Hand of Fate: Hordes Review Summary

Captures the classic Hand of Fate atmosphere with deep strategic meta-progression and varied gameplay, but lacks mouse aiming, has uninspired meta-progression, and disappoints as a franchise departure.

Classic Hand of Fate atmosphere: Players frequently praised the return of the classic Hand of Fate atmosphere, characters, and tone. The familiar vibes and systems from the original games are consistently highlighted as a major positive.

Deep strategic and meta-progression: Players enjoy the strategic depth from deck building, event choices, resource management, and permanent upgrades. The meta-progression provides strong incentives to keep playing.

Good value for price: Multiple reviews mention the game is affordable and offers good value for the price. Players consider the cost appropriate for the content provided.

Unique and varied gameplay loop: The fusion of Hand of Fate mechanics with a Vampire Survivor-style loop is seen as innovative and successful. Each run feels different due to cards, events, and character variety.

Great art and sound design: The dark fantasy aesthetic, art style, and soundtrack receive consistent praise. Players find the visual and audio presentation pleasing and supportive of the mood.

Missing mouse aiming support: Players report that mouse-based aiming for shooting, jumping, and skills is not supported. Some note that keyboard-only directional controls make aiming difficult, and developers refuse to add manual aiming.

Uninspired metaprogression: Stat upgrades are described as boring +1%, +2% increments that feel outdated and grindy. Permanent upgrades are not meaningful.

Disappointing franchise departure: Fans of the Hand of Fate series are disappointed because the game changes genre to a survival auto-battler, losing the unique elements they loved. Some expected a hack-and-slash or HoF3-style action.

Frequent gameplay interruptions: Players complain that events, narration, and card mechanics constantly interrupt the core gameplay, breaking the flow. Some note there are too many long interruptions and never-ending text.

Deck building unavailable: Multiple players are disappointed that deck creation and editing are not yet available in Early Access. Unlocking more cards dilutes the pool and reduces build consistency.

Event system with dice rolls: Random events use dice rolls and card draws to determine outcomes, including curses, penalties, mimic chests, and critical failures. Narrator adds depth.

Maps with objectives and bosses: Maps include objective-based gameplay, terrain, enemy collision, portals, and final boss encounters. Short challenging levels with timed extraction.

Unlocking tokens and chips: Progression includes unlocking tokens, chips, and permanent upgrades tied to character levels. Metaprogression uses shards and numerical upgrades.

Bullet heaven combat escalation: Combat starts simple and escalates to screen-filling chaos with weapon enchantments and super weapons. Autoshooter survivor mode with bullet heaven style.

Deck building mechanics: Core progression revolves around deck building and card-based systems, with planned deck creation feature. Influences encounters, blessings, equipment, and modifiers.

Excellent performance on handhelds: The game plays great on handheld devices. This suggests good optimization for portable hardware.

Stable overall performance: General feedback indicates that performance is stable across multiple setups. Users report no major issues.

No performance issues reported: Multiple users explicitly state they encountered no performance issues. This aligns with the overall positive technical feedback.

Runs smoothly on high-end hardware: One reviewer achieved 5K native resolution at 144fps with maxed cinematic settings. This demonstrates excellent high-end performance.

Great performance on minimal specs: The game runs well on a minimal PC configuration with an i5 processor and GeForce GTX 1650 Super. This indicates broad compatibility.

Game is worth playing: Multiple players agree the game is worth purchasing and offers good value for the experience. This is a common positive sentiment.

Recommended for series fans: Fans of previous Hand of Fate games are encouraged to play this title as it fits the series. It is particularly recommended for those who enjoyed the first two games.

Manual aiming required: The absence of manual aiming is a dealbreaker for some, leading to a negative recommendation until this feature is added. Aiming mechanics need improvement.

Do not buy at full price: Several reviewers advise against purchasing the game at full price on day one, suggesting a discount is necessary for fair value. Pricing strategy is questioned.

Wait for Early Access completion: Some reviewers recommend waiting until the game leaves Early Access for a more polished experience. Current early adopters are willing but advise patience.

The game starts with boring meta-progression and weak upgrades, but becomes highly addictive after about 5 hours as unlocks and progression systems kick in.

Reported time to anchor: 5h.

Friction: boring meta-progression with small incremental stat boosts; weak and unexciting upgrades during runs; enemies scale fast, making early power fantasy weak; poor tutorial and unintuitive UI.

Unlock drivers: unlocking blessings and weapon rarities; permanent progression systems providing incentives; addicting gameplay loop with rarity and slot machine elements; improving skill and understanding of the game.

Chill Bullet Heaven Explorer: Methodical, gathers items and plans paths while avoiding enemies, prioritizes discovery over combat speed. Motivation: Relaxed exploration and tactical route planning within a bullet heaven setting. Stance: buy.

Frustrated Series Veteran: Expects manual aiming, dodge rolling, and varied skills; critical of streamlined progression and recycled content. Motivation: Desire for faithful evolution of Hand of Fate mechanics with precise controls and meaningful progression. Stance: no buy.