Our last article was all about James Bond being an old school casino gambler and touched upon how it was great to Timothy Dalton’s Bond playing my favourite casino game, Blackjack. But for this article we thought we’d go for a more modern variation of the game.
Blackjack is one of the most basic card games that can be played at either bricks and mortar casinos, or any of the best online casinos. But in one of our favourite horror games of the last generation, a game of Blackjack aka 21, can be very deadly.
A part of Resident Evil 7’s Banned Footage Volume 2 DLC, you play this deadly game of 21 where your life’s on the line. You may think watching Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken playing Russian Roulette in The Deer Hunter was stressful, but this dials it up by about 10. Definitely not for the squeamish.
The plot of the deadly game of 21
You play the role of Clancy Jarvis, a cameraman for the internet video series Sewer Gators, who visit the Baker family home to see what is going on. He gets captured by Lucas Baker and subjected to multiple Saw inspired traps and games.
In this DLC, Clancy awakens once again and finds himself strapped into a chair in a dark room. The light flicks on and he is face to face with bag headed man who turns out to be another one of Lucas’ victims named Hoffman.
Lucas appears on the TV screens behind Hoffman and tells Clancy that the winner of this game of 21 will be rewarded with being allowed to live and the loser will be electrocuted. Clancy wins the first round and Hoffman gets the shock. Lucas is about to let Clancy go but Hoffman recovers in time and the two play another round. Despite the resilience from Hoffman, Clancy wins again and Hoffman is hit with a level 10 shock. Clancy then demands Lucas to let him go. Instead of letting him go, Lucas uses wires to manipulate Hoffman like some kind of human puppet and is requesting one final game on Hoffman’s behalf. This time, a spinning saw is positioned above each of the players, the goal of this round is to make the saw drop on the opponent first by winning the round. We don’t want to totally spoil the ending so we’ll leave it there, but rest assured it’s a bumpy ride.
The gameplay of the DLC
Unlike the rest of the game which is a survival horror with FPS elements, 21 is a turn-based card game. There is no moving, shooting, guarding etc. Instead, the player will select cards and executes commands for Clancy. There is no time limit in each turn, before making decisions on each turn, you can move the camera around and check the files menu.
The game plays like a traditional game of Blackjack. Both players choose whether to hit (draw another card) or stay (end your turn and keep the current set of cards that you have). When both players call to stay with the current set of cards, then the face down cards are revealed. The winner is whoever is closest to 21. If you go over 21 then you are bust and automatically lose the round. In the event that both players go over 21 then the player with the lower score wins. The loser of each round either loses a finger or receives an electric shock. Depending on the game mode the game is decided by the first to lose five fingers or take an electric shock when their meter reaches 10.
Unlike traditional blackjack, the cards are numbered 1-11 and there are no royal card symbols. There are also no doubles in the deck and both players share the same deck of cards. Furthermore, there are special cards known as trump cards, which will apply a special effect in each round they are played in. This could be drawing certain cards, increasing the opponent’s bet, changing the target value and more. New Trump cards become available for Clancy to use when certain challenges are completed in other game modes.
This DLC, whilst different from the actual game we enjoy playing, certainly adds a twist and is a great game mode to change the pace of what you are used to in a Resident Evil game and well worth your time and money. Blackjack has never been so scary. If you’re brave enough you can watch it here.