Vegas Stakes on the SNES breathed some life into its game just by having NPCs approach the player and offer choices that could affect their fortunes.
If you’re going to construct a world with multiple locations, there should be a sense of things actually happening in them apart from poker.
Towns are filled with dull NPCs who either offer small poker tips or menial fluff, and there’s little to do aside from attend the games that pop up on each map. It’s a lofty, lengthy goal, and a potentially adventurous one were it not for how the game is nearly devoid of personality or sense of story. Rinse and repeat, expanding your reach across the state. You start in one dusty little town, but once you own it can play for a horse to reach the next three towns farther out. Towns are claimed by purchasing or winning all the buildings within, and the rent payments you receive from them will slowly trickle into your overall wealth. Two types of games are available: tournaments that pay out if you finish in a high enough place, and cash games that you can leave at any time and at which you can even bet a building. The goal, once you choose and name a male or female character, is to claim the governorship of Texas by winning enough in poker to literally buy up all the towns in the game. The main game, unfortunately, is where things start to become a flop.
