You find yourself at a table in a strange place. Across from you is a mysterious man, his face hidden. Are you ready to play his game, defeat his challenges, collect all the cards, and face your fate?

Hand of Fate is Rogue-Like RPG that also combines a Deck-Building card game with an Action Brawler. This game also has a strong feeling of a choose-your-own adventure.

Mechanics

Every level you play is randomly generated and if you die you have to start the mission all over again. What makes this game different from the other Rogue-Likes out there is instead of the level just being randomly generated by the computer you actually have somewhat control how your game may turn out. As you play though the game you unlock cards. You can use these cards to build your decks, which determine what equipment will be available for you to use in the game and also determine what encounters you may come across as you move though the level. The encounter cards are then dealt out on the table. You must move your character from card to card, dealing with whatever encounter you land on, until you reach the exit to the next level of the mission, ultimately making your way to the boss.

You find yourself progressing though the game trying to get from the starting position to the exit to the next level. Each move you make consumes food, if you don’t have food when you move your character loses health. Each move you make delivers you a new encounter to deal with. Encounters can be everything from being ambushed by rat men or skeletons, fighting goblins to get back items they stole from you, helping a dying man by hunting down the men who robbed his town, giving food to a priest to receive a blessing, etc.

There are also encounters that will have you make a choice. For example you can calm an angry mob by giving them half your food, or you can try to avoid trouble. Whether or not you succeed in an event is often determined by you choosing between 4 cards that represent success or failure. Some events, the likelihood of them going your way are better than others. If you succeed, you most likely be rewarded with food, gold, blessings, and/or items from the equipment deck you made.

Building a deck in this game is incredibly important. While you are able to let the computer make a deck for you of suggested cards, you can make much more of a personalized adventure if you do it yourself. And of course the decks can get more and more complicated as you gain more cards. While creating a deck you will not know exactly what an encounter is until you actually play it in game, so it encourages you to test new things. Also with many of the encounters you are able to win the ability to unlock more cards if you successfully complete them. That too also encourages you to change your deck around as well.

So far this game is just sounding like a RPG Card game but what I haven’t talked about yet is, in most encounters the cards come alive in a 3D setting where you take full control of your character. The fighting in this game is very Arkham like, mostly focused on chaining attacks and countering attacks right at the right moment. This usually happens with encounters where you most fight creatures, make your way through a trap filled maze, got to a shop, etc.

Now the reason you ultimately go through all these encounters is to make yourself ready to face the boss at the end. Hopefully your luck was with you and you were able to get enough equipment to help you succeed. Each boss in the game has a unique attribute. Some can’t be blocked; some have strong special attacks, etc. Some bosses also have effects that affect you throughout the whole level, like one was every time I finished a combat encounter the King of Dust, boss of the level, would take a certain amount of gold off me depending on how much health I had left. This of course makes it harder to get the items and food you need to get to him. It was added on to the fact that because he was the leader of the bandits, it was more likely you will come into an encounter against bandit ambushes.

Atmosphere and Story

Right off the bat there isn’t much of a story in the game. You don’t even know why you find yourself playing this Mysterious Man’s game. But as the game progresses you pick up info here and there from the Dealer as he makes hints at things. Also in the card game itself each boss has a story behind him or her. This story too is expanded on by the Dealer.

The Dealer adds so much to the game and really has an “in the moment” feeling to him. He will bring up info on the boss you will have to face, as well as make hints of others who have played at this table before. But what is really neat is how he will react to certain decisions you make, like he will make comment on you keeping certain cards in the game and make you second guess yourself on the choices given to you.

The art style of the game is very interesting. The art on the cards look like they could have been taken out of one of those old Choose-Your-Own Adventure Books; while the look of the rest of the game has a wonderful art style and nuances.

My Opinion of the Game

All in all I think this is a wonderful game. The combination of Deck-Building and 3-D Brawler is something I haven’t really seen in a game yet and they mostly nail it down pretty well. The strength of the game is definitely the personality of the game expressed though the Dealer, as well as the endless combinations and exploration of the cards.

If I had to say what one of the flaws of the game was, it would most likely be the combat. It is defiantly a combat style that is being used a lot lately; the Arkham like system of attack combos and countering when it indicates too. They do pull it off decently but at times it feels a bit clunky, especially in the movement. But once you get the hang of it and also get some good gear that gives you special abilities in combat, it begins to feel better. Though I do wish I was able to move a camera around sometimes. Because of the combat I would definitely suggest using a controller on this game.

This game has wonderful mechanics, an awesome art style, and a wonderful replay-ability. I would suggest this game to anyone who likes card games, RPGs, rogue-likes, brawlers, and/or choose-your-own adventure games. It is clearly on my list of some of my favorite games I’ve played in a long while.

You can find the game on Steam here

Also Available on PS4 and Xbox One.