The game has over 20 different tricks for you to get the hang of, many of which have complicated timings and controls that must be pulled off correctly, like a cross between a QTE and a WairoWare microgame. Rather than the rules of contemporary card games, the skills you have to perfect are those of the professional conman. And not just because, at this point, Texas hold ‘em was still a couple of centuries away from existing. Rather than assuring you that you don’t have to know anything about cards to enjoy the game it’s probably more pertinent to say that if you do know anything about them that isn’t going to help. You start out as a mute servant boy, who finds his way into the service of the Comte de Saint-Germain, a real-life historical figure who helps improve your prospects and sets your ambitions to one day playing at the king’s table. Gambling is a big part of the game, but you never actually play a normal game of cards yourself and rather than being a literal card game simulator the whole thrust of the gameplay and narrative is about cheating.
That sounds like a perfectly reasonable concept for a movie but in terms of video games… well, it’s not as if it has to worry about anything else having the same premise.