Hand of Fate/Hand of Fate 2

[Metro]

Couldn't find a thread about this or maybe I was just too lazy. Picked this up in the current Humble Bundle and apparently there's a sequel coming in 6-8 months (Early 2017).

http://store.steampowered.com/app/266510/

http://store.steampowered.com/app/456670/

It's sort of a hybrid of Binding of Isaac (random rooms but cards in this case), Talisman (in terms of a board game with events and decisions), with Batman AA style combat (attack/counter with a few extra things thrown in). Nothing amazing but I find the combat fun enough and the card system/writing is pretty solid. You'll land on a space/card, and depending on how you do on an encounter it could unlock another card which paves the way for more monsters/loot/card/items/etc. Sort of reminds me of FTL in that aspect. You'll have to play on hard to get a challenge, though, as I found the first few levels on normal were a cake walk where you have an abundance of gold and food (think fuel in FTL).

Seems like there's a dozen or so 'story' missions and then a random/endless mode with a ton of modifiers from different cards you can put in your deck. There's also a $5 DLC that adds more modifiers/cards/campaigns that will probably be $1 or less in the upcoming Steam sale.

 

[Siveon]

Bundle fodder.

 

[Metro]

Perfect timing.

 

[Siveon]

Sorry, I couldn't resist the snark.

Game actually looks neat, though.

EDIT: How long would you say this game is? The story mode, at least.

 

[Metro]

If you play on Hard probably ten or so hours. I steamrolled through the first three parts on normal before changing it to hard when I actually started to lose a few times. There's 12 campaigns/missions altogether. You unlock more cards/scenarios as you go through it. I'm sure I'll sink at least 50 hours into with endless/random mode and the DLC which apparently adds another few campaigns.

 

[MicoSelva]

Here is the original thread:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/hand-of-fate-cardgame-boardgame-action-rpg.97175/

I have finished this a few months ago. The game is ok, but if you overdo it, it becomes tiring pretty fast. Same thing if you want to finish all the storylines from the DLC (Wildcards), which is pretty tedious and grindy due to RNG.

I suggest playing in short sessions and for fun, not completion. What I liked most is the slightly trolly aspect of the game's design where succeeding in certain missions unlocks more powerful/annoying enemies, which then randomly appear in encounters later on.

Spoiler

Enjoy your minotaurs. [/quote]

 

[Metro]

Ah, the old thread was in the Gazebo. Your enjoyment depends on how much you like these type of games. I'd say anyone who is a big fan of stuff like Binding of Isaac would like it. It definitely has some soul-crushing RNG on hard difficulty but I don't get frustrated when I die. You also get to keep any tokens/unlocks you've made so far which is nice.

So if you like Isaac with card game mechanics and Batman AA combat you'll like Hand of Fate.

 

[MicoSelva]

You may be right. I enjoyed the game and actually wanted to play some endless mode and do some score attack, but decided to finish the campaign first and that may have been a mistake, since the difficulty spike + RNG made it a pain in the ass, and made me burnt out on the game - I have not touched it since beating the last boss.

Maybe I will still return to it some day, but with the sequel coming up soon, that is not very likely.

 

[orcinator]

Nice boobs game, but you're gonna have to do better than that to get me to play something with Arkham Creed combat but none of the good animations that mask its shallowness.

 

[Astral Rag]

Dat haircut.

 

[pakoito]

I've finished Jack of Dust Plague. Does the combat get any better? It's easy mode galore so far, and the bloody difficulty settings are behind a fookin paywall.

 

[Metro]

Isn't Jack of Dust the first level? It's sort of a tutorial of sorts. I don't remember hard mode being locked but I didn't try switching to it until after two or three levels. Warlord is the hard mode, the others are different modifiers you can get via the DLC.

 

[pakoito]

Isn't Jack of Dust the first level? It's sort of a tutorial of sorts. I don't remember hard mode being locked but I didn't try switching to it until after two or three levels. Warlord is the hard mode, the others are different modifiers you can get via the DLC.

Sorry, I meant jack of plague. The rat, 4th mission.

 

[Metro]

No idea then, pretty sure I was able to activate hard/warlord mode by then. It's in the deck builder category, the middle card between items and encounters. I guess if you're having an easy time on that mode then you're too super saiyan for the game. It's not crippling hard but it does make picking the 'winning' choice in encounters a lot harder and you typically face a lot more (and more difficult) enemies. Food can also be an issue depending on RNG.

Edit: As mentioned, the game is a lot like Isaac in that if you get good RNG with loot/gold then it's going to be a lot easier than if you have a lot of shitty sub par gear and are starving.

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

Playing Hand of Fate 2 on the Switch, love this game, and loved the first one as well. Very original concept, it's a shame that people only want endless ubisoft sandboxes and fps shitters.

 

[Tiospo]

I liked the first game and this is definitely a game I'm interested in. Good to hear it is a step forward from first game without making any drastic gameplay changes.

 

[theSavant]

I was also briefly interested in this game. Until I saw, that it paradoxically used realtime combat instead of turnbased.

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

I liked the first game and this is definitely a game I'm interested in. Good to hear it is a step forward from first game without making any drastic gameplay changes.

The second game carries over virtually all features from the first, but also refines them and adds new ones. At first I wasn't sure if I like it, but after completing few levels I can agree with the narrator - the game was improved in every aspect.

 

[Don Peste]

Hand of Fate 2 free on Epic soon (Apr 22 - Apr 29)
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/hand-of-fate-2

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Pretty good sequel in every respect.

 

[Bara]

A shame it's the last

 

[KateMicucci]

Got HoF2 for free from Epic.

I like these semi-roguelike games. The "overworld" with the cards is interesting, and choosing which encounters you'll get.

For the combat, I wish that they'd done a card-based combat system, instead of this repetitive Batman system that's been done better in a dozen other games.

Don't know why they went the route of making everybody ugly, especially the women. Every female haircut is an undercut and the female face is just the male face with the eyebrows moved a little higher. Come on.