Hand of Fate: Hordes

If you're a fan of the series, this is something a bit different. It definitely scratches that old school, choose your own adventure/fighting fantasy/lone wolf itch from the 70s and 80s, while adapting cleanly into a modern genre. If you're a fan of survivor's like games this might not be your cup of tea as it moves much more at a slower pace as it's closer to that of a narrative game. But, if you're into the methodical osr, grindy, pen and paper RPG games of yesteryear, you'll absolutely love this one as I think they hit that sweet spot in between perfectly. It's absolutely justified in its price, and I'm glad to see HoF bringing the iconic voice of Anthony Skordi along for the ride once again. 10/10 for me, no notes!

The fire is about to die out, yet the king’s figure is nowhere to be seen. The cold wind howls, and the horn sounds. The Blood of Karras—where are the warriors? Fates diverge, yet we fear nothing. The Executioner’s Axe—what has it to fear from the darkness? Savor the blood of Karras, and darkness shall be rewritten. Drink deeply from the gods’ cup, and I shall reshape the course of fate. May the stars guide us all, and may light be reborn. May the torch’s flame forever sustain the throne, and may those lost in the long night finally find their way home. The ending was written at the very beginning, yet light has long had its successors. ==================== 火之将熄，然位不见王影。 寒风呼啸，号角吹响；卡拉斯之血，不见勇士。 命运殊途，无所畏惧；执行者之斧，何惧黑暗。 回味卡拉斯之血，黑暗就此改写。 痛饮诸神杯中酒，命局由我重排。 愿星辰指引你我，愿光明得以重生。 愿薪火永承王座，愿长夜终有归人。 结局早已写入开始，然光明早有后继之人。

Great game.

Better production values than a lot of Vampire Survivor likes, but extremely slow and grindy

The map design and some other design choices like the 30s portal entrance or you instant die systems seems pretty anti-survivor game. The graphics and sounds are quite polished which is nice. Many issues: The game has way too many singular animations for unlocks which you have to wait for 1 by 1 for mostly uninteresting stuff. Simiarly there are a bunch of fairly useless popups that freeze the game until you acknowledge them which breaks the game flow and many of them describe stuff as if every player is a moron which is the common AAA mistake somehow brought into a game like this. In most other survivor games the unlocks usually all revealed in 1 go and can be quick skipped. Navigating between the card screens is tedious to change skills around, the player shouldn't need a full screen display each time you want to swap out 1 enhancement for an ability. Maybe I'll revisit this in a few months to see how it is but as it stands right now it definitely isn't for me and wont be for you if you're looking for something similar to the standard survivor style game. TLDR; If you're looking for something different it might be for you but do know that this is far more restricted in mov…

Game runs well. Fun if you're a fan of this type of game and or hand of fate. Only complaint is it's very slow paced because of all the interruptions with the in level interactions and quests.