Backlog 365: Day 6 - Hand of Fate

For Backlog 365 I plan on playing one game on my backlog everyday this year and write about it. For each game I will decide if I want to put it on my "Shelved" list (games that I plan to come back to and play in depth) or put it on the "Retired" list (games that I will delete or sell and move on with my life).

• January 6
• PC
• Time Played: 1 hour 14 minutes

I played Hand of Fate a little while back when it was in early access. Actually, this game is the reason why I no longer buy early access games. (Although I did break that rule to buy Darkest Dungeons because many people said it was at a very playable stage.) I read about Hand of Fate and thought it looked awesome, but when I first played it, it was clunky as hell. The combat felt awful and there never felt like there was much to the game beyond fighting two or three baddies every card. Thus, when I drew this game I was very excited to see if it became the game I hoped it would become.

I was happy to find out that the game feels and looks so much better than it did when I played it. It ran smoothly and the combat felt better, although it still felt a little slow and jerky, but not bad enough that it ruins the game. It's better, but is it any good? It was hard for me to really tell with the time I put into it. I had a fun time playing it and it looks promising. However, I am concerned about how much depth there is to Hand of Fate. It's a card/action game (because all games must now have cards in them) where you make a deck of equipment items you have found and a deck of encounter cards, which you don't know the result of until you have played them once. I played three rounds in the story mode and they all felt pretty redundant. Move to a card, get some flavor text, have an encounter, beat up dudes, get some reward, rinse, repeat. I did notice that some encounter cards seemed to be opening up story lines, and that makes me hopeful. Right now it doesn't feel like the deck building plays much of a factor, but I am hoping that as I unlock a significant amount of card that will change.

I am a hopeful guy, and an eternal optimist so I'm putting Hand of Fate on the Shelved list.

Judgement: Shelved