Hand of Fate starts off with a simple storytelling system that traps the player into the familiar downward spiral of "just one more game" with its nasty difficulty.
You play a hybrid card game/action role-playing game against a card dealer who represents the Dungeon Master for a typical paper RPG. The drawn action cards represent your random encounters as you progress through your campaign. Some are the typical enemy encounters; some are with strangers who may be helpful or harmful depending upon your approach; and yet others are you trying to traverse the terrain blocking your path to victory.
The approach is simple yet elegant! While you may see the path of cards to be turned over that you are going to have to survive, the balancing act of searching for enough loot/resources while keeping your character strong enough to have a chance at the final battle is maddening. If you avoid all encounters, you will run out of food and lack the gold to purchase proper equipment to kit out your adventurer. Taking on every challenge is a great way to leave you rich but beaten... it's very much a dice roll on every random encounter on whether to press on or retreat.
Combat sequences are a simple slash and bash affair with a simple countering/blocking system – a welcome dash of action into the story-telling that players are exposed to in the narrative. While not terrible, they don't exactly represent anything that we haven't already experienced multiple times in the past.
The only performance issues I experienced were when the number of enemies on-screen got crowded – and the in-game frame-rate took a dip and the game chugged along. I had a few experiences of odd-hit detection (took a blow that should not have connected or wild swings that somehow did damage to an enemy) but nothing too jarring and chalked it up to a forgiveable foible in an otherwise enjoyable game.
The difficulty curve for Hand of Fate deserves a review of its own.
The game is by definition a "card-game" and as you progress through missions successfully, you unlock more Encounter and Loot cards for yourself (and more opportunities for the Dealer to bend you over a barrel). Early encounters are almost cute – you easily dispatch enemies and have more loot than you know what to do with and can take stupid chances without any concern. Mid-game encounters are tough; you make a mistake, odds are that you aren't going to survive but you might get lucky. Late-game encounters are the equivalent to the Kobayashi-Maru test: you are set up to fail, maybe a miracle will happen and you'll be able to string together enough success to make a game of it, but don't count on it. My success rate of campaigns is abysmal at the current level but help me if I don't keep going back for another opportunity to get kicked in the junk by the Dealer.
All in all, Hand of Fate is a particularly addictive indie game, one that I have enjoyed my time with and would highly recommend to fans of tough roguelikes, D&D or tabletop players, or those looking for a more innovative RPG experience.
- Tazman
Follow @MichaelSiewert
The Good:
- Very original game – part Roguelike, part Tabletop/D&D experience
The Bad:
- Some annoying slowdown/frame-rate issues
- Hit detection/combat was very odd in places
- The difficulty as you progress can be controller-throwing
