Shadowhand

I played Shadowhand Solitaire first, not realizing this was the original game! While the story is the same for both games, I actually preferred this as an RPG and the game mechanics of this game to Shadowhand Solitaire. And it took me playing this version for me to realize Lady Cornelia is Lady Fleetwood from Regency Solitaire. So I love that this is a fun backstory for her!

Great twist on one-up, one-down solitaire making it considerably more challenging than the typical games of this genre. Also a well-done storyline and details. The layouts seem more challenging than many card games, even though only about 25% are turn-based battles.

It's the duels with the opponents which made this game really interesting for me, as there's a lot of strategizing involved with picking out your weapons, clothing, gear, and card playing abilities to best arm yourself against each different character you meet. The last few chapters of the 22 chapters total are grindy if you want to 3 star everything.

If you like the concept of this game but battles aren't for you, there's a purely casual version of this game available.

Shadowhand is a solid and very tactical Card Game from the makers of Regency Solitaire. The story is well written and the art is beautiful. It is not very hard to get all the achievements. The gameplay is really addicting, sometimes you need luck on your side, but with the right combination of weapons and consumables you can master every level. It is especially fun to create long combos for epic overkills! I recommend to pick this up at a discount and become the legendary highwaywoman with a secret identity!

Decent little puzzle game. Heavily reliant on RNG, so several "hands" (this game's name for each round you play) will need to be restarted at least once or twice if you want to get the best score possible or even just pass on (looking at you, Rich Turnpike). Story isn't anything crazy, but it's charming and the ability to switch out your gear and weapons feels very strategic and well thought-out.

I had never tried a solitaire card battler game and was skeptical. I actually found this quite fun! definitely worth a try.

Shadowhand is a great iteration on choose higher or lower rank solitaire from a company with a great track record of innovation. The duel format is interesting, and the stacked card layouts are generally creative. Most of the achievements seem to be unlocked in a standard run of Very Hard Mode, thanks to the high goal requirements needed to pass the last two levels. I definitely appreciate that beating the game on the highest difficulty completes the achievements for the lower difficulties.
My main objection is that some duels are to apparent death while others are to enemy surrender, but the ratio of survivors to apparent kills is heavily in favor of kills, including some guards the protagonist states she'd rather not be fighting. She definitely comes across as more of an antihero than I am generally comfortable playing.
For some reason, I had started this game twice and then lost the save file with my furthest progress for years. Fortunately, the default launch of Steam Sync on my new computer (somehow??) managed to recover and install the correct save file. I'm definitely happy to finally finish this game with a complete achievement run.

Took me longer to get all of the achievements on Shadowhand than it did with Regency Solitaire, but the gameplay is so addicting that it wasn't a trial. It's also fun to try different combinations of clothing or weapons for stat bonuses and see how it affects gameplay and strategy.
Tiny spoiler - this game provides some background story for characters in the Regency Solitaire game.