Title: Hand of Fate
Developers: Defiant Development
Publisher: Defiant Development
Genre: RPG, Card Game, Roguelike
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Playstation 4
Reviewed On: Xbox One
Lately, I've been fairly disappointed with the AAA game market. Very few of these blockbuster titles have offered something truly new and creative, with a few exceptions. I've had to look towards the much more fragmented indie market to really see the creativity of developers flow, and I've definitely found a good choice in Hand of Fate, the new Kickstarter-backed release from Defiant Development.
The premise of the game is a bit complicated, so bear with me. The game is a combination of deckbuilding, Batman: Arkham style combat, and tabletop-style adventuring, with you building a deck of custom cards, and the game generating an adventure based on that deck. You can have two separate decks to construct an adventure, an equipment deck, which includes things like weapons, armor, and shields, and an encounter deck, which contains the events that will create your adventure. Sound complicated? It really isn't, but it's much easier to grasp while playing, rather than having it explained. The deckbuilding doesn't need to be done either, if it doesn't interest you, as the game can generate a recommended set of decks, allowing you to jump right into the game.
Once created, the adventure starts. You move your character to each card in the adventure, through various combat and non-combat encounters. The non-combat encounters have a choose-your-own-adventure style choice to each one, providing different rewards or challenges based on what you choose. There are a huge amount of these encounter cards in the game, and many encounters will give you more cards at the end of the adventure, allowing you to diversify the adventure more and more, the further you get in the game.
There are also combat encounters that appear in the game, with the combat itself performing in the vain of the Batman: Arkham series, or Shadow of Mordor. You have the ability to attack, dodge, stun, and counter, should you find a shield. It's functional, but not much more than that. It simply lacks the production values of either of the aforementioned series, which leads to the combat feeling floated and not very satisfying.
The combat, however, doesn't affect what is by far the best part of the game, the presentation. Over the course of the game, you will be playing the game with a mysterious cardmaster, and he breathes so much life and personality into the game. He reacts organically to the cards drawn, and makes various remarks as you play through the game. Cards fly across the screen and shuffle, cards equip your character as you spawn, and enemies spawning from cards. It creates a sense and atmosphere of playing a tabletop card game, and is by far the best part of the game.
That being said, the game has some definite flaws, mostly technical, and a few design issues. On the Xbox One version, I've noticed a fair few framerate drops, particularly when there are a large amount of cards floating on screen. I've also noticed these drops happening during combat, albeit rarely. The combat, mentioned above, feels floaty, due to the animations and sound effects, although this most likely has to do with financial limitations of independent development.
I stated above that the independent game developers seem to be the ones with the creative, ambitious ideas in the gaming industry, and Hand of Fate is a perfect example of that. In a AAA gaming industry filled with uninspired clones and fun base games with no content, the independents are more and more stepping up to the base, and I will gladly support them. If you enjoy card games, RPGs, roguelikes, or table-top games, Hand of Fate is by far worth the $20 price tag. If you're looking for a new, interesting experience, give this one a shot, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
The Pros:
- Great Presentation
- Addictive Card Collecting and Deck Building
The Cons:
- Some Technical Issues
- Floaty Combat
Final Score: 7 out of 10
