Paperback: The Game

About

Paperback is a word-building game with deck-building elements. Players start with a small deck of letter cards and use them to form words, aiming to earn points and buy better cards for their deck. The game offers solo play, local pass-and-play, and online multiplayer modes, with various difficulty settings and themed card sets to keep the experience fresh. It's a word game suitable for casual and experienced players alike.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

65%

Audience ScoreBased on 86 reviews

graphics4 positive mentions

music3 negative mentions

The game is a fun and easy word-building experience that can be enjoyed solo or with friends.
It combines deck-building mechanics with word creation, making it a unique and engaging game for fans of both genres.
The digital implementation is visually appealing and offers a casual gameplay experience that can serve as a great time-killer.

The online multiplayer functionality is broken and frustrating, often kicking players back to the lobby between turns.
There are significant issues with the user interface, including a lack of fullscreen options and minimal settings for music and sound effects.
The game's dictionary is inconsistent, allowing the AI to use proper nouns while restricting human players, leading to a frustrating gameplay experience.

music
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
81%
19%
The music in the game has received negative feedback, with users criticizing the limited number of tracks and the repetitive jazzy style. Additionally, the music resets when switching tasks, which disrupts the gaming experience, and there are no options to adjust volume levels. Overall, many players found the music unsatisfactory and opted to turn it off.
- “There are very few tracks in the game, making the situation even worse, so I just turned off the music after about a minute.”
- “Music and sound effects don't have levels beyond 'on' and 'off'.”
- “Would be nice to have some of the game expansions as options, and also for the music to be longer or more varied.”
graphics
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
42%
25%
The graphics are generally considered fine, with some users appreciating the artwork as fitting for the game, while others found it unappealing. However, the interface is criticized for being overly mobile-like, lacking options for resolution and window settings, which detracts from the overall visual experience. Despite these issues, the game is described as aesthetically pleasing and easy to learn.
- “The artwork is perfect for the game, and the rules are simple and straightforward to understand.”
- “It would be nice also to be able to make the window fit the screen, so the artwork can be better appreciated, especially those clever book covers of the 'best sellers' that make up some of the victory cards.”
- “Aesthetically pleasing, simple to learn, great fun to play.”
- “The graphics are fine, but the interface is very mobile-like, and I wasn't a fan of the jazzy music, as usual.”
- “There are no resolution, fullscreen/window, or graphics controls.”
- “It would be nice to be able to make the window fit the screen, so the artwork can be better appreciated, especially those clever book covers of the 'best sellers' that make up some of the victory cards.”
gameplay
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
38%
38%
The gameplay is noted for its engaging mechanics and enjoyable AI for solo play, but it suffers from repetitiveness and issues with multiplayer functionality, such as players not being able to view the table simultaneously, which detracts from the fast-paced experience. Additionally, users have reported technical problems like error messages when creating rooms, leading to concerns about fairness in online matches. Overall, while the game has appealing elements, its multiplayer design and repetitiveness are significant drawbacks.
- “This was an easy way to jump into it, and I'm winning them over :) Great art, great mechanics, and the AI makes it fun to play solo.”
- “The gameplay just gets repetitive after a fairly short time.”
- “Not only did I experience error messages when trying to create rooms, but the format of the multiplayer (players cannot view the table simultaneously) seems antithetical to the fast-paced nature of the gameplay.”
- “When I play online, I feel like my opponents are either cheating or abusing this mechanic.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users have reported encountering buggy behavior, indicating that stability issues are present in the game. This has led to a generally negative perception regarding its reliability.
- “I also ran into some buggy behavior, shocking.”