Developer/Publisher: Defiant Development
Price: $19.99(XBone)- $24.99
Release Date: Feb 17th, 2015 (Out Now)
Genre/s: Action, RPG, Card-Western Rpg
Where to buy: Steam, PSN, Xbox
What if I told you someone made a rouge-like table top Fable game, and tossed the elements around in a melting pot. You surely would receive one of the more unique gaming experiences from the indie scene. Hand of Fate’s plot starts you in a dark layer of which supposedly you reach by tossing through several seals(thirteen) to reach a tarot master. Who it is however is covered with blunt mystery. As I can tell your name is called disgruntled the warrior, and your task is to challenge this Pokemon trading card master to a game of Dungeon & Dragons. The game itself allows the scenarios to unfold, building a unique story for each player, with various rewards. So in better words you can find loot (cards) that vary from armor, to weapons, and you may build them into your deck. Your deck consists of two piles, mixing your adventure up with benefits, and disadvantages. Depending on how the deck-master feels, he throws in boons(friends with benefits), or curses(the divorce papers).
The game as mentioned above combines two elements together, a action RPG, feeling a bit like Fable. The deck builder side, being the games strongest factor. Boasting 465 cards to discover and benefit from, or hate. The two decks you own are called Equipment, and Encounters. Equipment basically as you would guess off the bat is merely weapons you would have gained among victories and progression randomly. Encounters being the plots with chances of gaining a advantage vs enemies, or having a misfortune turn of events against them. Combat, while it feels decent and responsive, just is overshadowed by the dungeon crawling card game it preludes to you. Which personally is a shame. Most enemies you encounter feel a bit easy, while the card draws I seem to get if I pick a failure seem to damage me a lot more so much so. Attacking is very easy, you simply press square to melee, R1 to cast a ability spell if you own one. L1 If your weapon has a attack ability on it. Triangle is used to parry attacks if timed correctly, if you end up with a shield that is. Then finally you may dodge by pressing X, along with the direction you wish to move on the analog stick if you are using the PS4 controller like myself, otherwise pretty much the same on Xbox One. After I reached the King of Dust, things began to open up more with the cards. Enemies I fought originally wanted a round two and were not taking a no for a answer. For the sake of science I let myself get hit to see the penalties of if you die in the game. It starts you on whatever boss card you began as via latest one you unlocked. So It is somewhat forgiving, a little too forgiving if you ask me. While yes The Magic the gathering kid can toss a few low blows but other then that he plays Santa Claus on the card chances.
Graphically Hand of Fate reminds me a bit of a play off of borderlands, everything looks sharp and usually impressive, even down to the simple dungeons. It looks like I am glancing at a visual novel. Most of the game has plenty of enemies. From Lizard-men, to bandits to skeletons. One thing that is a little bit underwhelming is the fact most of the enemies look almost the same. If they happen to be in the same faction, they pretty much are the same character model. It does take away a bit of immersion of taking down a group of skeletons, or dust bandits. Music wise, the game grants you a pretty great spread, drawing you into the games depth of dungeon lore. So lets say if a moment gets intense, the music has your back.
One thing I am noticing with the game is frame rate issues when cards shuffle, or if I spawn into a arena fight on the PS4 version. Almost every time if he shuffles all of the cards (when you begin a new game with him, via new boss card.) the game will slowdown. At points I heard the music crackle, or wig out on me whenever something with bass went off, so I said “darn is my TV going off?” I would plug in my headphones, still the same issue, at least on my end. Other then that, it is usually pretty smooth and runs decent past those slight hiccups.
So in closing, this game is one of the most unique experiences of the year so far. With the luck factor almost no one will have the same experience. It is a game if you play it straight through may be completed in ten hours max. It is one of those kind of games, once you went through once, you want to again. The price tag while a little high in theory is something I would have aimed for a fifteen dollar price tag. The experience in Hand of Fate feels very rewarding and addicting. If I could see more games like this in the future, I would not turn them away once more polish with the combat gets placed into the test labs. Past that, the card building hybrid is almost picture perfect fun, it could have a slight bit more of a challenge. Maybe add a difficulty switch of some kind? A game to own for sure however!
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