Texas Hold'em Poker - Pokerist (PS4) Review

 

Texas Hold'em Poker - Pokerist is a free to play Poker game on the Playstation Store. It is one of the most basic Poker games I have ever seen. With 'Prominence Poker' and the Poker part of 'Four Kings Casino and Slots' there are two free Poker Games on the Playstation Store, which have a much better presentation than Pokerist. Both games released years before Pokerist and if we include all the free Poker Games on PC, including some of the better Browser Games, than there are at least dozens of Poker games more worthy of Playing.

Putting the game of Poker itself into a videogame is not very complicated. There aren't many things you could do wrong with such a simple programming task. Therefore the visual presentation and immersion take a key role in every good Poker Videogame. Pokerist is a massive letdown in this aspect.

Pokerist uses an ugly 2D image of a female Poker Dealer and the profile pictures of the participating players. That's it! There is nothing in this game apart from these static 2D images of a Poker game, there isn't even any background music. Why did they release such a simple game in late 2019? Pokerist would have been acceptable as a Browser game in 1999, but even in 2009 it would have been a massive letdown (The mobile version apparently already released in 2010, but the point still stands and why on earth did they port it to the PS4 in 2019???).

The promotional images of the game are trying to trick you into thinking that this would be a three dimensional game, like the much superior Prominence Poker or 'Poker Night at the Inventory'. I wouldn't call this a scam, but it is certainly a bit of shady marketing.

The Poker itself is fine, so there is some fun to be had here, but that is really not an accomplishment. Using a random deck of cards in real-life would give you the same experience, probably a much better one. A game can hardly be broken, if there is barely anything in it.

The one strength of this game is probably its speed. Pokerist is a much faster game than the competition. So if you enjoy Speed Poker, than you may find some enjoyment here. I however would always take a strong presentation over pure game speed at the cost of everything else.

 

Result:

Pokerist can be played without having an abysmal time, but there is no reason to do so, unless you are a Speed Poker Fan. There are much better Poker alternatives available on pretty much every electronic device imaginable.

 

3/10