Full House Poker Review

After the popularity of last years 1 vs 100 XBLA game and its sudden demise Microsoft needed a successor. Instead of turning to another standard game show format, the very popular card game Texas Hold’Em Poker has been chosen to takes its place. Should you bet your 800 Microsoft Points or fold?

I guess the majority of people interested in Full House Poker would have at least some basic understanding of the rules of Texas Hold’Em Poker. Providing you do, then you should be able to jump straight into a game and feel at home thanks to the very easy control system, which at its minimum usage can be played using one hand. The controller buttons will raise, check or fold along with the right bumper to increase your bet. More advanced controls are available including performing a cautious or aggressive emotion for your Avatar by holding the Left or Right triggers when selecting an action. Your actions can also be chosen in advance of your turn, for example automatically checking if no bets are placed which helps continue the flow of the game.

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Full House Poker uses an experience system which rewards players for playing. Experience is earned in a number of ways ranging from simply playing a hand through to winning with a good hand or forcing your opponents to fold. You are also rewarded for playing smart, folding at the right time may cost you some previously bet chips but you are rewarded with a decent amount of experience if the other player(s) had a better hand. The experience system is well thought out and keeps you playing as with each level reached it will unlock some rewards which can be used in the game.

There are over one hundred rewards to unlock and they allow you to customize your room and avatar. You can play in three different locations including an aquatic and Chinese dragon themed room. You can customize the theme of the room with various designs for the table felt, chairs and the back of the cards. You also unlock various clothing for your Avatar, two of which can be worn outside the game, the rest are locked to within the game. Clothing such as waistcoats and security guard suits are fairly basic in appearance but you can also unlock more extravagant clothing such as smoking jackets, tie dye t-shirts and crowns by beating Pro players. Chip tricks can also be unlocked and can be performed by pressing various D-Pad combination’s, they are a bit of fun and can entertain or show off your experience level to other players with some fancy moves.

The single player side of the game is well represented with the ability to create your own room and set options such as playing on a single table or starting a tournament against CPU opponents. You can decide on the starting bankroll from 250 chips up to high roller stakes of thousands against a number of players and tables. The Pro Takedown mode is a heads up (head to head) game which pits you against one of several professional players that are unlocked as you level up. These pro players have their own styles of play and can prove to be a good challenge to beat by playing well and working out their patterns and tells. CPU opponents have varying tactics and overall the AI seems to be competitive. They are not afraid to match or raise your bets even if they are bluffing and going ‘all in’ will not instantly scare them into folding unlike other poker games.

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There are three main multiplayer modes which can be played online. The standard or tournament games are essentially the same as the single player allowing a number of players to compete over Xbox LIVE. A ranked match can be played which is a more competitive mode and should be taken seriously, no going all in before the flop! You can choose to quickly search for and join the first available game on these two modes or alternatively you can browse games currently being played which is very handy! The final mode is Texas Heat which is a Xbox LIVE tournament in which players compete against each other to earn as many chips as possible in thirty minutes for the chance to win real prizes. Unfortunately the schedule does not start until after the game is released so we was unable to review this part of the game.

Presentation is done well with easy to navigate menus and useful text and short video tutorials explaining the various aspects of the game. Graphically the game looks the part; the themed locations suit the casual style with other tables and staff and random players walking around give it a busy casino feel. The use of avatars gives a more personalized feel and their involuntary emotions are quite fun to watch as they shift around when restless, scratching their body or looking at the time. You can freely rotate the camera around the table or use one of the preset angles, though sadly, a first person view is missing. This would have given the game a more realistic experience such as being able to see players emotions which you can sometimes miss in other camera angles.

The music is typical generic sounding lounge theme which started to get repetitive after a hour or two. Fortunately the general ambiance and sound effects are much better with background chatter, audience responses such as applause and fruit/slot machines cashing out to give the feel you are playing in a casino.

Poker is a game best played with humans rather than against a computer and Full House Poker does this very well. The online action is very seamless and playing with friends while ‘chewing the fat’ is great fun. The game is incredibly addictive and I ashamedly confess to having already spent close to 20 hours playing the game and the time flies by due to the more casual nature compared to mainstream online poker games. Get a few friends in a party, set up a table and it can do a hell of a job replacing your poker nights! I recommend going all in on Full House Poker as it’s bargain at 800 :MSPoints:.