Hand of Fate Review – Luck of the Draw

Developed by: Defiant Development

Published by: Defiant Development

Release Date: February 17th, 2015

Available on: PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), Xbox One & PC

I helped a captain take back his ship from a group of bandits. I’ve been lied to and been taken advantage of. Had some or all my goods stolen. I was rewarded for helping a pair of lovers from the evils of their parents. I made a bet with the devil, and I even talked to a goblin wearing a mustache so he can disguise himself as a human in a tavern. These are just small tastes of what you can expect to draw in Hand of Fate, a card building action RPG that takes the best parts about Dungeon & Dragons, choose your own adventure books, and games like the Batman: Arkham series. It is an interesting and unique game though one also suffering from a number of issues that make me feel conflicted about recommending it to you.

Hand of Fate does something I’ve never seen done in a game before: it blends the deck building excitement of games like Magic: The Gathering into an action RPG with rogue-like elements. It’s truly a genre of its own. You start off by choosing a boss from a row of 3. These bosses are the minions of “The Dealer”, the mysterious man you are playing against. This is his game, his rules, and he isn’t too kind to have you surviving his challenges. You build a deck containing both equipment – good stuff for you – and the many challenges you will encounter in your quest – usually really bad for you. Once the deck is built, it is shuffled and The Dealer sets the cards face down in what would resemble a dungeon. As you go throughout the dungeon you will flip the cards over, revealing either loot or challenges you must face. You want to choose your adventure carefully, and you are treated with many options as to how to play. But, no matter how well you think you stacked your deck in your favor, it somehow always comes back to haunt you. On top of that, The Dealer adds some of his own cards into the mix (because why not?).

The Dealer is also a very interesting and thought-out character in the game. He adds a great sense of determination for you to not only prove him wrong, but also to totally destroy what he has so carefully built. Throughout your adventure, he’ll not only praise you for doing well but flat-out taunt you and insult you when the odds have not been in your favor. Having him constantly in your sights as you move throughout the dungeon he’s built gives you motivation to outplay him in his own game. I was surprised at how much dialogue was recorded and can’t recall hearing the same dialogue option more than once.

I found myself frequently nervous at selecting which route to take next. What was lying for me on the next card? Should I just continue on my quest, or be selfish and try to explore and get more equipment to make myself stronger, or gold and food so I can continue my adventure for longer? The game does a fantastic job at setting a really tense feeling, never knowing where you might go, or what you might find (even though you, in a way, know what is in the deck). Throughout the adventure you can gather equipment for your character and this is where the slight RPG elements come into play. Maces, swords, axes, light armor, heavy armor, rings, abilities, etc, these are all in your deck, but somehow always feel out of reach. Each time one of my encounters would grant me “gain” cards, and I would draw an equipment card, I’d get excited. The not-knowing what’s next part of Hand of Fate is what draws you into playing more and more.

But – sometimes you’ll get card that bring you into a battle, and where Hand of Fate’s first flaw draws through.The combat in Hand of Fate is very reminiscent of the free-flow combat from Batman: Arkham series. The animations for each swing are pretty good, and I can’t say that the combat isn’t fun (though it’s also a little simple). There isn’t much to it besides attacking and countering. The abilities you get can help you when you’re in trouble, but they don’t add much in terms of overall combat. I would have liked to have more moves available to me based on the weapon I was wielding. There’s a point where I would be mindlessly pressing the attack button just to hurry up and continue on the quest, not enjoying it whatsoever. While other times, I would enjoy dodging and countering because I was so close to reaching the end, but it felt so far away. There’s a lack of variety in the equipment and how it handles, but the combat is simple and does it’s job.

Another major frustrations with Hand of Fate comes in some of the card mechanics. For example, you will often have to pass a check by choosing a “Success” card that is paired with three “Failure Cards”. The “Success” card is then shuffled in, and you will be tempted to track it with your eyes in order to make sure you succeed. But the problem here is that it’s near impossible to track how the cards get reshuffled. As a result, it is not  a game of “follow the card”, but a complete guessing game. There were many times that I would blindly choose my option even though I was trying to track the card with my eyes. There isn’t a clear indication of when a certain card is below one, or in-between so while you might start following a card well, the moment it goes into one of these mystery sections, it’s lost and you pick blindly. The difficulty of the game also spikes a bit too quickly near the end of the game, the final boss gave me the biggest challenge mostly due to the cards added by The Dealer.I have yet to beat him.

The third major issue is constant bugs, glitches and framerate issues. Multiple times after finishing a session I would be asked if I wanted to continue, but the game wouldn’t prompt me to continue and instead just sat there forcing me to quit and restart it. I’ve also had the sound completely disappear in battle, leaving only the groans and cries from my character or enemies as each are being hit, followed by a framerate drop that was simply unplayable. While some of these bugs happened randomly throughout my entire playthrough, majority of them happened on the final boss multiple times over. It really took away from a game that’s so well built on its mechanics but somehow lucked out on the stability side of things.

I’m very conflicted on how to feel about Hand of Fate. On one hand, the unique concept of deck-building meets action RPG is interesting enough and presented in a unique build-your-own-adventure style. It’s fun, challenging and feels rewarding when completing your overall quest. There’s enough variety in the cards and what they do to make each game feel fresh. There’s a great sense of adventure and times where I got both excited or disappointed based on the route I chose to take. On the other hand, my experience with the game was plagued with many bugs, glitches and framerate issues that it hindered some of the enjoyment from this interesting and unique title. Hopefully some of these issues can get fixed with patches, and until then Hand of Fate will remain a promising but frustrating experience.