Sometimes, you just need a ruddy good card game. Hearthstone has found great success in beating Magic: The Gathering to the punch by offering a seamless deck-building experience that rewards players at every turn with gorgeous animations and seemingly unending unlockables, but it's Hand of Fate that provides something similar, yet different enough to really own the spotlight. See, HoF isn't a card-battling game per se. Instead, you'll find yourself assembling a deck of cards that then get played against a mysterious antagonist who throws down his own deck. The result is essentially a 'choose-your-own adventure', where you'll uncover cards one by one, and deal with the consequences. Some will be merchants, others interactions with characters holding items or posing questions, and best of all; combat cards that bring your deck to life and drop you into a arena battle. It looks a bit like this: Pretty neat, right? From there on out you'll alternate between the stat-focussed menus available out of battle, and bashing orcs or other creatures into mush.The game's context of you and your enemy simply playing cards gives each 'match' a good length, and lends it to being played in chunks or for as long as you like. Hand of Fate is a really neat little idea, and its realisation of breathing life into your deck should be in far more games of a similar ilk.
