Ever since the dawn of smartphone gaming, there has been an increasing amount of card games with RPG elements popping up on apps stores. Games like Rage of Bahamut, Deck Heroes, are just a few examples of card games that have RPG like elements to them. But then there are a few games that actually injects an RPG game alongside the card game. One such card game Hand of Fate. Can a card game blend in the aspects of deck building with an RPG adventure?

 

Heart of the Cards

 

Great mixture of deck builder and ARPG- When people hear the word card deck builder and ARPG in the same description of a game, most of the time they will think of a mobile card game with RPG elements.In Hand of Fate’s case this is sort of true but with some changes. First off the game is split into two parts; the card/deck builder section and the ARPG section. The card/deck builder part of the game basically sets up the story, encounters and other elements of the game, much like a Dungeon Master in a table top adventure. Depending on the cards that the DM has and the cards in the player’s hand determines the flow of the game. The ARPG section of the game comes into effect when the player lands on and encounter card, such as an enemy ambush, dungeons, side quests etc. Most card games of this nature would just use static images to convey the action and story. In Hand of Fate, you are a generic warrior fighting/ exploring through each encounter.

 

Storytelling through the cards- As I mentioned before, the deck builder part of Hand of Fate sets up the story and all of the encounters that happen during the game. These cards are drawn at random and then placed in front of the player that resembles a simple dungeon layout. As the player lands on each card, a piece of the story is told  until the player gets to the end boss. I think this is a very clever idea on how to tell a story. You never know what encounter card you will trigger

 

 

Variety of card/deck combos- What I like about Hand of Fate is that it gives you a variety of cards to build a deck from. BY having a wide ranges of cards to use, this makes for different combinations of dungeon layouts and change to story that each story is different. However there is a limit to this.

 

Activate Trap Card

 

Can be a bit repetitive- While I did say that there can be a variety of card/deck combos for the DM and the player to play with, once the player gets further into the game, the layouts will start to feel repetitive after a while. Also as the player progresses through the game, they will start to encounter the same set of cards in each level of the dungeon, only in a different layout. Since card games often depend on expansion packs in order to keep players interested.It would have been a good idea for the game to offer DLC in the form of booster packs.

 

No character customization- Since this is technically somewhat an RPG, you would think there would be some type of character customization. It would have been nice to see a deck of character stats and characteristic cards and have the player randomly draw and build their character. This fits right into the game and would make for some really interesting playthroughs as random characters.

 

 

Hand of Fate is unlike any other card game that I played. I like the mixture of deck building mechanics and RPG elements control the action of the game. I also enjoyed having the story being told through the cards and having various cards to tell that story. However since the dungeon can eventually get repetitive. It would be cool if there was some type of DLC booster packs for new cards.Despite these shortcomings Hand of Fate its really fun and I recommend checking it out

 

7.5/10.00