Blackjack Roulette first impressions: Wheely good fun

The gambling game category on Steam is packed with indie titles, with new spins on classic games like blackjack, roulette, and slots popping up regularly. A demo that’s worth taking a look at if you enjoy classic titles is Blackjack Roulette, developed and published by Reactvts.

While there are a few crinkles that will hopefully be ironed out with the full release, the Blackjack Roulette demo is fun, snappy, and full of replay value. Here’s The Escapist’s first impressions of the Blackjack Roulette demo.

The Escapist recaps

• Blackjack Roulette is an upcoming gambling roguelike, developed and published by Reactvts. It’s currently available in demo form on Steam.
• As the name suggests, the game combines elements of blackjack and roulette. Players are tasked with getting as close as they can to 21, going up against a constantly-moving roulette wheel of hands. 
• To add extra variety, insurance policies can be picked up after each game, allowing the odds for certain hands or moves to be twisted in the player’s favor. 
• There’s a surprising amount of depth to the Blackjack Roulette demo, with several modes and difficulty levels to try out. There are a few rough edges here and there, but on the whole, the game feels fun and should be exciting when it launches in full. 

A neat blend of two classics

The Blackjack Roulette demo offers the style of play that you’re likely envisioning based on the name. You need to get as close to 21 as possible with your cards, but instead of playing a standard game of blackjack, you’re playing against a constantly-moving roulette wheel of hands, with the option to hit, stand, or surrender your hands.

It’s simple but moreish, getting even better once the insurance policy feature came into play. To add a deeper level of strategy to the game, players can purchase insurance policies, which are best described as modifiers that affect how certain hands or moves work in a game.

For example, the Tuition Insurance card lets players surrender with more cards than usual, allowing for easier resets, while the Builder’s Risk insurance makes it easier to get to 21, depending on your hand.

Some of the insurance policies on offer are more helpful than others, making the reroll button a welcome addition in some rounds.

Despite Blackjack Roulette currently being in demo format, there were several modes and difficulty levels to take a chance on in-game. Two game modes were on offer – standard blackjack rules and “drop 20” rules – along with four difficulty levels, represented by different dealer types. 

Along with the variety of insurance policy cards on offer, there was a generous amount of content to play through in this demo. The Steam page promises that the full game will include over 10 dealers, along with a slew of new variants and modes.

Simple fun, but a little rough around the edges

Blackjack Roulette’s core gameplay loop was simple yet fun. It felt like more of a luck-based game than a skill-based one, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The skill-based elements kicked in with the harder difficulties, particularly in later stages, and based on the details known about Blackjack Roulette’s full release so far, it’s likely that the complete game will present even more of a challenge.

A notable feature of Blackjack Roulette is its tutorial. This reviewer doesn’t play blackjack or roulette, so the rules for both games seemed somewhat unfamiliar at first, but the tutorial stage was comprehensive and provided plenty of details. 

Visually, Blackjack Roulette appeared decent, featuring a simple art style and a pared-back color palette. There were some rough edges, with text being squished together or popping outside of boxes, along with some typos, but these weren’t major issues.

In terms of performance, there were no major issues to note with Blackjack Roulette’s demo – it looked fine, ran smoothly, and didn’t throw up any quirks or glitches. 

The full release of Blackjack Roulette is one to keep an eye on, especially for fans of gambling games and roguelikes. Although the demo had a few bumps, it overall felt smooth and enjoyable to play, with a generous amount of content on offer.

Ask The Escapist

References

1. Blackjack Roulette Demo (Steam)