"Well, our work's moved on a bit from the movies you saw as a kid. Although... still no car-mounted rockets. That sucks."
--Jim Ratio
Billed as "the third Bithell short" - a follow-up to Mike Bithell's Subsurface Circular and Quarantine Circular, but not so much a direct sequel - The Solitaire Conspiracy casts you as a "recruit" to an international spy agency, Protego. Thing is, Protego has effectively been destroyed. Your contact, the mysterious-but-chipper analyst Jim Ratio, informs you that you are the only person who still has access to Protego's command interface, "C.A.R.D.S." Your goal, as he describes, is to use the interface to track down the splintered remnants of Protego's assorted spy crews, and hopefully regain enough access to the overall network to track down the elusive Alpha team. The hitch, of course, is that no spy agency is without their arc villain, in this case, the criminal mastermind known only as "Solitaire." It is his overreach that commands most known acts of terrorism in this bizarre techno-future, and it is you and your C.A.R.D.S. that will bring him down, bit by bit.
Greg Miller as your agency contact, Jim Ratio, helps to keep the experience a bit more personable than your average solitaire game.
Where TSC differs (quite a lot) from other story-centric solitaire games is two-fold. On the one hand, the presentation of TSC is leagues beyond most other solitaires, going overboard on the dramatic camera angles, cyberpunk neon, and the use of live actors on video to convey the major story beats, with Kinda Funny's Greg Miller taking the role of Jim Ratio. Greg's delivery and overall cadence reflect his origins as an internet game reviewer type, but his heart's clearly in it, and (past a certain point) things do change quite dramatically, to avoid spoiling anything.
On the opposite hand, TSC stands out by not doing something that most everybody else on Steam has done: it has no RPG element to the gameplay. Sure, there is an EXP bar, but this is almost entirely a progress gate for story purposes. You don't buy things from shops, you don't equip items, you don't learn new skills to influence randomness, and you certainly don't unlock extra buttons to destroy cards. That's really not the kind of game TSC is. Mostly, because it isn't really a game that randomness has much of an effect on. Notably, because it isn't Golf.
Every game is dealt under dramatic camera angles as the action-thriller music ramps up in the background. It may convince you there's more at stake than just some cards.
The rule set of The Solitaire Conspiracy is based on a game called Streets and Alleys. The simple goal, to fill the foundations from Ace to King, is achieved by moving cards between 8 tableau piles. The exact order and suit are not so relevant here. The only restrictions are that the card you're moving must be a lower rank than any card it's going on top of, and that only one card can be moved at a time.
Where this gets the proverbial wrench in the works, is how suits are depicted. In this case, there are eight of them, up to four of which can be in the field in a given mission. Outside of having unique colors, each suit represents one of Protego's spy crews, and each of their face cards represents one member. They all have portraits (as beautifully rendered by Jen Pattison, the artist for Lamplight City and Technobabylon) and short biographies that flesh out what exactly the crew does, but every member of a given crew has the same Special. Specials are triggered whenever a "powered" agent is moved on to any card, and each can be used only once in a mission (outside of unusual circumstances involving other abilities). For example, members of Mantis will "explode" any tableau pile they're placed on, causing the cards to scatter to the other 7 piles; Blood Legacy will sort their destination pile in reverse order (King on top, Ace on bottom), and so on. Many of the abilities can be actively detrimental to play if used carelessly, so figuring out a way to use them to your advantage (or how to "defuse" an agent who could ruin everything) is paramount to your success. And outside of the initial deal (there is no Stock pile here), there is almost nothing random about it. Every puzzle can be solved.
Every mission comes with flavor text explaining what your crews are here to do, and what their presence has accomplished once you've finished. You are but one part of a larger whole, here.
In case the standard mode doesn't hold your interest past the story, there are multiple unlockable modes, my favorite of which is Countdown. You are given a short time limit, during which you must solve the solitaire in front of you as fast as you can. When it's solved, you're given another, and you regain small amounts of time on the clock for every card you send to the foundations, as well as for every ability you use. And here is where some unusual strategies begin to pay off, especially with crews like Humanity+ that can "undo" the foundation piles. There's a lot to consider - just not for too long, unless you want to run out of time.
Even beyond all this, as this article is written, Bithell is still updating the game, with a development road map that seeks to add more modes of play, as well as adding some much appreciated features. Although, where it stands right now, I think I appreciate that it doesn't try to stay around longer than it needs to. It's a Bithell "short," after all; it doesn't need to glue you to the chair for weeks on end while you clear Level 198 to get those last 4 Emeralds. It's got a story to tell, and those extra mechanics would only get in its way.
If the world of espionage, false pretenses, and exploding cards tips your fancy, The Solitaire Conspiracy can be found for sale on Steam for $11.99 USD, and its excellent soundtrack by Jon Everist (BattleTech, Shadowrun: Dragonfall) can be found at his Bandcamp page for a minimum price of $4 USD. I highly recommend both, because I am nothing if not a sucker for this kind of presentation.