I have not played much of Heretic Kingdoms – The Inquisition (originally titled Kult: Heretic Kingdoms), just the opening Monastery map. Basically it struck me as Diablo with much fewer character building options. Allegedly there’s more to it than basic Action RPG mechanics, and hopefully that’s true because without Diablo‘s skill system the combat looks like it will get real old real fast.
The reason I stopped playing the above so quickly was because Hand of Fate grabbed my attention. This game is not quite like anything I’ve played before; it’s half board game (composed of cards you collect and build decks from) and half arena-hack&slash. While the combat is for the most part fairly simple (enemies basically attack you one at a time, you can dodge/counter/attack), it’s also remarkably well detailed and the arenas are nicely varied. The board/card game part is the real draw though, where you get to travel a series of paths made out of encounter cards pulled randomly from a deck you build beforehand while managing various resources and the protagonist’s equipment. Most encounters provide a choice and can result in combat, a pick-a-card minigame, or resource trading/acquisition. Traveling the randomly generated paths is interesting enough on its own, but combined with the unlocking mechanic (where landing on one card will unlock another related card if you meet certain requirements) it becomes quite addicting.
At the moment I’ve defeated the King of Dust and have unlocked all possible cards at this point except the Merchant Guard Fate’s (while the Iron Hunger cards can theoretically be unlocked at this point, I don’t think it’s likely in practice). Something I realized very late, shortly after defeating the King of Dust, is that you should replay each story point until all available cards are unlocked before moving on. This is because as you progress your deck size gets larger, making it less likely you’ll draw the card(s) you need to unlock the further you progress. It was a real pain unlocking chains like Blood Auction/Charity and the various Fate’s cards halfway through the story… although this turned out to be the perfect time to unlock the Lion Prince’s.
So far my favorite Fates are Shadow Agent (easy pick-a-card segments) and Lion Prince (the health gain mechanic), though Iron Hunger may make the list once I get the hang of building a deck around it. The least fun have been the Nomad (sketchy start), Monk (no gold gain is a real pain), and Apprentice (easy mode is really easy). Quest-wise the Kraken chain stands out for its set-piece end battle (killing the lizards is a trap), The White Minotaur stands out for the insane number of pick-a-card segments you have to win, Decent Into Hell stands out for the unexpected requirements of the second-to-last card (a high-damage weapon and at least three rings in your inventory) along with its rather unfair final battle, and The White Council stands out for how anticlimactic it ends.
Starting out I suggest unlocking the various Fate’s cards (most added by the Wildcards expansion), particularly Apprentice to teach you the basics of combat, Soldier to give you practice building combos, and the first two Warlord cards to unlock a fantastic helm and solid artifact card. Then play with the Shadow Agent Fate for a bit until you get the hang of how the pick-a-card minigame works (it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize the card shuffling wasn’t random). After that point just try out each of the Fates until you unlock all their cards to figure out which ones are the most enjoyable for you. Note though that Shadow Agent can’t be fully unlocked until after the Jack of Skulls, Nomad until after the King of Dust, and Warlord/Monk until after the King of Skulls. Also, while theoretically possible earlier, to unlock the Lion Prince & Iron Hunger cards you’ll probably want to wait until after defeating the King of Dust (Lion Prince) and Jack of Scales (Iron Hunger).