Rook

Great game from childhood. Has a few glitches in the program but after you play for awhile you know what card is coming next. Irritating is when partner leads with a trump when trump color is evenly dealt among all players. Also, it is crazy when an apposing player plays a 13 on a 14 when they have a 5 to sacrifice and gamble on taking more points to set the apposing team with their 13. My husband and I both play this game daily and will continue. Which we could play as opponents.

This is a good rook game. It is fun. But wish it had more options to change the rules of the game. In my state, and the 4 surrounding states, people play without the Rook at all. And you have to call the color of trumps before you pick up the widow. Also you cannot discard counters. And lastly, if you do discard trumps, you have to turn them up so everyone can see them. These rules add a lot of dimension to the game and make it a lot more interesting and challenging for those who need a little more challenge. If these options were available, this would definitely be a 5 star game and a lot more people would download and play it. People would even pay money for these added options.

I’ve played Rook for forty-plus years. This game is only playable on the highest difficulty, but that is when the AI flaws truly manifest. There’s an absolute within the AI that 14s are held even when it’s a safe play to set or simply save the ten points by throwing them off suit. This happens late in the hand when there’s just a few tricks left and all power cards are known. By not playing a 14 at this point one is almost absolutely guaranteed to lose it verses absolutely winning the hand. Makes no sense. Again and again your AI partner will hold them and cause you to lose. There are other issues, but they are more player-type related, so I can’t fault the program in that regard. That said, you’ll mostly come out ahead by out-bidding your partner on plus-ninety hands when you don’t have the Rook in the version I have been playing. A Red 1 option would be a nice upgrade.