free, this is just about the best, no-frills, no-strings-attached version of Klondike that anyone could ask for.

SCORE: 4 STARS OUT OF 5

PLAY IF YOU LIKE:

• Solitaire. Play this if you like Solitaire. The one that ran on that cheap Gateway 2000 Windows 95 PC your mom bought “for work,” but then you took it over and mostly used it to play Duke Nukem 3D and Diablo.

• An intense, yearning nostalgia for a time and place that you’ll never experience again.

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