![]() ![]() To beat the Dealer's game, you have multiple tools at your disposal, including stats such as health, food, and gold, all of which can be gained and spent as each quest progresses (a basic mechanic of the game involves spending one of these three stats to gain more in another, such as discarding earned food cards to get extra health). A later quest involves investigating an attempted assassination upon the leader of the Thieves Guild, which you perform by accompanying the three suspects on missions, gleaning information from them about who the mastermind is. The Dealer's hand is stacked with 'Avalanche' and 'Blizzard' cards, which eat away at your health as you struggle to find 'Blessings' that will keep your bad luck at bay. One early quest, for example, sees you ascending a mountain to talk with a Barbarian Shaman at its summit. ![]() Here, however, each story comes with its own little mechanical or structural twist. In the first game, while the theme of each quest was different, the structure was largely the same. Where Hand of Fate 2 differs from the first game is in the structure of these quests. These scenarios range from short text-adventures to Arkham Asylum-style combat encounters to various tests of skill and luck. Each turn, your character moves to an adjacent card and plays out the scenario written upon it. The Dealer lays these face-down on the table in a random pattern. These quests are formed through a mixture of the Dealer's cards and a selection from your own hand. The game itself is divided into twenty-odd individual quests. It's a bit like Jumanji, only with Robin Williams replaced by Jeremy Irons in his most scintillatingly sinister form. En-route, the Dealer challenges you to brave his “living boardgame”, whose dastardly scenarios come to life before your eyes. You play a nameless hero sat at the Dealer's table as the pair of you travel to an unspecified destination inside the back of a wagon. ![]() The premise is roughly the same as the first game. This is the flaw that Hand of Fate 2 aims to rectify, and it mostly succeeds, albeit at a cost. But Hand of Fate had one big problem – the game became achingly repetitive after just a few hours. Part narrator, part nemesis, the Dealer sat directly opposite the player and was the architect of their game, setting up scenarios, dealing out the cards, and constantly commenting upon the player's actions (usually with a layer of condescending snark thicker than a whale sandwich). The first Hand of Fate was a smart little hybrid of card-game, roleplaying game, and third-person action, all sewn neatly together by the presence of the Dealer. ![]()
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