Take one part deck-building card game, add one part Choose Your Own Adventure novel, and shuffle with a little light action combat — that’s the deck composition of Hand of Fate, a unique twist on card-based role-playing now available on Steam and PlayStation 4.
That Defiant Development’s 2013 Kickstarter for Hand of Fate barely squeaked past its modest funding goal is no surprise — trying to describe the concept with words instead of a demonstration of the game isn’t easy. Luckily I have just such a demonstration available. Pardon my congestion.
For those of you allergic to video, the idea is the player is engaging fate in a life-or-death game of cards. Each hand dealt is a dungeon level, complete with special events, random battles, shops and the like, all depending on how the cards in dealer’s deck fall.
There are 16 main enemies to face, each represented by a face and a card suit. Defeat one and new cards are added to both the player and the dealer’s decks, adding more danger and reward to each subsequent hand.
Moody and atmospheric, one can almost smell the musky old cards as they spin across the table or feel the heat of the dealer’s steely gaze. The illusion of a darkened tent at the edge of the unknown only falters during combat, an odd little action affair in which the player must dodge, parry and counter in order to survive. There’s a little Arkham in there — I guess that’s appropriate.
Hand of Fate is not an easy game, nor is it a simple one. Managing resources, crafting the perfect deck, mastering combat — there’s a lot going on below that card-covered table. It’s the sort of hybrid deck-building game that could only exist in two places — imagination and video game space — and it marries the two quite well.
Hand of Fate is now available on Steam and PlayStation 4.
Comments
13 responses to “A Card-Based Role-Playing Game Like No Other”
If you haven’t played this or checked it out yet, do so. It’s fantastic.
And Australian made, soooo support the local games industry!
I saw this game quite some time ago, my two main complaints were an uninteresting combat system and repetitive content. How’s it looking these days?
Been playing since the Alpha? Beta? one of those, and there’s a lot that’s been added which I think removes the “repetitive content” side of things, but if you didn’t like the combat I’m not sure that enough has changed in that regards.
Well, I’ll probably check it out at some point, it’s definitely an interesting premise.
While the idea is interesting, I was hoping it would be more like Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories with a more turn-based battle system. Still looks like it’s worth checking out though.
Looks pretty damn interesting. Might have a look at it on ps4
i heard it was coming to the xbox one too…maybe not?
Yep it’s currently in the Live store as we speak.
Wow, that certainly looks different. will def give this a go when I get the chance.
*Blatantly ignores the agonised screams from the hip pocket*
“Shut up, wallet!”
I think it’s on GOG, too.
Links to Steam would be nice. Cos lazy.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/266510/
20% off for launch
GODDAMNIT THE THINGS I DO BECAUSE YOU TELL ME TO TIGS.
*unzips wallet*
*sighs*
I blame you entirely.
Aussie dev who successful used Kickstarter and Early access and has now launched their game
You are doing the right thing