Hand of Fate – Quick Review

Since it was on sale and the review were by and large positive, I just picked up a copy of Hand of Fate. I’ve been watching this one for awhile and with a 50% discount, it was time to grab a copy and see if it was any good. Mind you, I’m normally not one for deck building games. They really don’t tickle my fancy, but from everything I read, there is a lot more to this.

I’ve only played for 2 hours, but I find Hand of Fate to be extremely entertaining. It’s a mix of deck building, RPG and Choose Your Own Adventure. You are dealt a series of card that determine the course of your adventure. You are given a situation and a few choices of how it can play out. Sometimes this takes the form of choosing the Success card from the deck, choosing to share food or gold with a stranger you meet or being robbed by Goblins. From there you engage in combat using the mouse and keyboard to direct your attacks and countermoves. You have limited health and food as well as some less than spectacular weapons and armor when you start off. If you survive you can receive a reward which might be food, health, gold, weapons or armor.

You advance across a series of card to either face the final test of the match or perhaps escape to the next level. Since it all based on the luck of the draw, it keeps you guess as to what happens next.

It’s a pretty interesting game which gets rid of the whole idea of "min/max" like you see in a normal RPG. It play like an adventure book where you have to guess the right door, pick the right path or steer clear of an area that is most likely going to get you killed.

Hand of Fate doesn’t get bogged down with the deck building either. You can put one together if you like so you can control your destiny or you can let the computer put one together which will have all sorts of weapons, armor and destinations picked. I suppose once I become more familiar with how everything works, I might be more comfortable with building my own. However, there is just as much luck as anything else. You may pick the Failure card and be crushed in a rock slide before you ever made it to combat. You might piss off a gypsy and get a curse put on your head while having a drink in the tavern. You might defeat your enemy, but then get shot in the ass by an arrow from halfway across the screen.

It’s not just about the cards that are deal, it’s also about the decisions you make and whether you get the punishment or the reward.

I have to say, this game is pretty cool and well worth the $10 to get the base game and the DLC of new cards. This should keep me entertained for quite a while.