The Fox in the Forest is a great trick-taking game for two players in a small box, working primarily with just a small deck of 33 cards, numbered 1 to 11 in three suits. Odd-numbered cards have special powers that can upend the traditional trick-taking rules – you must follow suit, and if you can’t, one of the suits is the trump and you can win the trick by playing that suit instead – such as by letting you swap a card from your hand for the card that determines the current trump suit, or letting you start the next trick even if you lose. You also have to try not to win too many tricks or you’ll be “greedy” and get zero points for the round; your opponent has to win at least four of the tricks for you to score anything. Play continues, with points awarded in each round, until one player amasses 21 points for the victory.
We now have a beautiful new app version ($4.99 for iTunes, Android, and Steam.) of the game from Dire Wolf Digital, the studio that has created a whole string of outstanding adaptations of tabletop games, including Root, Sagrada, and Lanterns. As you might expect, the graphics and animations here are superb, and there’s a small challenge mode for solo play. The AI player is a little disappointing, however, as even on its hardest setting it still misses some easy strategies like deliberately losing all remaining tricks to make you Greedy and thus leave you with zero points.
The app’s setup is clean and easy to see even on the small screen of a phone. Your cards are laid out at the bottom of the screen, and you can drag and drop one to your play area on the left when it’s your turn. You can see a card’s effects with a simple tap and hold on the card, although the text may still be a little small for some players (I didn’t need my glasses, but I at least thought about it). The animations and sound effects were similar to those in Lanterns – they don’t specifically add to game play, but they’re fun and short enough that they enhance it without slowing anything down.
The AI player isn’t great – I’ve had no trouble beating it on hard mode, usually by a fair margin, as the focus seems to be on winning the next trick more than a holistic strategy that considers all of the ways to win in Fox in the Forest. The challenges are also a mixed bag – some are great, like the one that adds a fourth suit or another that requires you to win the treasure points you get when you win a trick with a 7 in it, while some are silly, like the one that randomizes all of your card values after each trick.
Online play wasn’t available until release day (October 18th), so I haven’t been able to test those out, but the local version doesn’t include a pass-and-play option, which I think would be a huge addition for a two-player game like this – it’s perfect for passing the phone back and forth on a plane or in the car (preferably while neither of you is driving). Dire Wolf says that feature is under consideration for the future, and I’d put that at the top of my wish list. In the meantime, it’s a fun distraction for solo play, and I hope an improved AI is coming as well – Dire Wolf did tighten the AI in their Raiders of the North Sea app after release – to give the app more replay value.
