Win@Blackjack

Blackjack is certainly one of the casino's simpler games. You might even say it's a bit like Snap with counting thrown in. It does involve some judgement calls that mean it can't be played in the casual way that old ladies with buckets full of quarters play one-armed bandits, though. Despite its quick-fire nature, against real people, there's often enough time to raise a sweat.

Win@Blackjack is a game that is fairly accessible to those who have never even stepped up to a blackjack table. Thankfully, it doesn't have a laborious tutorial that tells you how to count to 21 in 21 easy steps, but rather it offers you a mentor who can teach you when (and indeed when not) to ask the dealer to slap down another card.

Other than this feature, the game looks like most other blackjack games in that the main screen consists of a top-down view representing the table, on which the cards of the player and dealer are laid out.

There are two experts you can choose to help you out, although functionally they are identical – the only difference being that you can select either a male or a female avatar (presumably the choice is there for anyone who has an aversion to taking advice from one gender).

Unfortunately, despite encompassing the more advanced blackjack features of the split, insurance and the double draw, the game is otherwise cripplingly simple. Upon getting to the table, you're given 1000 credits to spend and can bet as much or as little as you like in each round. But there's nothing to work towards; there's nothing to spend your winnings on and no unlockables, so your stash is never more than a number, making the whole experience distinctly pointless.

Even when you run out of credits completely, the game doesn't end. The blackjack continues, except that you can't bet anything, meaning you'll forever be penniless yet remain eternally glued to the table.

Once you realise this is how the game works, and that Win@Blackjack seems to have been released only half-developed, any compulsion to play evaporates.

And yet it seems a little odd that the game is this flawed when, despite its obviously limited budget, the presentation isn't bad at all. The cards are dealt with a pleasingly smooth animation and the main play screen is reasonably attractive, even if in presentation terms, Win@Blackjack doesn't really offer anything above most other casino titles.

Indeed, the only real appeal here is the interferences of your in-game tutors, but because of the way blackjack works, their advice never amounts to anything other than 'hit' or 'don't hit'. There isn't really a great deal to learn.

Still, to completely mess up the game of blackjack would require some effort, and Win@Blackjack thankfully doesn't quite manage to do that, but its lack of structure remains deeply unsatisfying.