Card-based Reigns offers you keys to your own kingdom

When a chorus of voices calls for your head, will you commission pikes for theirs instead? Or will you broker peace with mead and bread? Will nostalgic bards gloss over your kingdom’s stains, or will they recall how bad you were at playing developer Nerials’ card-based Reigns?

If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at ruling an empire, mobile and PC game Reigns let’s you do so quite literally. The game takes on a format reminiscent of Tinder. But instead of sorting between potential love interests, you swipe left or right to make decisions on how your kingdom will run. Reigns, with its playing card-style art, tosses a stream of cards at you and you’re tasked with simply making the best decisions and surviving whatever consequences they bring in the future or down the line. You’ll field requests from enemies, allies, lords, advisers and other stakeholders in and around your kingdom.

You’ll have to strike a balance to keep the pillars of your kingdom happy. That means you’ll have to work with your military, your church, your treasury and your subjects to keep everyone happy and to protect your throne from usurpers.

Even after you meet the end of your life, your legacy will live on if you’re good enough at playing monarch. But the game can span centuries. And your heirs may have to deal with things like enlightenment, witch hunts, “and maybe the Devil himself.” The game will also test you with “Royal Challenges,” which are goals for you to reach before your reign is over. Knocking out these challenges will award you with additional cards and other content.

Reigns is available now via Google Play, and is also on offer through Steam for PC and the AppStore for our iPhone and iPad using friends. The game costs $2.99 out the gate, but you don’t have to worry about paying for anything else after that because the game is free of in-app purchases.

So what do you think of Reigns? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.