Sometimes I look at a game in my backlog that I wanted to review at some point and think “huh, this is neat, but a bit light on mechanics” or “this feels somehow outdated”, I’m not having a bad time per se, but I feel like other games have expanded on these mechanics so much that playing a “leaner” version is almost quaint. Then I realize the game in question released in 2014. Hand of Fate is a roguelike where you create an adventure by drawing cards, fight through enemies and get new cards to find new experiences the next time you get a new run going. It’s fun, but almost quaint in its simplicity.
I kinda enjoyed the framing device of the storyteller picking up cards and telling you what’s going on, like a dungeon master, you go from from where you have to make decisions (should I attempt to go down the ravine or pass the opportunity to find a new weapon?) to very simple fights where you left click to attack, right click to stun, and can counter/dodge in certain situations. It’s all well written and the style is pretty neat. It also felt very light, combats were more or less all the same for the duration I played, even boss fights didn’t spice things up enough, and while this is not a bad thing, I felt that the earnestness of the game to be exactly -that- rubbed me the wrong way, I was always waiting for another shoe of meta-gaming to drop.
At some point, six packs of DLC were either proposed to me, or unlocked, and it wasn’t clear, I didn’t know if the game wanted me to buy them to continue on side stories or if I suddently had a bucketload more cards to play with, and that was a bit jarring.
Ultimately I’m not holding any of this against Hand of Fate, it’s an older game and I kinda wish I would’ve played it when it was hot off the presses. I’m just more used to more modern iterations of the genre nowadays, I guess?
