Deep breath now; the full title for this latest virtual gambler is ‘THE CASINO COLLECTION: Ruleta, VÃdeo Póker, Tragaperras, Craps, Baccarat, Five-Card Draw Poker, Texas hold ’em, Blackjack and Page One’. 19 words, but at least you know exactly what to expect from this title.
And breathe.
After suffering from a bug that prevented The Casino Collection from loading up when it initially launched, this latest gambling simulator comes with all the thrills and excitement without the real-world losses. Unlike The Four Kings Casino and Slots, there is no social aspect and games such as Texas Hold ‘em and Blackjack are against AI opponents. But also unlike Four Kings: Video Poker – another recent casino-based release – there is a lot more to The Casino Collection.
Some of the games in the title need translating into English, but they shouldn’t prove to be a big surprise considering their inclusion in a casino collection. Ruleta is obviously roulette and Tragaperras translates as slot machines, and you have a choice between three and five slots.
In fact, most of the others are pretty self-explanatory for even someone with barely a passing interest in gambling. In layman’s terms; Blackjack is that 21 card game, Craps is the one with the dice and everyone cheering in the films, Texas Hold ‘em is the most popular form of poker, and Video Poker and Five-Card Draw are other variations. Perhaps Page One is the least obvious, but it is extremely simple. Played against 3 AI opponents, simply have the highest card for the chosen suit in that round and be the first player to empty their hand.
If you need to brush up on the rules of any of the games on offer though, there is a useful help guide within each game that goes over everything you need to know.
All of the casino games are faithfully recreated, and there isn’t a duffer in the collection in terms of performance. Any of those you don’t like will purely be down to personal preference. The slot machines feel honest as opposed to rigged, and in fact all of the games feel ‘fair’ in that sense. Sometimes – particularly during the likes of Blackjack and Texas Hold ‘em – the UI does feel a bit busy with text boxes all over the place highlighting information. But for the most part, on-screen buttons can be navigated to using the thumbstick, or be instantly selected by the associated button prompt.
You start off with 1000 chips across all games, rather than having an individual stack for each title. Initially, in games such as Texas Hold ‘em and Page One, where betting is required, bets can only be in increments of one. Weirdly and annoyingly with all the games in this collection, they are limited to the number of plays; slot machines kick you back to the main menu after 99 spins, and most card games can only go to a maximum of ten rounds. Those looking for a long session with masses of chips being exchanged at the poker table may be better off looking elsewhere.
Complete a ‘session’ though and you will see a results screen if you have made a profit on your chips. These results feed into global leaderboards where you can see how you are ranked in the various games under the Ranked section of the main menu. Don’t expect masses of people on these leaderboards either; after making a profit of two chips in Page One that was good enough to get a 31st place globally at the time of writing.
Sadly, despite the leaderboards being underneath a section called Ranked, there is no multiplayer to speak of. All opponents are of the AI variety in The Casino Collection.
As well as there being 12 different games – and additional variations of many – there are 516 in-game achievements to aim for. These work two-fold, as some of them tie in with The Casino Collection’s 29 achievements for Gamerscore, but also that many of them unlock tons of customisation options. There are card fronts and backs to unlock, table covers for the likes of Baccarat and Roulette, dice, slot machine cases and levers and even chip designs.
You can also unlock various different backgrounds for all the games that range from the subtle to the bizarre. During my time with The Casino Collection I unlocked a plain blue one, a chip and card explosion, then also some concept art of an office and what looked like the entrance to a hospital. What exactly they had to do with The Casino Collection I couldn’t tell you, but it did inadvertently make me want to play more to see what else I could unlock.
Naturally though, the game’s 29 achievements are for some of the more difficult challenges. Unlike Four Kings: Video Poker, the achievements on offer here are a lot trickier to unlock.
The Casino Collection may be lacking the social aspect when compared to The Four Kings Casino and Slots but it still presents a fun gambling simulator. And one that is completely customisable to how you want it to look and sound. Unfortunately, the restrictions on total number of rounds playable make it feel very stop and start; just as you get ready for a long session it is unfortunately over.
You can buy The Casino Collection for £6.69 from the Xbox Store for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
