So I bought this game and posted the preview below on Facebook yesterday. I've made better use of the deck and board since, and may post more impressions later. While I don't have any illusions and can understand why a Solitaire game didn't attract a lot of attention in a community like ours, I hope Nexus has been well-received elsewhere, and I'm glad I bought it. Yes, it's Solitaire, but I wouldn't put it in the time waster category with other Solitaire games.
Learning to play Nexus: The Zoraidian Oracle, or as I shall more affectionately refer to it, "Fantasy Solitaire On Crack". Picked up this gem at
Aethericworlds.com for 2 bucks and found a surprisingly deep card game for Solitaire. There are many ways to build iterative sets as well as themed sets, along with known and hidden achievement badges. The deck is comprised of 144 cards(!) with gobsmacking art, each of which can be opened to reveal a story or epithet and set-building possibilities. According to the indie studio that made it (a bunch of former City of Heroes players--a pretty industrious crowd if you haven't noticed), it's inspired by "Hanafuda, a traditional Japanese flower card game (similar to mah jongg or rummy)," but in this case they've steeped their deck in original Western fantasy and Tarot-like themes. The UI is greatly customizable (remember, CoH players...) with different color themes for its various aspects and background art selections.
TL;DR: Makes an ordinary 52-card deck look really lame. If you want all of that but with friends,
Aetheric Worlds is now working on an expanded multiplayer physical card game "...where players use warfare, alchemy, politics, and divine intervention to gain supremacy of the world," aiming for Autumn 2016.