'Hand of Fate 2' Review - A Chance Worth Taking

In a dimly-lit room sits a menacing dealer. He invites you to abide at his table. There you'll find worn dice, swinging pendulums, and plenty of cards. The two of you are going to take a trip through the Major Arcana of the Tarot and tell a story in 22 parts, and that story will test the limits of your skill and your luck. This. Is. My. shit.

Hand of Fate 2 has made its way to consoles, and it's one of the most addictive games I've played recently on my Nintendo Switch. Here is a role-playing experience offering something truly unique. It manages to take elements of tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, card games, roguelikes, and even action games, and combine them into something completely its own.

When you play through a mission in Hand of Fate 2, the dealer will lay a large pattern of cards face down on the table. Your character figure will travel over these cards in the order of your choosing, turning over each card as you step across it. Turning over a card could grant you blessing of some kind, or it may trigger a natural disaster that drains your health; it could introduce you to a traveling merchant, or it could trigger an ambush from a band of thieves; you may find your way to the next phase of play or boss fight, or you may end up squandering your resources.

Each quest has its own unique cards -- its own perils and opportunities -- but the player can always attempt to load the deck in his or her favor by inserting "encounter cards" of their choosing. These encounter cards, which you'll unlock and collect as you play, grant you opportunities to earn coin, purchase powerful gear to use on a per-quest basis, or buff up. If you're fortunate, anyway. Almost every potentially-advantageous encounter can also go wrong if you have rotten luck.

And that's the shtick. So much of your adventure in Hand of Fate 2 will be swayed by chance. Sometimes the things you need to fully (or even partially) complete a quest are ripped out from under you by a rotten roll of the dice. Sometimes you make a wrong turn and step on a combat-triggering card when your health is running desperately low, and a sensitive mission almost an hour in the making can come to a sudden, maddening end.

For what it's worth, though, even when a terrible toss of the bones or shoddy shuffle of cards brings you to your knees, you always go back to a quest feeling more competent and prepared than before. This is due to some excellent quest design which ensures that, braided in with the games of chance and trials by combat, iterative puzzle elements and investigation mechanics also play a role in completing a quest. Though slain by chance, you can always come back to a quest with more knowledge than you had at first, and Hand of Fate 2 will favor any player who skilfully wields that knowledge.

But you'll be using your weapon, and not your mind, when you come across a card that triggers combat, and the combat is really satisfying. Take a competent third-person hack-and-slash game and pepper in the counter and dodge cues that made the Batman Arkham games so gratifying, and you have a great idea of what to expect here. There are a handful of enemy variants, each with their own patterns, and you'll have to learn how to use three different weapon classes (heavy, one-handed, dual) effectively if you want to survive against them. Early boss fights feel a little same-y and phoned in, but there are some great surprises later on.

You'll meet a few companions throughout your journey, and their assistance is vital on and off the battlefield. While fighting they may offer you defensive buffs or aid with crowd control. While trekking across the dealer's table they offer various perks which help you in the games of chance. They also add some interesting flavor and depth to the game world itself, and have their own encounter cards for you to complete -- with prizes should you complete them well.

Presentation is top-notch, especially considering the bargain price. I played Hand of Fate 2 on the Nintendo Switch, and I think it's perfect for the system. Frame-rates are solid, cards are beautifully illustrated, and the soundtrack took my breath away. The music provides such beautiful and haunting ambience, and features a clever mixture of modern recording techniques and real, medieval instruments. Composer Jeff van Dyck and the various performers deserve high recognition for their work here.

If you love yourself a good, dark RPG; if you love the classic tabletop Dungeons & Dragons vibe; if you're looking for the perfect budget console title to keep you occupied for a few weeks, consider picking up Hand of Fate 2. It sets out to try a lot of things, and it ends up doing them all very well. Play your hand, and see what fate has in store for you.

ComicBook's Score: 4.5 / 5