It’s all in the cards when it comes to “Hand of Fate 2”. Take your chances, roll the dice, and stack your deck in your favor. So while at the same time take a trek down an interesting storyline with interesting characters. Having not played the original “Hand of Fate”, I am judging this game on what it brings to the table and not against what was there before.
After creating your character, you move along a board made up of action cards that are randomly placed down. Some of the cards are scenario specific, and others are cards that you the player had selected that will help you on the journey. These cards can range from traps to taverns, and much more in a large number of cards you can also win equipment cards that you had chosen before the scenario had started.
There are a number of things that made me shake my head with their decisions made, and others that just don’t make much sense. My biggest pet peeve when it comes to “Hand of Fate 2” is that while the game is set in a tone of a D&D RPG, but there is no character progression.
There are cards and instances where hit points are increased, and items won, but nothing of this is carried over to the next scenario. Instead, each new scenario feels like you are starting out at level one (so to speak), and at no point, do you feel like your character is growing stronger.
Weapons and finishers are interesting, far too few of them exist at least to my liking. They do, however, grow in strength based on how many times you can pull off that weapon’s special attack. Furthermore, that specific attack is based on an Batman: Arkham Asylum-like style of combat with consecutive hits without getting hit. So depending on the weapon this can be eight hits or more.
Combat is fairly clunky, yes there is a level of Git Gud, but a lot of controls that weren’t really optimized that great for a controller. Thankfully, they did make it so you can change around your control scheme to make it feel how you want. Actions are also not as fluid as what I would have liked, but then once the timing is figured out combat is something that can be mastered.
I did encounter a decent amount of lag (mostly during loading screens), but I’m not really putting this against the publisher. This I will put mostly on the engine used. You see, this isn’t the only game made in Unity where lag is an issue when it comes to Nintendo Switch games. So I hope that at some point I hope that Unity fixes in the near future.
Starting off you are chasing down a thief who had stolen something from you, after catching up to him, you gain your follower. More is gained throughout the storyline, and each of them has their own storyline for you to follow. These storylines are interesting enough to make you want to find out more about their story and end up having a hard choice on whose storyline you want to continue next.
Unlocking more cards on your journey, this is something that does keep growing. So from placing down taverns and other places that can help you along, to new weapons and armor that will make it easier to smash some faces without getting smashed yourself.
When it comes to armoring and rings, there is a massive plethora of choices that can become hard to choose what you want for your journey. I simply wished that these choices are equipment that your character starts off with, and why not I earned them just from past scenarios.
Other than that, there are also blessings that can be earned. What these can do is very wide-ranging, more hit points, better dice rolls, more food, the list just keeps going. There seems to really be no end to what blessings are available to your character, and while this is all done on random, it keeps the game interesting. This is something that keeps “Hand of Fate 2” fun is just how random everything is from card to card or praying for a good dice roll.
So, what’s my final say and conclusion on “Hand of Fate 2” then? Well, all in all, “Hand of Fate 2” is a rather well-made and fun action-RPG/roguelike card game. So if you enjoyed the first game, then I’m quite sure that you’re going to enjoy the second game as well (despite the cons that I have brought up in this review).
In other words, if you own a Nintendo Switch and just happen to like action-RPG/roguelike card games, then you might want to give “Hand of Fate 2” a go.
Pros:
+ Random board
+ Good storyline
+ Interesting characters
+ Tons of random events
+ Endless mode
Cons:
– No real sense of progression
– Combat is clunky
– A lot of loading screens
Gameplay: 3/5
Graphics: 3/5
Sound/music: 3.5/5
Controls: 2.5/5
Replayability: 4/5
Story: 4/5
Verdict: 3.5/5
There are a large number of things that I love about Hand of Fate 2 and some things that I could just live without. In all, I enjoyed my time in this world, and I am looking forward to the next game, maybe even going back to the first one to see what had been changed up. Now if you’ll excuse me, it is time for me to load my deck for another endless run.
Title: Hand of Fate 2
Developer: Defiant Development
Format: Nintendo Switch
Genre: Action RPG
Resolution: 1080p
Release date: 2018-07-17
Difficulty: Normal
Spent time: +4 hours
Average grade internationally: 79.29% via Gamerankings.com
PEGI age rating: Pegi +12
Price: 29.99 USD via the Nintendo Eshop
Credit:
Robin Ek – Editor
P Albert
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @ThatDamnedGamer
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Tags: Action RPG, Defiant Development, Hand of Fate, Hand of Fate 2, Indie games, Nintendo Switch review