Ever since Hand of Fate went to early access on Steam I’ve put in a lot of time with the game. At the beginning I could never get past the first boss, but hey–this style of game was new to me. I’ve never seen a game take the idea of a card game, add in rogue-like elements and an RPG. Now Hand of Fate is past early access and is finally released on Xbox One, PS4 and PC as of February 13th. Since then I’ve dug back into playing the game nearly every day.
This time I’ve gone far past where I was always getting stuck and have lost track of time while playing the game. Does Hand of Fate offer a great time? Is Hand of Fate something you should pick up? What makes this game so special? These are all great questions, so keep on reading to find out all the details on Hand of Fate.
What is Hand of Fate about? Hand of Fate is a game created by Defiant Development and has been released on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. While many of my reviews go straight into the main story of a game, I can’t really do so here. Why? Hand of Fate has you (the player) tell the story in the fashion of playing a card game. One element I can reveal is that you must battle your way through 16 cards in order to compete against the dealer. Cards that you must overcome include the Jack of Dust, and the King of Scales, among others. The controls to Hand of Fate are straight to the point whether you’re playing with a controller or a mouse. What makes this different from many other card games in the market? What if I told you with this card game you’ll get to play in third person at times as well as see RPG elements? The picture above shows the basics of how the game is played. There is a playing area where the cards are sat, an area for your gold, health, food and items obtained in-game, plus an area for your decks. Let’s start explaining each of these areas.
The top of the screen includes text that tells the story and/or event going on within the game. An example being: Maybe you draw a card that talks about seeing something at the bottom of a cliff and it’ll ask you to climb down or pass on it. you’ll see the text at top stating that area and the card drawn at the left of the screen. Knowing me and most likely anyone else playing you’re going to go after it, but at what cost? At times you’ll be shown four cards, one of which could be failure while the other three could be success or vice versa. If you’re successful you’ll obtain the item, but if you fail you may have to battle any number of enemies. Enemies include Mages, Rats and more. The further you are within Hand of Fate the harder and more/new enemies will show. You’ll see many types of cards as your game piece moves, which range from trading stands to buy/sell items, and even angry mobs. However, I must put out that each time you move you do consume one food, so make sure you don’t run out or your level of health will suffer.
The combat play within Hand of Fate is not of the hack-n-slash style that is seen in most games. Instead, it pulls from the RPG elements such as weapon stats, shield strength, and abilities unlocked as you purchase items and play the game. I’ve already said that the more you get into the game the more features will show within the game, but you’ll love how quickly the game goes from holding your hand to leaving you on your own to die quite often. As for the graphics and audio within the game it’s quite solid on both parts. You can see in the pictures above the game looks good, both while playing in the card area or in the third-person view. The audio in the game is well-suited to the environment as you play, and matches the tone of each section as you progress.
Overall, Hand of Fate on Console and PC is quite good. My suggestion is to pick up both or either since you’ll most likely spend hours each day playing as I have. Defiant Development has made a unique stance in card games and other developers should take note on this. For a card game that ties in RPG elements as well as other features you can’t help but notice that the team has found a winning mix. I’m hoping in the future more updates are pushed to the game to bring in new cards or even game modes if possible. If you’re looking for this game you can find it online on Steam, Xbox One and PS4 for a nice price. It is totally worth every penny!
Totally not a QR code for Hand of Fate for Xbox One:
QR Code Found and Used
