Hand of Fate: Early Access Worth Your Time

I’m not a huge fan of early access games as I am a terrible alpha/beta tester. I have little tolerance for unfinished games and quickly become too impatient to offer actual feedback. But one of the most unexpected trends of PAX Prime 2014 was the presence of playable, polished, fun games that weren’t even ready for alpha release. Hand of Fate for the PC by Defiant Development is still technically pre-alpha but it has none of the usual problems associated with unfinished products. By combining solid action RPG elements with an intriguing deck building mechanic, it’s well worth playing in its current state.

Full disclosure: I received a steam key from the developers of the game after speaking with them.

Deck Building and Monster Slashing

Hand of Fate is a resource management action RPG that happens to look a whole lot like a deck building game. In a cabin at the end of the world you square off against an enigmatic and malevolent Dealer. You pilot your singular hero through a series of randomly generated dungeons made out of encounter cards, fighting monsters (also represented as randomly drawn cards), finding loot (again, random cards), and carefully trying to keep your health, food, and gold all in the black.

The concept is visually pleasing and its novelty has surprising resilience. When resolving an encounter card you leave your seat at the Dealer’s table to “zoom in” to a fully 3d rendered arena. You’ll watch your equipment cards manifest on your hero as well as watch your foes spring from the cards that represent them. You then take full control to slay the monsters God of War style in satisfyingly visceral, if simple, action combat. Using a controller is highly recommended.

In between adventures you build your own separate equipment and encounter decks out of cards that you’ve unlocked in your adventures. Each of the Dealer’s 16 dungeons is populated by your chosen encounter cards as well as a peppering of new cards specific to the dungeon. This allows you to manage your own risk and reward, since encounter cards range from tame to extra challenging with rewards increasing appropriately. You start each adventure with nothing but the default gear, but the equipment you find is pulled from your own constructed equipment deck. Unlocking new and more powerful equipment/encounter cards adds a fun difficulty curve to the game that the player has an unusual amount of control over. Your decks, essentially, are the palette the Dealer will use to paint the dungeon.

The game claims to be a “roguelike” as well, but it’s little more than a buzzword. [Defiant Dev corrected me, they’re not claiming that the game is a roguelike. At the very least it’s about as roguelike as FTL or other “rogue-lites”. I stand corrected! JS 9/8/14] Each adventure is its own discrete run; should you die during an adventure you start over at the beginning with only your default gear. But you still keep all of the cards you unlocked during your failed adventure. There is little to lose when dying, which is ok! It’s just not “roguelike”.

Early Access Worth Your Time

Hand of Fate only feels “early access” because of its scope, not because of its quality. There isn’t too much in the way of varied content; you will be performing the same combat moves on lots of the same looking bandits within the same few environments. But what is in the game is extremely polished and fun. Unlocking cards and building decks is a simple and fun way to reward and empower players. The action combat is solid and easy to enjoy. Even the voice acting and the writing is worthy of any AAA title.

All that’s left to do is add more to this solid framework. Add more cards to find and unlock. Spice up the solid action combat with much more variety of encounters, monsters, and special moves. Create more environments and progress the story a bit more. This game is already on the path to success.

Hand of Fate: The Verdict

If the full release of Hand of Fate is just this plus a whole lot more content, it’s a no brainer $24.99 purchase from Steam. Those that enjoy God of War style action combat will be satisfied, and the thoughtful exploration/progression system themed like a deck building game will surprise you. Hand of Fate comes heartily recommended.

Early Access Trailer

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpcPJYxg27A&w=600]