Carrying a shield doesn’t just provide the ability to counterattack it shows an icon that predicts enemy attacks, suggesting the best time to dodge or back off. It isn’t dignified, and isn’t especially helpful against swarms, but being without a shield can force strange tactics. Special attacks are charged by swinging the weapon, so a suitably nimble hero can alternate between rolling around the battlefield and swinging at the air to build up special attacks. Magical weapons add to the fun with special attacks. As routine as the battles against rank-and-file bandits and ratmen can get, landing a powerful hammer blow at the end of a lengthy combo carries a palpable weight that’s worth experiencing.
Consecutive attacks build combo chains, which increase damage and add gratifying slow motion effects to the brutal strikes. Early scuffles can be mashed through, while later battles depend strongly on deck composition and which enemies are drawn for each encounter. Most standard enemies’ attacks can be countered with the shield or dodged with a quick roll.
HAND OF FATE TRAILER FULL
Encounters rarely lack the threat of violence, which leads to combat.Ĭombat is fast and visceral action-RPG fare, but only gets to show off its full range during boss battles. Completing the challenges on many cards earns the player a token, which can be traded in for new cards. Other cards are less complicated, and simply provide a piece of equipment, a blessing, a curse, supplies, or damage drawn from the appropriate deck. Other encounters are driven by a four-card monte mechanic: keep your eye on the moving card to determine whether the buried treasure contains a handful of coins, a rare fragment of a map leading to a new quest, or a debilitating curse. Some encounter cards offer the player a moral (or to be more honest, a cost/benefit analysis) scenario. For example, the hero must decide what to do with an unattended treasure chest or whether to help a feckless bard and the guildmaster’s daughter elope. Moving onto a card flips it over and displays its story. What could go wrong?Įach scenario consists of exploring a map made out of facedown cards from the encounter deck. The Dealer shuffles his own special blend of cards into each deck at the start of each themed scenario and the journey begins. The player unlocks new cards through play and uses them to stock an equipment deck and an encounter deck. Although it would have been interesting to further explore the epistemological effect of a hero who rearranges his memories to optimize his present, the concept primarily serves as a level-up mechanic.
Here, the hero literally filters through past memories and decides which ones are likely to aid in the forthcoming challenges. Deck building is a popular mechanic in tabletop games, but the act of building the deck is rarely part of the narrative. Hand of Fate consists of three main sections: deck building, navigating encounters, and battle.
Working within the game’s logic to create better odds for success is a satisfying adventure that tests the player’s reflexes and deck-building acumen. After all, without rules there would be no measure for comparing victory and defeat. Like an adversarial dungeon master, the Dealer delights in the player’s setbacks but sticks to the rules. The Dealer adds his own cards to the mix to create unexpected scenarios. The cards are drawn from the character’s life - events that have taken on metaphoric importance much like a personal tarot. The conversation takes place over a spread of cards, which the player navigates a turn at a time. Hand of Fate by Defiant Development uses a card game of life and death between a nameless warrior and the wizened Dealer to comment on the similarity between life and games, as well as the rules that control them both. To be recognizable as a game, an activity needs rules to define a contest or justify a set of actions. Many definitions of “game” focus on rules.
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