Hand of Fate 2

I didn't care that the first game had generic writing because there wasn't much of it. The host quips about fleshing out narratives from the first game but the writing isn't any better, there's just a lot more of it and the game draws more attention to it. You have to click through paragraphs of text every time you start a game, campaigns have dialogue trees full of empty and meaningless choices, and victory often requires you pay attention to details buried in the word avalanche. Especially since this is a game built around replaying the same few challenges over and over, it really grates having to decipher a randomly-generated murder mystery over and over by grilling people about their favorite foods and solving timing minigames. Even the Endless mode is composed of the same handful of generic plots that you have to flip through every time you progress. The original Hand of Fate was a lean, addictive experience. The sequel tries to expand on this but bloats it into something tepid and inert. I have so many cards to unlock and stories to complete, but don't particularly care to because there is tedium and frustration that wears you down every step of the way.

我真的真的真的非常想要一个快速sl的按钮或者一个mod，有些事件想解锁令牌要你巨大成功之后还要丢骰子，一次没过就拿不到，就要关游戏重开，几次下来血压蹭蹭上涨

This game is an underrated gem. It has the old school text RPG vibes but modernized and with (simplified) batman arkham-esque action. Whoever did the combat animations deserve a raise, they have a lot of heft.

Гра чудова, але дуже не вистачає української локалiзацiї, яка вже була готова на 90%, але її чомусь вiдмiнили!

I love deck builders. Even more so if there's a PvE campaign with story. HoF 1 was janky, but ultimately fun. HoF 2, instead of being an incremental improvement to the first installment, went all in on the most frustrating aspects of the first game. As a plus, more varied gameplay, they tried to make interesting maps. As many minuses - horrid camera movement that you cannot control. RNG upon RNG upon RNG with no fun to it. Way faster card etc gambits, designed to be mitigated with gear, which you cannot rely upon due to the aforementioned RNG. But worst of all - INCREDIBLY tedious animations and voiceovers repeating, repeating, repeating, of course completely unskippable, and making any replay a slog through tar. Incredibly frustrating.

Wanted to jump back into this and give it another shot but the combat is just too dull and simple that it really weighs down the whole package. When the one element of this game that involves skill isn't all that challenging or engaging, it's hard not to feel like everything is ultimately up to RNG.

I have never played or seen another game like hand of fate 2, this game is very cleverly designed and fills a niche I did not know existed. It's very hard to describe what makes this game so special, but there is just something about it that is so captivating. I think it's how it does it's atmosphere; the art, audio design, characters and music all build towards a feeling that makes the game feel so real. It has a great mix or narrative, puzzle solving, and combat (which is probably the weakest of the 3 pillars but fun nonetheless). I'd recommend giving it a shot at least, if you don't like it in the first 2 hours, you can always refund it.