[h2]Summary:[/h2]
[olist][*]The card game itself: Awesome, a trick taking game designed for 2 players that is actually fun and interesting!
[*]The App: Very good quality, but no pass & play option (which wouldn't be fun anyway, IMO)
[*]Online Play: Has crossplay with smartphone, but it seems hard to find players if you don't already know someone[/olist]
[h2]1. About the card game[/h2]
I love trick taking games, but hadn't found one that is fun to play with 2 players ... until now!
If you look at games like Wizard or Skull King, they award you for taking exactly the number of tricks you announced at the start of a round, which is very difficult with only 2 players: The chance that you take a trick that you don't want is very high, even with a very low card.
Card counting, which is an important element in trick taking games is nearly useless with 2 players in these games, since only a small number of the cards is in play, making it difficult to strategize.
If there are a 3+ players, players can try to sabotage the leading player by stealing tricks from her, or making her take tricks she doesn't want. With 2 players it's not possible to form a temporary alliance against the leader.
No matter how you look at those games, they are not designed with 2 players in mind, even if it's possible to play them with 2 players.
Now, Fox in the Forest is different: The deck size is adjusted for 2 players, making card counting an important element of the game: You can make educated guesses, and it's much more important to remember certain cards that were played.
More importantly, you don't announce tricks, but you get much more points than your opponent if you succeed in taking a desirable number of tricks.
Specifically, it's good to take 7-9 of the 13 tricks in a round, with the opponent at 4-6 tricks.
And you gain an even better advantage if you take 0-3 tricks, while your opponent takes the remaining 10-13 tricks.
So 0-3 tricks is good, 4-6 is bad, 7-9 is good, and 10-13 is bad again.
This scoring system ensures that you can score well, no matter if you have weak or strong cards. It also gives you some leeway, since your goal is not to get an exact number of tricks, which is difficult with 2 players. And there are no rounds where both players score well, or both lose points. Each round awards the player who performed better.
Finally, it means you have to stay on your toes and adapt to the situation: If you aim to take the 7-9 tricks, the other player may either try to steal your tricks, in order to push you into the 4-6 range. Or they may do the opposite, and try to avoid tricks, aiming to push you into the 10-13 range. So it is truly a battle of wits, as implied by the fox theme. :)
The 33 cards consist of 3 suites and range from 1 to 11. Odd-numbered cards have special effects, some of which interact in interesting ways.
For example, leading with an 11 forces your opponent to either play their highest card, or a 1, if they have cards of the matching suite. This can mean an almost guaranteed trick in the early game, and forces your opponent to lose cards that allow to control the game (high or low cards). However, if your opponent's highest card is a 9, an effect is triggered that the 9 is considered to be of the trump suite, meaning your opponent takes the trick if the trump suite is different from your 11. To use your 11s and 9s efficiently, you can play a 3, which allows you to change the trump suite.
But this isn't all you can do with a 3. The current trump suit is indicated by a face-up card, and a 3 allows you to change the trump suite by replacing that card with one of your own cards. So if you want to have this card, you can play a 3 to take it, and you can play a 3 to get rid of an unwanted card.
Another interesting card is the 7, which gives a bonus point to the player who takes the trick. This adds a risk/reward element, since even if you try to avoid tricks, there's a small reward for taking 1 more trick with that card. And not taking a trick with that card means your opponent gets the point instead.
Finally, the 1 allows you to lead the next trick even when you lose. And the 5 lets you draw a card from the draw pile and discard one, not only allowing you to swap cards, but also to reveal a card that the opponent doesn't have, which can be important information.
So the cards leave a lot of room for strategy, adding considerable depth to the game. IMO the game isn't just a rare trick taking game that works decently with 2 players. It is a really well designed game in general! :)
While the game rewards card counting and strategic thinking, there's also an element of luck, and I'm sure that casual players can enjoy this game as well, if their skill level is similar. But if you hate losing, playing against a much higher skilled player might be frustrating.
[h2]2. About the app[/h2]
IMO they did a really good job implementing the app for the card game: The graphics look pleasing, the music fits well, and the tutorial does a good job to explain the game. You can play online, against an AI, or try challenges, which are games vs the AI with modified rules. There are 3 difficulty levels for the AI, and the original rules to modify game length have been implemented as well.
Not included is a local 2 player mode via pass & play. However, if I play a card game, I want to constantly be able to look at my cards, which isn't possible with a P&P mode. And you can just play the game using physical cards with 3 suits that somehow represent numbers 1-11, which are usually easily available (e.g. standard playing cards, Wizard, Skull King, ...). You just have to know the effects of the odd-numbered cards.
So, IMO such a feature would be rather pointless.
[h2]3. About online play[/h2]
So, here's the downside: There seem to be very few online players. So if you don't know people who'd play the game with you online, I wouldn't recommend getting this app just for online play.
There's a discord server for this publisher, but it seems only a small number of popular games are actively discussed there, and for games like this there were no recent posts when I looked.
On the plus side, there's crossplay with Android and iPhone.
I haven't played online so far, but I will probably update this review to write about it, if I'll get to play a session...
