A Hand of Fate review in a 'let's play' style at Ninja Blues:

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Luckily, functionally-alright-if-sloppy-combat isn’t the only thing Hand Of Fate has to offer. I find that what drew me in wasn’t so much the brawling, it was the storytelling.

What makes Hand Of Fate’s narrative particularly neat is that it’s multi-layered. On the surface, the story that is going on is the ‘duel’ between you and the Nameless Card Master. The Card Master (who does all the talking) makes frequent references to the ‘stake’ and ‘the cost of losing’, and guesses at your reasons for playing the game. The surface narrative is that of a man gambling away something important — His soul? Nah, that seems too cliché — for the promise of undefined power. The Card Master, on his end, has a history of his own: he was a player of this game before he was a dealer, and the game is as it is now thanks to him — but not only him.

But beneath the surface of this ruling narrative, the cards themselves tell stories of their own. It’s outright mentioned several times that these cards are drawn from ‘your’ memories, that they represent significant events and places in your life that you are revisiting through the medium of the game. And Hand Of Fate cleverly handles these mini-stories, drawing them out over multiple cards and multiple play sessions by way of its deckbuilding and token mechanics.

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Defiant Development's Deckbuilder Action RPG, Hand of Fate now has an expansion available to download on Steam for $4.99/£2.99/€4.99. Here are the details.

Our first DLC has just launched - now is your chance to explore all the different Fates, and new ways to play!

Each Fate has its own custom chain of encounters, and its own potential rewards, along with new Achievements.

Will you take on the challenge the Alchemist, and be bound by Iron Hunger? Take the Fate of the Monk, and his Holy Quest? Be struck by the Curse of the Lion Prince?

This DLC includes :

- 9 new Fates for players : Shadow Agent, Iron Hunger, Nomad, Curse of the Lion Prince, Explorer's Gift, Merchant's Guard, Hoarder's Desire, Monk, Soldier's Training.
- 9 new Encounter chains.
- 9 new Items

Alex Fuller of RPGamer shared his thoughts about Hand of Fate in an new article.

Hand of Fate has a lot going for it. The card-based encounter system is highly engaging and does a great job keeping the tension, with players never certain whether the cards they were hoping for or fearing are going to appear next. It's a very good debut outing with plenty of areas that can be built upon; the action-RPG and card game combination is very much the sort of game you could see providing a ton of multiplayer enjoyment, although watching someone else play is quite entertaining as is.

After the mini-review roundup from last I found a bunch of new reviews for Hand of Fate.

Softpedia - 8.5/10

Hand of Fate is an interesting game that will certainly appeal to those who want to see how the card-based approach could be expanded in meaningful ways in the coming years.

MousenJoypad - 79/100

While Hand Of Fate delivers something unique in it's blend of genres, it doesn't quite shine yet. It does go to show that not all developers have lost their ability to deliver something unique in this world of yearly releases and generic shooters.

We Got This Covered - 4/5

Although it's technically flawed in more than a few ways, Hand of Fate is an intriguing premise that delivers an old-fashioned choose-your-own-adventure style card game that's infinitely replayable.

Gaming Union - 9/10

Hand of Fate was a great surprise for me. Knowing next to nothing about the game, I very quickly became hooked on the deck building mechanic, and genuinely curious about the shrouding mystery that encompassed the purpose of duelling with the enigmatic dealer.

RPGFan - 90/100

Hand of Fate is as mysterious and unpredictable as the fortune telling cards with which it tells its story. It is as rewarding as it is challenging. This is brilliant game design combined with that coveted je ne sais quoi that makes good games into great games. This is gaming at its most mystical.

Kim Allom the Associate Producer of Defiant Development did a new Q&A with a website called Player2.net, and talked about the developers new game Hands of Fate.

“What do you hope to achieve with this game that will perhaps be unique and help separate it from everything else?” 

We feel as though Hand of Fate is something people haven’t seen before because it’s a mash of so many different mechanics. These include deck building, rogue-likeness, board and card game inspiration and action. But we employed some clever design systems that catered for the wider audience e.g. auto fill your deck (for those who aren’t interested in the deck building sides of things).

“Is there an overarching story to Hand of Fate and, if so, was it difficult working that around the roguelike components of the game?”

It was quite challenging coming up with a story line for Hand of Fate. Although important, it it came second to gameplay at the time. In the end we came up with something that made sense and could be implemented given the established game systems. You’re essentially an adventurer who is replaying the memories of a former life and you’re trying to save that life which is currently in limbo.

“Did you find it difficult to acquire the necessary fundraising to complete the game?” 

Funding has always been difficult for indies. We’ve been lucky enough to secure contracts (big ones include Ben 10 Slammers and Ski Safari: Adventure Time with Cartoon Network), government support and Kickstarter funding to get us across the line.

“Is there any chance of Hand of Fate existing in a physical form or would any changes required render it too different from their vision?”

For some of our lucky Kickstarter Backers, we promised and designed a bite-sized tabletop version of Hand of Fate using tarot cards that feature game art. Unfortunately this was exclusively for Kickstarter backers.

I managed to find three new reviews this week for Hand of Fate.

Game Informer -  8.75/10

In Hand of Fate, you use a constantly growing deck of cards to form the very dungeons that you move through. You challenge increasingly difficult bosses, and seek to defeat the ominous dealer. Although Hand of Fate hinges on cards, it’s not a card game; it’s a roguelike action/RPG, and a surprisingly fun and original experience that comes together admirably.

Dual Pixels -   85/100

Hand of Fate is a genre mash-up that tends to deal a hand that generally rewards the player with an exciting, risk-vs-reward tabletop RPG mechanic and solid Arkham-esque combat, but taking a seat at the table does come with some graphical and technical imperfections. The tabletop roleplaying game aesthetic is a nice hook that adds an exciting mechanic to the RPG formula. Sans the graphical imperfections, Hand of Fate is a solid title dealing exciting gameplay and a spectacular translation of tabletop gaming to the on screen gaming world.

Worldsfactory - No Score

Hands of Fate has a beautiful air of mystery around it, forcing you to explore, experiment and discover in order to learn. An early card might allow you to quickly and cheaply acquire a shield, while cards such as ‘River’ could be anything until you find out for yourself. You’ll have to try different combinations of cards with each progressing level, whiile also adding more cards to your deck.

Developer Defiant Development announces their game Hands of Fate is ready for release on Steam, and should be officially launched in a couple of weeks.

We've just submitted our 1.0 build to all parties and been accepted, so that means our release date is now locked in for mid-Feb.

We'll let you know the EXACT date as soon as we've got it, but it should be a couple of weeks from now.  Can't wait to get you the 1.0 version!

It has been a while sine I posted an Update for the card based RPG game Hand of Fate. It seems the game has had a few updates on Steam in the last few months.

We've just released our second major update with a new game mode and lots of combat improvements.

• Massive combat update.
• Endless game mode.
• Start of new music/score
• Rage/combo hud feedback
• Improved death, starvation and court card transitions
• Improved court card intro
• Lots more dealer animations with VO
• Steam Cloud Support for save
• More graphics settings
• Lots more VFX
• Loads and loads of balance changes
• Some new encounters
• Achievement fixes
• Darken dead bodies
• Lots of bug fixes

Massive thanks to all of you for helping us make this a better game with your considered feedback and bug reports.

Hand of Fate is a card based Roguelike that I just discovered on kickstarter. The game is entering it's final hours, and still needs $5,000 to get funded. Here is a trailer and a link to the project for more information.

Hand of Fate is a card based roguelike, in which the player builds a collection of cards into a deck, which is then used to deal out the dungeon floors through which they adventure. Upon entering a combat, all of the cards the player has collected fly into their character's hands as fully modeled 3D assets, and combat begins.

Key Features

• Tabletop card game brought to vivid life.
• A unique take on roguelike gameplay.  
• Visceral action-RPG combat.
• Game changing gear and items make every playthrough unique.
• Hundreds of encounters, items, armour, weapons, artifacts, and mysteries to unlock.
• Unique deck building mechanics let you customise your own adventure, as you seek to defeat the Jack, Queen and King of each suit.
• Discover the mysteries of the world of Hand of Fate, as you complete your collection.