Gin Rummy Multipack eliminates the tedious aspects of playing Gin Rummy, allowing you to just enjoy the game. There’s no shuffling, no dealing, no sorting, just some strategy and luck.
To play, simply drag and drop a card from either the deck or the discard pile to your hand. Then drag and drop a chosen card up to the “discard” pile from your hand. After placing a card on the discard pile you do have a couple of seconds to drag it back if you change your mind. You also have the option of flicking a selected card to make your turn quicker. Cards in your hand will automatically sort themselves into melds and although some may disagree, I found this to be a very nice feature, helping me notice some melds which I may have otherwise missed. At any time, you have the ability to rearrange cards manually by dragging them around in your hand.
There is a complete set of game rules which can be toggled to fit whatever your favorite (or familiar) version of Gin Rummy happens to be. Easily switch between standard and Oklahoma variations of the game and toggle values for layoff, knocking (for just Gin), win score and Gin bonus. PressOK was smart to include these options as it really rounds out the game and allows you to switch things up to suit your needs.
I had not played previous versions of this title, but I’ve seen some screenshots and PressOK was not kidding when they say the game was rebuilt from the ground up. The graphics in this latest version are fantastic and inviting. You can customize your avatar by selecting from a pile of characters and outfits.
Unfortunately the one big strike against the game is the inability to play against another human player. I’d really like to see this functionality added at some point in the future. That being said there is a fairly large selection of AI players to challenge, with a wide variety of skill levels ranging from Newbie to Superstar. Overall these opponents were still fairly easy to beat, but some of the more skilled players definitely did give me a run for the money. The AI players have a tendency to talk trash and advertise other PressOK titles while playing, which gets a little repetitive and even a bit annoying after a while. It’d be nice to be able to disable this in at least the paid version of the game.
In Conclusion
Gin Rummy Multipack’s lack of multiplayer may drive away some potential buyers, but the game really does offer a solid single-player experience. The game’s 17 OpenFeint achievements, fully customizable rules, and varied AI opponents give this game great longevity and re-playability. Almost immediately after experiencing the lite version (which contains just a single opponent) I knew that I wanted to play more and picked up the full release. For anyone who loves Gin or Gin Rummy this would be a great game to play on the go or to use to brush up on your skills before your next real life match up.
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