Hand of Fate – My new deckbuilding obsession

Unlike Jon, I did not start playing Hand of Fate in early access. It looked pretty cool, but I’m not a super big player of roguelike games. However, when I was offered an Xbox One review copy, I absolutely had to take a chance on it. Now I can’t stop playing and I’m learning a lot about how I enjoy playing games that aren’t geared toward making me feel like a badass. It’s compelling for me in that “just one more round and then I’ll stop” kind of way. 

For anyone that’s not yet heard of Hand of Fate, it’s an interesting mash up of deck building, a board game, and an action game with a roguelike element thrown in for good measure. In story mode, players face down 12 dungeons with boss characters through building two decks of cards: one for gear and one for encounters. The encounters deck is then added to by the dealer and is laid out face down to provide a floor of the dungeon-delving board game experience. The player then moves their piece one card at a time and resolving each encounter before moving to the next. Sometimes those resolutions involve a four card version of the shell game, while others are combat based. For combat, the game switches to a third person 3D action game with your avatar battling whatever enemies the dealer has drawn to throw at you.

Hand of Fate speaks to me most as a deck builder. As I play through and grow my collection, I get more control over the kinds of challenges I’ll face in each play through. However, I feel somewhat compelled to include as many new encounters as possible in my deck each time I play through story mode. Some of them are downright brutal and often game ending for me, but I wont relent until I’ve beaten them and gained the item and/or next encounter. Sometimes it’s easier to focus on completing a new encounter than on trying to complete the full dungeon. Were it not for that, I’d probably play it safe and try use cards with low risk even though that would also mean low reward. Of course, in endless mode everything is completely out of my hands.

Perhaps it’s just how I’m wired, but losing repeatedly can start to get under my skin after a while. The randomness that makes the game so replayable and compelling can also make me want to throw a controller through the TV. I get that part of the allure is that whole anime trope of getting stronger through defeat, but after a couple dozen losses trying to reach the Queen of Scales, I can turn into a raving madman. At a certain point, small incremental victories just don’t push my reward button as much. Yet there’s clearly enough about the game that makes me come back and roll the dice on getting the right dungeon layout and card draws to finally succeed.

In an unrelated side note: As it seems to have no actual impact on the story, the one thing I would have really liked to see added is a gender option for the player.

The Xbox One seemed like it would be a great platform on which to experience Hand of Fate. For the most part, it runs well and the control layout is intuitive enough that combat flows naturally. There are a few spots where the game lags and hangs which I don’t think should happen on a console. The worst hang is entirely aesthetic and in no way impacts game play, but having what should be an animated screen of cards shuffling back into a single deck look instead like a freeze frame with the sound of shuffling cards still makes me frown. The other noticeable lag is when skipping the card animation at the beginning of a fight. It can sometimes allow a ranged attack to land before I’m able to actually start playing. On a PC I’d simply chock this up to my system not being powerful enough, but consoles provide a uniform experience and lag doesn’t need to be a part of that. The only other problem for me about the Xbox One as a platform is that the leaderboards for endless mode only compare my score to those of my friends. (It’s lonely at the top.) It would be nice to see a global leaderboard.

Despite my occasional frustration with a game designed to challenge me and make me fail more often than not, I’m really enjoying Hand of Fate. I had hoped to beat story mode before writing this article, but honestly I seem to be hopelessly stuck on the King of Plague part of the story. (That Wrath of Food curse card is killing me.) For now I’m spending most of my time playing in endless mode trying to beat my high score. I’ve learned that marathon sessions tend to wear on me as every huge failure card drives me a bit closer to insanity. Randomly generated games are a taste to be cultivated over time. Still, it’s hard for me to turn on the Xbox without wanting to deal a hand and see what fate holds for me. I personally recommend picking this up on PC and playing with an Xbox controller if your system is up to the task.