Uncharted: Fight for Fortune

It's not exactly the next step we were expecting for the Uncharted series, but Fight for Fortune - a digital card game based on the action series - certainly has its merits.

It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. Inevitably, it all comes down to whether or not you enjoy tactical card games.

Fight for Fortune isn't hugely compelling, but it's not a bad experience either. If you can see past the issues you'll no doubt invest as much time in this as in the home console extravaganzas, albeit more sedately.

The game gets off to a slow start, with a tutorial that drags on and doesn't really explain the rules very well. Fortunately, it's all rather easy to pick up yourself anyway.

You start by playing Faction cards on the 'table' and then giving them Fortune cards to hold. Then you supply your card with some Resources, and then sit back and watch as your characters do damage to your opponent.

The key to winning is a sensible balance of offence and defence. As well as attacking your opponent in a bid to knock him down to zero health, it's necessary to build up your Faction scores (needed to place down units) and Fortune score (for deploying life-saving Resources).

This necessity for balance has its pros and cons. On its own, the game is well-suited to one-on-one play, and each player always has the opportunity to make a play that can change the course of battle. Games are routinely interesting as a result.

But it's notable that if you've played Uncharted: Golden Abyss and unlocked things in that game, your deck will have boosted stats here and there. This is both intriguing and a potential nuisance - it's great to see your hard work in the other game rewarded, but if you end up playing against someone who has unlocked everything you'll find yourself at a severe disadvantage.

This issue will separate the hardcore from the casual. Some will realise that they are being penalised for having not played Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and stop playing as a result, while others will see their experience as a badge of honour and get even more into the game.

However you feel about the balancing conundrum, there are other issues that are more difficult to see past.

Looking through your card library and choosing your deck is an almighty pain, thanks to stubborn loading times as you flick through the categories and an awful loadout interface. We gave up on trying to be creative after a while, and just stuck with what we were initially given.

You can unlock a whole ton of cards and customisation options through playing the same single-player matches over and over again, but these get rather boring rather quickly, meaning that only the most resilient players will collect everything.

And then there's the card game itself. It's definitely had a whole lot of thought put into it, and we can see ourselves whittling away numerous bus journeys with the game. But it's far from indispensable.

If you love Uncharted and card games, then Fight For Fortune is a no-brainer. Everyone else should proceed with caution.