Preview: Card Hog by Snoutup

Card Hog is an enjoyable but very crazy dungeon crawler. I loved it. To be honest, this might be one of the more unique kinds of indie games I played in the last couple of months. That’s a good thing! In this playful game, you play with rows of cards. Between those cards, a pig card can be found, that desperately wants to get swapped with other cards. Should we help that cute piggy? Sure, we will!

In Card Hog you keep swapping your hog card with one of the nearby cards. This has a positive or negative effect. When you swap your card with a card with a sword on it, you suddenly own a sharp and dangerous weapon. Handy because it allows you to defend yourself if you want to exchange your card with that of a monster. Other times you have potion cards to replenish your life, cards with golden coins, and places to upgrade your weapons or to buy other stuff. Already lost track of all the types of cards?

Think several turns ahead

Well, for this Card Hog preview, I did. The basic concept of Card Hog is very simplistic. Yet there are a lot of different card types, which all are nicely designed. You have to organize the card puzzling in such a way that you’re not only thinking one but even several turns ahead. In the demo that I have played so far, there were already several levels where you have to play out a previously laid out scenario. This took some time to get used to and by trail and error I found out what all kind of in-game cards do.

Card Hog

Cardhog throws you in a deep hole, without giving any explanation at all. At the bottom of the screen, there are some sloppy texts, but they are unreadable in the chosen background full of crazy bees. (Still, one of the best backgrounds!) Soon you have to rely on your own assumptions and simply just try something. Trail and error. In the end, it all works out! Mainly because the game is not that difficult at all. The few levels this demo offered are very easy once you understand the concept behind Card Hog.

Several modes in Card Hog

The most challenging part can be found in an endless mode in which you are constantly confronted with new card types. Every second of the game makes you wonder what that one new card means. With a bit more explanation it definitely would have been more userfriendly. What can be praised for is that it has been thought about different game modes. In addition to Endless and puzzle levels, there is also the option to have multiplayer battles. Multiplayer can be really enjoyable with the couch-op options.

Card Hog

Hog Cards looks like a nice way to strengthen friendships or destroy them completely because you are too absorbed in the competitive part of the game. It also seems to be a game you can definitely enjoy on your own. However, there are still a lot of improvements to be made before the game is really finished. The gameplay is solid, but the game is not polished enough yet, therefore you do not always have a clear idea of what the game requires you to do. Still, I am confident that this will be done nicely. By the way, if this game is polished enough, the developer might want to consider a (print & play) physical card game.

It would be wonderful if that would be part of the final build. People really should play Card Hog at the kitchen table! In the meanwhile, the Hog Cards demo is available for a limited time on Steam.

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