As my adventurer continued and I learned new ways of exploiting this mace and it’s Token objective, I obtained a more powerful version of the weapon with yet another Token. Early in my adventure, I looted a mace from the corpse of an enemy captain, a mace with a special Token attached that rewarded me with a special card upon completion. These special objectives come at you from every angle imaginable. This is easily one of my favorite aspects of the game, as it tailors the story uniquely to you, and how you decide to progress. A number of special cards also come with a certain depth to them, offering additional rewards for obtaining the cards’ Token.

It’s clear from the offset that he has his own agenda and nefarious desires to thrust in your adventurers path, but the majority of these are not known to you until later in the game. Outside of each individual chapter story, you’ll also find yourself often discussing your future and destiny with the man that holds all the cards, The Dealer. One campaign you’ll find yourself hunting down a long lost foe, while another you’re searching for clues to identify an assassin before they kill the head of the Thieves Guild. It’s nothing Shakespearean in regards to the storytelling, but they are immersive, small nibbles of story that tick all the right boxes. Players go on a journey through multiple chapters, each with their own objectives, characters, and story to explore. Hand of Fate 2 builds on the foundations of the original in almost every way, while still encompassing the core gameplay mechanics and style that made the original so appealing. You won’t find many developers that have the testicular fortitude to attempt such a brazen task, and those that have often fall to the mantra, “a jack of all trades, a master of none.” Even the most experienced AAA developer studios would struggle to pull this off, but independent Defiant Development truly live up to their name as they defy all logic and reasoning, combining a plethora of genres into a thrilling, rewarding and ultimately, genre defining game.

It was a simple question: how the hell do I define this genre when writing the review? As an entire project the game features RPG styled gear and progression, text-based RPG story missions and side content, action-based combat akin to the Batman Arkham franchise, deck building from today’s top Trading Card Games, and the resource management from popular sim style games. It wasn’t even the vital choice of which companion to bring to fight by my side. It wasn’t building the perfect deck for the challenges that lay ahead. My biggest challenge when playing through Hand of Fate 2 wasn’t the increasingly difficult campaign missions.

Hand of fate 2 guide