Hand of Fate

Very interesting game, i liked the whole idea of the game, but last boss was very frustrating...overall its cool game

Guys, guys, GUYS! This is a game that asks nothing and everything from you. From the gameplay, the story, the mystery, the combat, the voice acting... Just grab a copy and play it. And then grab the second one, too!

I got interested in Hand of Fate (HoF) based on the boardgame. I was not disappointed and enjoyed the combination of deckbuilding with action sequences. This is a good leisure game to just play one round pretty fast. I would surely recommend trying it out. However, there were small details that bothered me so much that after finishing the story, I am not very keen on returning to it. First of all, the initial setup of cards and other sequences contain animations that are nice the first time through but when you are playing already for a while, then the animations are just stalling. It would be great to have an option to turn the animations off. Second, the inability to change the camera angle often lead to infuriating situations (e.g., I cannot see where to move in a maze or what is the card on the table). The combat is fun and dynamic to the level of cool, but it became during the story campaign a big repetitive. Especially if some random encounters basically just keep you from advancing. (However, some encounters like these can be mitigated by choosing the right cards.)

NO BS while playing this. No half hour intro movies and exposition. No unskipable cutscenes or transitions. Instantly starts with the player actually playing the game and have them learn by action. Smooth experience, especially for 10 years old. The dealer is a good narrator and brings a lot of atmosphere while explaining new game concepts. The gameplay consists of a bunch of minigames started by the 'map' of cards that make up each 'floor'. These should perhaps be more fleshed out but the overarching gameplay with the story telling through the cards stays interesting. I think it's deserving of the 'good old game' label. Game will basicly run on max settings on any current CPU/iGPU/GPU combo.

The combat is somewhat dated and not as responsive as you want in an ARPG, but functional enough. The traversing and discovery is fairly original and works nicely as a card to video game adaption. However, the balance is not great and difficulty of the cards seems to be drawn at random. So you might encounter a double boss on the first floor before you get a chance to get better gear. And unlike some roguelikes that have out of level encounters, you often can't really escape or use limited resources to deal with them. There's some other annoyances like how the initial card shuffling cannot be skipped The final boss is also bs even on easy difficulty. There's a reason why boss rushes tend to be their own separate path. Overall, still decent ideas and worthwhile to play, but might not want to finish to continue playing.