Encore Classic Puzzle & Board Games Reviews

BUY FOR ART. PLAY FOR FUN. MOD FOR JOY. BUY FOR ART. When I first buy a video game, I look at screenshots of the game. If the art isn't good, I tend to think gameplay won't be polished either, and skip buying the game or wait for a 40% discount. Encore Classic Puzzle and Board Games does not have that problem. Most board games have polished 2D art and animation which has held up well. Many games in this collection come with different sets of pieces, with accompanying background changes, many of which look like actual tabletops. Plus if I were to buy physical versions of all the games in this collection, I would probably pay US$225 instead of US$20. PLAY FOR FUN. What makes this collection of games FUN? The NPC opponents. I crank up the talkiness to max and try my best to outwit a pirate parrot, a talking dinosaur, a jazz musician, a travel writer, a Texas cowboy, a NY marketing exec, and several others. They all have just enough sass and humor to make the games fun and interesting. Low system requirements make this collection ideal for laptops and pads. Voice acting is top notch and includes early voice work from Jen Taylor (Cortana), William Hall Jr (appears as Oscar in Driving Miss Daisy), and pre-Halo work from David Scully. The sound is all early work by Mike Caviezel, who later did sound on the FORZA series. I have played other collections of dice or board games, and they don't hold up as well. On the puzzle side, Tiles games are challenging and come with four different tilesets. Of the word games, WordYacht is best, offering a large amount of replay. I least like the 50s gameshow art style and gameplay on Doublecross, but I've heard some people (like my great-aunt) say its their favorite. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3420245702 MOD FOR JOY. While changing gameplay or adding features is not yet possible, some assets can be changed or re-named to customize look and sound. Wordsearch and Mahjong Tiles both allow the creation of new layouts. New music can be substituted for the old by re-naming .ogg files. Characters can be muted by re-naming their .POD file to .bak. AI difficulty of some games can be lowered by re-naming their tutorial file to a .bak extension. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3412297092 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3420812757 Some complain about poor quality of documentation, including the store write-up. For a correct list of games and their rules, see: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3416472072 Some detractors point out technical warts and blemishes of this game collection. Almost all have easy configuration or technical solutions. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3412290916 Overall, this game is a hidden treasure trove of early work from prominent game production staff who went on to other notable projects.