Hoyle Casino

"So bad, it's good."

Hoyle Casino was released in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast. The game was developed and published by Sierra. This game is a port of a PC game of the same name. HC features many popular casino games, from slots, to all kinds of poker. This game is rather unique in that it gives you different pre-made characters, all of whom have different amounts of money, one of the characters, Randall (which just happens to be my middle name), has the highest amount of money, $500,000. The game lets you make a character for you to play as, this character’s data can be saved, the pre-made character’s data can’t be saved. This adds a nice bit of strategy to the game and it really opens the game up for newbies, veteran casino game players will probably want to make a character and earn their way to the big money tables, while casual casino game players will prbably want to play as Randall and blow, or gain, a ton of money. I really like this aspect of the game because it gives people who wouldn’t normally play the game a reason to play it. They can play it whenever they want, and with a ton of money no less. Good stuff. Now then, without further ado, let’s get onto the review.

As I mentioned earlier, there are a ton of casino games in this game; there are the traditional games; roulette, craps, blackjack, slots, and poker. There are also twists and variants on these game, there’s Pai Gow Poker, Texas Hold Em, another style of poker, and even video poker. These games are all pretty addictive, but all you do in this game is gamble, there are no diversions. There is something lacking in this game that has been a staple in casino games since Vegas Dreams on the NES, this would be the theifs, the low-lifes who steal your money. I wish this game had them because they added so much to the games they were in, they really added to the realism of a casino. It’s a damn shame that this game lacks them, because this game would be perfect for them, there are tons of people playing each game, about seven for poker, and four for blackjack, this type of a situation is a thief’s dream and would provide a perfect place for low-life’s in the game, but there are none, which knocks my score down a notch.

The control is great, bets can be placed easily and the menus are easy to navigate through. That’s pretty much all you need to know about the control, it’s just a casino game.

The graphics are a huge mixed bag (get used to seeing that.) The casino itself looks nice, but there really should be more than one beacue the one casino in this game has no personality in it at all. The casino games themselves, particularly the slots, look great and do have some personality. The character designs in the game are plentiful, but a bit too stereotypical. One guy, Bart, looks like a a bartender (gee, I wonder where got his name) from a western movie and sounds like Colonel Sanders. All he needs is a mint jula in his hand to complete the role. There’s a cowgirl in the, and an old man. None of these characters go beyond their stereotypical roles. I really don’t like that because it gives the game a mundane look and feel. The great part about characters in other gamebling games, I’ll use Vegas Stakes as an example, was that the characters were muilti-faceted, this added a lot of personality to the game. There is a huge problem during card games that must be addressed, that problem you ask? The fact that you can’t tell what suit your cards are. This is a HUGE problem. A spade looks damn near identical to club, the same goes for diamonds and hearts, to a lesser extent. I can’t believe Sierra would let this kind of a problem go unchanged, it can, and has made the difference between winning and losing. It’s a huge problem and it renders most card games, with the exception of blackjack, nearly unplayable, unless you use an S-Video cable to hook up your DC, in which case you can make out the cards. I thnk this problem stems from the game being ported from a high-resolution screen, namely a computer monitor, to a low-resolution screen, namely a TV screen. Sierra really should have remedied this problem, unless you have an S-Video cable for your DC, don’t bother with this game, at least not if you plan on playing a lot of poker. The graphics really take a nosedive because of this problem.

The sound in the game is another big mixed bag (can’t this game do anything solidly?) The sound effects throughout the game are nice, the sound of coins coming out of a slot machine, and the sounds of cards shuffling are well done. But the character voices are HORRIBLE. They are all stereotypical and never convey any emotion other than happiness when they win, sorrow when they lose, or arrogance when they are doing well. The aformentioned Bart truly does sound like Colonel Sanders, he sounds like a stereotypical Southerner, only his Southern drawl is about 100 years old. The Texas cowgirl, who wears a big cowboy hat and says “yahoo” and “yippee kai yea” a lot, or similarly idiotic statements is very annoying, all of the characters are because none of them try to be different than their stereotypes. This is a big disappointment for me because it truly makes the characters one-dimensional. Also, there is no music playing in the background when you are playing. This is very unrealistic and is a big dissapointment because it syphons even more personality from the game. I’ll use Vegas Stakes as an example yet again. In that game, there were numerous casinos and all of those casinos had their own music that fit the theme of the casino. The high-end Caesar’s Palace-knockoff casino had classical music playing throughout it and it really helped build upon the feel of the casino, it added tons of personality. This game lacks any music, aside from some horrid generic music and casino noises that play when you are selecting the game you want to play. Overall, the sound in the game is horrid, there are some brightspots, but the sound of the game is too generic and stereotypical to be any good. Well, that’s pretty much it for the sound.

Overall, this game is a mixed bag (told you to get used to seeing that.) The game lacks a lot of stuff that makes other casino games great, like personality, oh, and the ability to SEE THE CARDS DURING POKER, but the gameplay is strangely addictive. It’s like staring at a car crash, or watching a B-movie, it’s so bad it’s good. Just stay the hell away from poker unless you have at least an S-Video cable.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/04/01, Updated 08/04/01