by Adam Daulton
As much as I love board games, I don't often play them on an electronic device. I have an iPhone and an iPad and we own several games on them. Including Patchwork, Le Havre, Stone Age among others. My wife plays them much more often than I do, but we've occasionally sat at the kitchen island on a Saturday morning and played a game on the iPad while we drank a warm drink and ate some breakfast. However, when Onirim went on sale for a grand total of $0 I downloaded it on a whim. I've now played it more times than any other iOS game since Ascension: Deckbuilding Game. Here is what I think about it.
Game Overview
Onirim is a solo game where you are trying to unlock 8 doors of 4 different colors to win. On your turn you must play a card or discard a card. If the deck runs out before you unlock the 8 doors you lose the game. There are sun cards, moon cards, key cards, and door cards of four different colors along with nightmare cards in the game. Whenever a nightmare card comes up you have to either relock a door, discard a key from your hand, discard your whole hand, or discard 5 cards from the top of the deck. When playing cards you play it to a row in front of you, trying to get three cards of the same color played back to back to back. However you cannot play the same symbol consecutively. Key cards are powerful, because not only can they be discarded when a nightmare comes up, but you can discard them willingly to see the next 5 cards in the deck, discarding one of those cards (hopefully a nightmare) and rearranging the order of the others.
Interface, Art, Graphic Design
I've been playing this on my iPhone 6 for reference. The art in the game is a bit dark. Not dark as in gruesome, but dark as in color hue. The graphic design makes perfect sense though when playing and I have zero difficulty distinguishing colors. The tutorial was clear and concise. Everything seems to work well and make sense what you must do in order to discard a card, play a card, etc. I think they did an excellent job on all the visual elements of the game!
My Thoughts
If you've read this blog before, you'd not see any evidence that I'm a solo gamer. That is probably why I don't often play ports of games either, since it still feels like I'm just playing by myself (in addition to the fact that I like the tactile nature of cardboard on my table!). However, like I said in the introduction, I have played this game more than any other game on my phone with the exception of Ascension. It plays really quick, is very challenging, and is fun for me. It can be extremely frustrating as luck does play a big factor, but after starting off winning only one game in my first 6 (that win being the tutorial where they tell you what to do half the way through). Now I've played 16 games of it. I've one 6 of those games. My best finish I had 11 cards left in the deck and on average I have 5.5 cards left in the deck.
Who Should Buy This App?
People Will Never Play A Game Solo - That is me! I just don't have any desire to pull out a game solo (at least thus far in my life), but if it is an app why not? Seriously, I was pleasantly surprised by this one and don't understand why anyone would even want to own the physical version.
Solitaire Fans - By this I mean those folks who loved playing Solitaire on Windows 3.1. Onirim is a simple and quick solitaire game that has a lot of challenge. Now you don't have to use Windows 3.1 to get that.
People Who Want Have a Quick Poop - Let's be honest. Smart phones replaced the text on the back of a soap dispenser for reading material while on the throne. Get Onirim and play it while you poop. It plays very fast, so you won't have your leg fall asleep, it doesn't take so much concentration that you can't focus on what you are really there for, and it won't take you 15 visits to find out if you win or not like it would with Le Havre.
Final Rating: :star::star::star::star::nostar: