Hand of Fate (PC) (2015)

Overview: A fantasy, action roleplaying game whose basic gameplay mechanics use cards to craft the experience.

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20190907:
Continuing to make my way through my Humble Bundle purchases, today I arrived at the Humble Down Under Bundle and I had trouble choosing which game to play. Among the games, Hacknet and Satellite Reign looked fun but not games I felt like getting into. In contrast, gameplay for Hand of Fate seemed relatively casual.

The "dungeon master" shuffles the cards.

Setup: Xbox controller

Steam Game Time: 2.1 hours

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20190908 AM Hours:
My son woke up at night and so I stayed up to monitor him while he was on the pillow. I played some more Hand of Fate.

Gameplay Log:
I realized you can try and follow the cards. It's like the shell game, except with loss of information.

The player character (right) deals the finishing blow.

Steam Game Time: 5.0 hours (total game time)

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20190908:

Gameplay Log:
After defeating the Queen of Skulls, I went to the Jack of Skulls and then the Queen of Dust to complete several tokens.

Steam Game Time: 7.6 hours (total game time)

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Areas are composed of cards with various layouts. Each area in a level has an entrance and an exit - except for the last area with the boss.

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Great graphics - both during fights and at the table
+ Love the theme; especially how cards come to life and stack onto the player
+ Reasonable rate of difficulty increase
+ Good dialogue and lore
+ Reasonable learning curve
+ Sound effects
+ Rumble effect; it's been a while since I've played a game with rumble feedback

One of the bosses, the Queen of Skulls.

Minor Cons:
- Essentially linear gameplay; perhaps the game provides some choices here and there, and perhaps most choices are initially limited as a way to teach the player how to play
- I think it would be more fair and fun to shuffle the cards like the shell game. The shuffle can be fast, but at least give an edge to a player who has the skill to follow the cards.
- Sometimes the audio tracks repeat or he makes a quip about taking too long when I'm actively reading dialog; the quip should only play if the player truly idles.

Cons:
- Equipment is a little confusing
- The game doesn't describe what happens when the player runs out of food; running out of food results in losing 9 health per move
- Combat is initially cool (due to counter attacks) but becomes repetitive and loses it's appeal

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Certain events involve "Chance." To an extent, the player can partially follow the cards and increase their chances at picking an optimal outcome.

Summary:
The combat felt like it would imitate combat from Batman: Arkham Asylum or Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Instead, it is unfortunately simple. When applicable, the player can attack, counter attack, stun, roll, or use an artifact. As a result, I would recommend players considering Hand of Fate to think of the combat as secondary to the game's deck and role-playing elements.

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20240201 Snapshot:
Steam Game Time: 7.6 hours (cumulative game time) / 7h 33m (Playnite)
Last Played: 20190908

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Hand of Fate (PC) (2015)

Relevant Links:
Hand of Fate (video game) (Wikipedia.org)
Hand of Fate (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Hand of Fate (Steam Store Page)