Dead Hand (2026)

Pretty cool game, premise and a loving artstyle! A short and captivating game loop with gimmicks that change the way you play each round, the game has a lot of potential and I'm excited to see what future updates will hold! I wish a few aspects of blackjack were kept in (like Aces being worth 1 or 11, or being able to split cards), but it's fun to see how the game works around the lack of those features. I very much recommend this game for anyone who is searching for a good and casual (despite being psychologically thrilling) game to play through.

NEVER hit on 17

Dead Hand takes Blackjack and does what buckshot roulette did to russian roulette: it strips the game down to its core and rebuilds it around pressure, atmosphere, and psychological stress. You're not here to just to hit 21, but you're also here to survive the table. The setup is simple but effective. You've lost everything and accept a deal that drags you back into a casino you said you'd never return to. The twist is that it ain't a casino floor, it's a sealed room, streamed on a shady deepweb broadcast, with masked opponents and an unseen audience watching every game (there is a visible chat in-game) And the retro aesthetic fits perfectly, I love it. It's gritty and avoids overdesign. Nothing feels decorative just for the sake of it. Mechanically, it's still Blackjack. The rules are easy to understand, and that's intentional. The tension doesn't come from learning systems, but instead it comes from making decisions under pressure, knowing that one bad card can end the run immediately. The story mode introduces three oponents, each built around a clear mechanical idea. The first one is just classic Blackjack, but with tokens that each have their unique mechanic. The second on…