Freecell

"It's free! What do you want more?!"

No, Freecell is not a free journey to the nearby jail as a reward for your good actions. It is instead a free card game for Windows, any Windows since they're all the same even though there's a new release each year. Pretty much like another free popular [mainly due to lack of competion] game by the name of Solitaire, you click about on cards to reach a certain objective.

Speaking of objective, this is probably where Freecell shines. The concept is very easy to grasp, which is also the opposite of the game itself. By selecting a new game, a pack of 52 cards will be shown and these will be neatly arranged in tiles but hey, why the hell aren't the cards arranged accordingly ? Instead, they're just put in piles without any consideration for the fundamental laws of Mathematics which implicitly state that 3 is greater than 2 and that 6 should be before 7 in my books.

And your aim is just to arrange those neatly in the 4 packs at the top of the screen and to please Bohr at the same time. While this may seem a very easy task, the cards are put in such a way that you'll actually have to think before clicking here and there [yes, yes, I just used the words 'think before clicking here and there' in the same sentence !]. There are restrictions too and don't just sit back in your chair thinking that you will be able to move and swap as many cards as you want without giving further attention to the others and the amount of free space you have.

In order to get the most cards in those good-looking green squares at the top-right corner that seem to think they rule the world from where they are [the green squares, not the corners], you can store up to 4 cards in those that are to the top-left of your high resolution screen. You may then work your way and try to cut down those damn long columns until you are able to put those cards back in action again and free some space. Now, just go on until you've arranged 4 neat columns where the cards will now be in order and where their colors will alternate and you've reached the easiest part of the game. Slugfest click until all the cards are packed and enjoy the invisible top-notch ending.

While Freecell is a fairly simple game, it can get really tough at some points and no goofing around with this game. And mistakes are not easily forgiven here. Instead, you'll have to start a new game but how unfortunate, the lost game adds up in your stastistics and causes your percentage success to decrease at the same time [of course, I may just reset the stats but how will I get my 87% success rate again then ?!]. You'll have already guessed it, this is more of a 'serious' game and will actually cause you to think.

The game is very fun and since there are 32,000 arrangements you can break you front teeth on, I'll safely go ahead and say you'll spend a lot of time on it. Trying to beat No. 1 up to No. 32,000 is bound to take a lot of time although it doesn't necessarily mean that the games get harder as you move up the numbers. But they are very challenging and as long as you love having your skills and IQ questioned [if you do have those], you'll love the game.

And no, you cannot click on the King in the middle. Leave him alone ! Click on the cards instead and have fun !

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/05/01, Updated 11/09/02