I don’t like conventional card games, and never have. Playing a game of blackjack seems pointless, though I came away from Black Jacket somewhat excited, and with a teeny bit of a thirst to purchase a deck of cards in anticipation of its 2026 release.
Putting aside the ultimate card game, Solitaire, as all of us Gen X’s relied on this pre-installed Windows game to get us through the 9-5, whenever they’ve cropped up in a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, or even real life, I’ve always avoided it as I found card games boring or didn’t understand the rules. Over the many years of covering deck-builders, I’ve since converted and enjoy them, but conventional card games? Yawn.
The first thing that lured me in was the premise of Black Jacket: it’s a survival game with an intriguing narrative. You essentially have to get yourself out of Hell through playing a simple game of blackjack with a mysterious character named Reed guiding you through.
Granted, the artwork was a nice touch, but the key part of the gameplay was on the horizon, and I was about to bail. The rules are simple: pull a card from your deck and get as close to 21 as possible. Anything over and it’s bust, and you lose the round. It’s completely a game of chance, though the rogue-like and deck-building mechanics make it a little… fairer.
Like most games of the genre, you can pick a path similiar to Shape of Dreams and choose from a selection of stages, from merchants to earning coin, battling fellow souls, then eventually taking on the boss of that stage. Typical mechanics apply in Black Jacket, such as burning your cards to get rid of those you don’t play/burden you, or awaken them to add an additional perk that might mean you can view your deck without touching it, add/remove cards from your opponent’s deck, and much more.
Admittedly, I got a little lost in the first couple of attempts at what all these perks were doing, as not all of them are explained. However, they soon become second nature, and for this preview build at least, there’s hope; it doesn’t feel like such a chance, and you can actually develop strategies. For that reason, while Black Jacket doesn’t have the rogue-like loop of an action game, there’s definitely an imposed hunger that makes you want more.
Reaching the boss in the preview the first time had me believing it wasn’t likely I’d finish it, as they have ‘specials’ that mean you can’t hide cards up your sleeve (an amazing tactic for playing a devastating hand). Nevertheless, you start to adapt, and upon beating the boss, you’re awarded a gold coin to buy something special at the shop. No sweets, unfortunately.
Now with my new found gambling addiction, I continued my run with an almost immaculate strategy and faced the boss for a second time. Having destroyed them, I wasn’t awarded my gold coin, and instead, I had the option to wishlist Black Jacket. Do you know what? That’s what I did.
