adminSince this project was created by a small studio and there was no advertising for the project as such, I decided to tell stopgame about it. Because he really deserves attention. As the developers themselves describe their game: “Hand of Fate is a hybrid of roguelike, action-RPG and deck-building card games. The player himself assembles a deck of cards. These cards determine the levels of the dungeon where the character will act. When the battle begins, all the cards collected by the player appear in the form of three-dimensional objects that can be disposed of directly during the battle.»
The number of cards is huge!
In the "adventure" mode, there are a damn dozen gates that open the way to certain bosses (they range from jack to ace, and also have the same suit as their minions). This path is lined with cards, revealing which you will find out what events were destined to intersect with you. There are a great many of these events, and whether they will develop successfully or unsuccessfully depends only on you, and how the card will fall too, yes. With a certain outcome, they receive a continuation (you receive a “chip” that gives access to it). The more you play, the more twisted and dangerous your paths become. Dangers can await you even where they were not expected at all, just like blessings, because this game honors balance – by strengthening enemies, new powers are also granted to the player.
When building a deck, cards are divided into two types – equipment and encounters.
The first point is www.hippo-bingo-casino.co.uk familiar to everyone from any RPG. Weapons, shields, armor (which, among other things, is classified depending on severity, everything according to the canon), helmets, jewelry. All items can also have passive (and weapons can also have active) magical effects, which opens up room for variety… and it’s here! In addition to the above, there are artifacts – activated (the number of activations is limited) items that temporarily provide some kind of advantage in battle, which require time to recharge.
Meetings are events that in most cases unfold not before our eyes in the form of animated scenes, but in our imagination, making the latter work. Stories are literally written in front of us, and in a language that is pleasant to read, even literary (including in Russian) – I would say. At certain moments, as a rule, you are required to choose one “luck card” from four offered, which are divided into four types – luck, big luck, failure and terrible failure. In this case, first the Dealer (I will call him that) shows the positions of these cards, then shuffles them face down and, finally, gives you a choice. It is worth noting that even if you fail, you are often given the opportunity to save the situation… for example, in battle. Thus, there is no feeling that everything here is ruled by randomness and fortune, and little depends on the player. Fate (both yours and the characters you meet along the way) is truly in your hands. There are also blessings and curses that the player does not have the power to choose from the deck. It is possible to remove the latter, but lose the former.
When push comes to shove, all the loot and enemies from the stories come to life and the action-RPG begins. We have at our disposal a strike with the main weapon, a roll no shelter to the side, stun and counterattack (if you have certain equipment), as well as an artifact (if you have it and are fully charged). In addition, there are various trap mechanisms on the battlefield that can both harm and help you during tactical actions. Considering the huge number of equipment variations and the optimal frequency of battles, this part of “Hand of Fate” will not let you get bored along with the rest.
"Are you ready to sell weapons to eat?»
Finally, it is worth touching on the component of such micromanagement. There are 3 variables – health, food, gold. With each “move” of your figure on the table, part of the food is lost (but the health scale is slightly replenished); when food is depleted, hunger sets in, and health is consumed for each move. You can make up for all this in different ways: shops (and merchants are found here) are divided into several types, relatively speaking, according to the types of goods and services provided, but food is present in the assortment of each of them… sometimes you are faced with a difficult choice between food and equipment: once you had to sell a sword that served faithfully in battle to satisfy your hunger; during certain events there is also a chance to get anything you want; the magical properties of some things can help replenish resources. As can be seen from my description, everything in “Hand of Fate” is interconnected and, stepping once again on the path of adventure, it is impossible to say with complete confidence what awaits you ahead. This speaks of the integrity and excellent replayability of the project.
Paths are not always linear
By the way, completing the “adventure” mode is not the end of the game, but only its beginning. After all, the gates to the “endless mode” will open (in fact, they will become open after completing the first four bosses), where the frames of the deck of the nth number of cards will be discarded and all the cards you have opened will be entered. And the true test will begin, in which the player will survive as long as possible.
75% of “successful” cards are the exception rather than the rule
So, “Hand of Fate” is a game, unfortunately, not for everyone. Here a lot of action and scenes will unfold in the text and in your head. But if for you, like for me, this fact is not a problem, then “Hand of Fate” will become a real gem, a breath of fresh air, if you like. The project will give you countless unique adventures. Defiant Development, the developers of Hand of Fate, is a small studio that, with money raised on Kickstarter ($54,000), managed to create a masterpiece in which there are no unnecessary details and everything is connected to each other. By experimenting with mixing genres, the developers “pulled the card of great luck”. Because it really works!
P. S. The dealer is not a fortune teller, he immediately called them pathetic charlatans, who sometimes themselves begin to believe in their own lies, he is not going to predict fate, but offers to make it with his own hands, right at the table. The dealer clearly killed hundreds of souls by offering to play a game with him. He collected these decks for centuries and no one managed to reach the end. Will you succeed?
