Poker Night at the Inventory Review

Poker Night at the Inventory is a remaster of the game of the same name that was first released sixteen years ago. It’s a Texas hold ’em game played against four other AI players that will at least be vaguely familiar to you if you started playing games on PC twenty or more years ago. You opponents are:

• Max, the hyperkinetic rabbity thing from Sam & Max the comic and the Telltale adventure games
• Strong Bad, star of an animated Flash web series (if you don’t know what that means, don’t ask) and the game Tag Team Wrestling
• The Heavy from Team Fortress 2
• Tycho from Penny Arcade, who was also technically a video game character as well in the days of the original’s release

While these players may not be as recognizable these days, the remake has left their original lines of dialog alone, ensuring that they won’t make old timers feel like their beloved old friends have been ruined while also making them interesting to those who have no idea who these guys are.

The characters’ personalities, dialog, and animations are an integral part of this game – not just for color but because they will give you some insight into the betting styles of each player. Pay attention and you’ll start to pick up on some player tells and notice when their comments unintentionally belie their hands or telegraph their intentions. The game gives you the option to skip through the dialog, but if you do that you’re just left with a Texas hold ‘Em videogame, and quite frankly no stakes poker is actually a pretty boring game.

Winning games at The Inventory will give you more than just virtual bragging rights with fictional characters. The game features an extensive number of unlockables such as card backs, table surfaces, and cosmetic items for your opponents. If unlocking everything that a game has to offer is your thing, you’ll be kept busy for a while here. Conversely, if you’re just here for the poker, there’s only one variant available and there are plenty of options for playing Texas hold ‘em on your computer for free. You’ll get more mileage out of the game if you also come for the company and let the other players entertain you with their banter while you look for their tells and try to pick-up on anything they’ve accidentally revealed. Even with all of that and the unlockables, too, this game will reach the point where you’ve pretty much seen it all and then the inherent repetitive nature of playing a single variant of a single game of cards will take over.