GrassGames Hearts for Pc

This is a good hearts game. My main complaint is it doesn't have the option to play the way my family played hearts for nearly 20 years. We could lead any card at any time and could play a point card on the first round if we didn't have any of the suit being led. We did not lead with the 2 of clubs on the first round. In fact, we played with 3 people and the 2 of clubs was removed to make 51 -- it's what the rule book said to do. The person left of the dealer led and could lead anything he wanted. The rule of restricting heart leads until a heart has been played on something is unnecessary since a good player will not lead their low hearts because you'd be likely to get the queen in hearts if you did. We did not have the "shoot the moon" rule. If you got the all the hearts and the queen, that was bad -- you made 26 and the others laughed at you. The jack was -10 and made the game interesting. The rules I mention with "as few rules as possible" were the rules in the card game book we had. Some of the rules used in this game were optional and not required. I'd love for someone to make a more configurable game to tailor to the way different people actually played it. I find the "shoot the moon" thing annoying and wish I could turn it off and turn off the "no heart lead unless hearts broken" and "2 of clubs leads the first round" and "no point card on first round" rules.

The game is fun as it is, that I disagree with other reviews about adding a difficulty level. As it is, it sometimes it "cheats" that in real life, the other players will not consistently have one card lower than yours, the other players will stop runs more consistently - been times when it should have played the Queen of Clubs and did not for one of the other computer players - one computer player will consistently never take points - game after game… with that said, like playing with real people which I do often enough, you learn characteristics of how they play and start to predict what the other will do. Adding difficulty levels, only programs the game to cheat.. count cards, know what is in your hand etc… The game was free, and with that, it is a lot of fun. I like the way I can also customize the deck and board. I do agree with other reviews, that you should be able to change your mind about what card you passed and also, should have an image of a Heart in the corner that graphically shows when hearts has been broken.

While this has a lot of good qualities, it still needs some work. For example, the ability to change a card chosen to pass. Right now, if you make a mistake, you're stuck. I'd also like to see an option to play Omnibus Hearts where the 10 of diamonds scores -ten points (you can actually have a negative score) and if you get the 10 of diamonds and shoot the moon you can choose to give others 26 points or score -26 points yourself. As options, I'd like to see opening go clockwise rather than start with the two of clubs, and if playing Omnibus Heart, if you get the 10 of diamonds and shoot the moon you can choose to give others 26 points or give yourself -36 points. The appearance of the cards and the options to adjust their appearance and the background's appearance (even the lighting) is nice. Action is fast and the AI is good. However the ultimate quality of a game, IMO, is in the play, not just the appearance.

This is an okay game but not one of the best out there. Couple of things could be improved to make this a better game. First they other players sometimes think they are playing “give-away”. They just keep playing to lose which means that the lowest players then wins and it usually isn’t me. Second is the object should be to try and win yourself not drop the queen on the human player regardless of the score. When all real (human) players are playing they attempt to either “shoot the moon” to give evryone else 26 points or give the queen to whomever is lowest in points. I have another Hearts game on my PC that is much better to play. You have an even chance with it. I like to way your game closes out the hand if there is no more point cards out or if someone has the rest of the tricks. Speeds the game up some. When there are so many free games out there, I will never pay for a game tht is supposed to be free!