Sultan’s Game Review — The Price of Power

Sultan’s Game is a dark, narrative-driven card game with strong storytelling. It ventures into the depths of depravity, excess, and violence that follow unchecked power, and the terrible decisions that must be made to protect one’s life and family in the wretched hive of scum and villainy that can be the royal court. This game’s unique subject matter, twisted decision-making, and incredible art are sure to create cult-like fans, as it dares to venture into areas other decision-making RPGs rarely do. However, lackluster localization in my copy of the game prevented me from getting the full experience, making it hard to give this title a definitive score.

Before I venture further into this review, would-be players deserve a content warning about the subjects covered in Sultan’s Game.

Sultan’s Game begins as a mage enters the court of a debaucherously dangerous Sultan, offering him a new kind of entertainment: the Sultan’s Game, a card game meant for kings in which the player draws a card each day, commanding them to partake in an act that often can only be accomplished using a king’s wealth, immunity to the law, and lack of empathy. After playing the game for fourteen days and unleashing unspeakable acts upon his court, the Sultan is finally convinced to stop playing the game, only to force one of the noblemen of his court to play it instead. Under the threat of execution, the nobleman must find a way to play the game, immune to the consequences of law but not to the consequences of conscience that come with it.

As you can imagine from that introduction, Sultan’s Game is a title that delves into some dark topics and does so without remorse or preparation for the player. If you thought Game of Thrones was often gratuitous in its violence and other dark matters, you’ll be downright shocked by Sultan’s Game. Violence, torture, sexual assault, and other depraved acts can be found within this game and are often committed by the player’s own hands. If any of these seriously bother you, I would suggest not continuing with this review and maybe avoiding Sultan’s Game altogether.

In Sultan’s Game, your goal is to complete the requirements of each game card as they are drawn, with one coming immediately after you complete the last, and only a certain amount of time to finish each card. Each card has different demands. As the developers themselves describe it: “Carnality demands indulgence in carnal desires, Extravagance commands extreme spending, Conquer drives perilous adventures, and Bloodshed craves human sacrifice. Each challenge must be completed within seven days—or face execution.” These cards come in color-coded variants, from Stone to Gold, with each color requiring greater efforts and resources to resolve.

Alongside these cards, you are given cards that act as resources or followers. Your goal is to essentially discover, through interacting with the map, places where you can properly play your game cards, often making use of your resource cards like gold or weapons and your followers to meet the demands. For example, a silver Carnality card can be completed thanks to a wandering, silver-tier, lustful swordsman visiting town, and a stone-grade Extravagance card can be completed by simply spending five gold to remodel your home. A gold Conquest card, however, may require an act no less than taking the Sultan’s throne itself. Thankfully, you have a limited amount of rerolls to avoid these tasks when you don’t have the means to complete them.

Essentially, the game becomes a worker-management card game, as nothing can be done without you or your followers’ cards being used in an action. It’s made more difficult knowing that actions can end with the disapproval or outright death of your followers, and running out of them puts you at risk of being unable to complete your goal.

The narrative is the main aspect of Sultan’s Game, with stories being told based on your card draws. Your actions have consequences, pushing people away or earning you unexpected allies. Every game is further enhanced by your personal goals, as while your only real victory condition is to stay alive, players will find themselves warping their play around their own morality. I, for example, found myself doing my best to preserve the trust and happiness of my character’s wife, avoiding the Sultanate’s efforts to victimize her whenever possible.

Unfortunately, a great deal of this narrative was lost on me due to the translation errors in my own game. Sometimes, entire segments of dialogue were displayed in what I believe to be Chinese text. Nowhere was this truer than in the game’s tutorial segments, which greatly impeded my ability to play the game. Thankfully, over time, I was able to figure out a lot through trial and error, but it was an unnecessary difficulty spike caused by nothing more than a withholding of information.

I was told by the developers that many of these translation issues will be solved by the time the game is launched. Hopefully, this means other players won’t have to deal with this issue, but for me personally, I have to rate the game down a bit because of it.

That is my only trouble with the game. I love the art, the gameplay is engaging, and the dark subject matter makes for an incredibly interesting, if heart-wrenching, narrative. If only the game didn’t have this issue with translation—something I hope other players won’t have to deal with—I would probably say that Sultan’s Game is one of my favorites.

TryHardGuides was provided a PC review code for Sultan’s Game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Sultan’s Game is available on Steam.