Filthy Cards – Dirty 7s – App Solo Play Review

Sometimes when you’re sitting in line somewhere and you just don’t want to doom scroll BlueSky or read your e-book that you’ve got on your phone, you just want a little mindless phone app action instead.

That’s when you might want to give Dirty 7s a try.

When app developer Shawn Teskey asked me if I wanted to try this game and review it, I mentioned that I probably wouldn’t be able to do a review of the online multiplayer due to lack of opponents and time to play real-time online games.

He said he was fine with that, so this review is just for the solo version of the app (which is available on iOS and Android, and on the web as well).

This card game can be quite vicious if you really put your mind to it, and there’s a bit of innuendo in the app that I’m not sure if it was intentional or not (so I’m not sure what I think about it, actually).

What’s the game and what the heck am I talking about there?

Let’s take a look at it.

Essentially, Dirty 7s is a card game that you can play with a standard deck of cards if you want to actually play it on the table.

The deck contains the standard 52 cards and then a Joker as well. Cards are dealt evenly to all players.

Whoever has the 7 of Spades plays it to the table.

Players can then either play one of the other 7s, or they can play the 6 or 8 of Spades.

Then you can play the next card in the sequence for any suit.

When it’s your turn, the app highlights which card you can play, which is a nice touch (though you can play with that help turned off).

One of the tricks around this game is that you cannot play a card from any other suit unless that matching card in the Spades suit has been played.

The app shows you which cards can be played on the table as well, though I believe that can also be turned off in “Classic” mode.

So nobody can play the 5 of Hearts until the 5 of Spades has been played in the picture above, for example.

That’s where some of the strategy and tactics in the game comes in.

As long as you can keep playing Spades, you can lock out the other suits from other players, at least until somebody plays the 7 of that suit (and if you have it, then even better!).

Also, if you can play a 7 of a suit, or maybe a 6 or 8, then don’t play the Spades you have because that will keep those numbers locked in the other suits.

It’s really an interesting twist.

As I said, there is one Joker in the game.

You can play that instead of a card, and that will “burn” the card.

That doesn’t remove it from the game.

Instead, it makes it unplayable, which is when you want to make sure it’s not in your hand because it will give you 50 points (points are bad), and 80 points if it’s the Queen of Spades, at the end of the round!

Like in the picture above.

A round ends when somebody has gotten rid of all their cards. The rest of the players score the cards in their hand, with the burned card (if they have it) giving them 50 or 80 points.

If you literally cannot play a card, then you have to be given a card from the neighbour to your right.

That is a great way to get rid of the burned card, giving it to your opponent.

This is where the innuendo comes in, and like I said, I’m not sure if it’s intentional?

Maybe it’s just how my mind works sometimes, but the process of gaining a card like this is called “taking one from behind.”

Is it just me, or is that not a good way to put it?

I also don’t know the history of the card game, so if it’s an older game, maybe that has always been the terminology and it’s not just unique to the app.

I’m just saying, it’s a weird way to put it.

Maybe that’s why it’s called “Dirty 7s?”

I don’t know!

Anyway, the game goes over 7 rounds. At the end, whoever has the lowest total score wins.

I don’t know about the multiplayer because I am not able to try it out, but the game itself is actually a really interesting way to play cards with a basic deck.

It has some interesting tactical decisions based on the cards that you have, especially when your lefthand opponent has to take a card from you.

You can really screw them up by giving them a card that won’t be able to be played for a while.

Assuming you don’t have a burned card, in which case you get rid of that!

I could see this being played on the table pretty easily as well.

How is the app?

The app has a nice instructions button that clearly shows you how to play and also includes instructions for the various game modes.

There are two game modes (for solo play at least, but I assume for multiplayer as well?).

Assisted (where playable cards are highlighted, cards that can’t be played are dimmed, the burned card is marked for you, and the “take from behind” process happens automatically) is the easier one.

Of course, the latter wouldn’t be the case in multiplayer because that’s a decision the player makes, not an AI.

Classic mode doesn’t help you at all, with no highlighting and you have to tap the button to say you need to take a card.

If you play an invalid card, your hand is locked for 3 seconds.

That doesn’t matter in solo play against AIs, but apparently online multiplayer games have a player timer.

If your hand is locked for 3 seconds, that’s 3 seconds that you can’t play.

If your time runs out, the AI does your move for you so that the game will continue.

A nice way to make sure no idiot leaves their phone to go have dinner and keeps everybody hanging.

I do like how the final scoreboard shows you who got burned each round (the red number).

You can also play with up to 7 players (you and 6 AIs or, if you’re playing multiplayer, have at it!) and there are three AI difficulties.

There are also daily challenges which could be fun but I haven’t tried those yet.

Today’s is “Burn Notice” (cause 3 opponent burns, and you start with the Joker in 4 of the 7 rounds) and Flawless Escape (finish with 10 points or fewer).

Those are cool ways to keep the game fresh.

Just before writing this review, I checked for public lobbies for online multiplayer and there weren’t any.

It could just be the wrong time of day, but it’s very possible that to get the maximum online multiplayer benefit, you might have to set up your own lobby, which could be public, or could be private (which you can do by creating the room and sending the invite code to the people you want to join).

Dirty 7s is available on iOS and Android, as well as a free web browser version.

A nice, simple card game with a little bit of bite (and you can take that any way you want).

(Many thanks to publisher for the product code in exchange for a free and unbiased review)