That's especially true for the four new companion characters, who bring extra abilities both into combat and on the table. If the chief goal behind making Hand of Fate 2 was to add depth, it succeeds admirably.If the chief goal behind making Hand of Fate 2 was to add depth, it succeeds admirably.
Cool new limited-use artifacts add to the fun, allowing you to do things like toss out traps or briefly boost your damage by 200% three times per challenge. There are diverse weapons options, like two-handed maces and daggers besides the ol’ sword and board. Even the art on the cards is better.Ĭombat itself is still largely a simple matter of countering and evading attacks and building combos in order to unleash special abilities, but it’s fun and fluid now, enhanced with a much wider selection of enemies.
You can now alter your character's appearance at will in camp, for one, and switch between hairstyles or even genders on a whim. Little interface improvements like this abound. Fortunately, it’s not that hard to figure out which cards you need to bring along, as the abilities relevant to the challenge at hand are highlighted in blue on the card selection screen. In time I managed to get through it, and Hand of Fate 2 presented few more rewarding moments than that. That strategy wasn't always successful, as I sometimes failed to survive in combat with so little health (because the health pools for the combat and card-game portion are shared) but it gave me a fighting chance. To compensate for that, I added in cards like Winter Solstice, which gave me a chance to boost my base health when my board-game piece uncovered the card. The Strength encounter – my least favorite – kicked off by knocking off 90 percent of my health and preventing me from regaining it through the conventional means of food cards, thanks to a cursed item.
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In the Temperance challenge, I found myself constantly faced with situations where beggars wanted food from me, so I packed in cards like Friendly Innkeeper that gave me free food when I uncovered the cards. The opening screen for each scenario gives you clues as to what you'll find ahead, smartly allowing you to build your deck to face the challenges ahead with cards you've won in previous challenges. The resulting wide variety keeps the scenarios interesting, along with the differing conditions and handicaps for each one. They're basically small, self-contained tales in their own right, being only loosely tied to a larger story about a conflict between the "empire" and the zombie-like blight. It's now a collection of over 20 "challenges” that gradually unlock over a three-dimensional board inside the Dealer's wagon. The structure of the story, for one, has been redesigned to better suit the deck-building aspect. Whether it's the artwork or the balance, virtually no element was left untouched. Hand of Fate 2 is the vastly superior game, as it enhances the already attractive basics with new encounters, companion characters, better combat and weapons, and a host of smaller changes. Acting as a Dungeon Master of sorts, the dealer magically slaps down encounter cards from both his deck and a selection of cards you choose to craft a partly randomized story, with conflicts being resolved either through combat or through gambits involving dice, pendulums, or wheels of fortune.īut as the Dealer himself says, "Every element of the game has improved, even those elements which at first seem familiar." He's not kidding. It defies easy classification, other than to say that it’s a cocktail that works. It defies easy classification, other than to say that it’s a cocktail that works.The basic concept remains the same: an unusual but satisfying mashup of collectible card games, action RPGs, and choice-based games like Oregon Trail. Much as in the first game, his enigmatic charisma is enough to mask some of Hand of Fate 2's handful of significant flaws.
But it probably wouldn't work as well if the Dealer didn't feel so real thanks to impressive personality and voice acting that compensates for the fact that he’s covered head to toe in robes, other than his scabby arms. Much of Hand of Fate 2's appeal is that it feels like a one-on-one session of Dungeons & Dragons being DM’d a slightly sadistic friend, with some battles resolved with some light Batman: Arkham-style action combat.
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