The Hand of Merlin

This game has kind of every chance of being a game worth playing, However it is ridiculously difficult. No game saving, and no room for any kind of wrongful choices. You cannot return or retreat to passed landmarks on your map, and you have no idea for which kind of choices may aid you ahead. The battle scenes are sometimes a mess, where you have absolutely no idea where you should be positioned during combat. I suppose you learn from your mistakes, should you ever start a new run. However, for me after loosing multiple hours of achievements, it feels totally pointless. Don´t waste any time with this game, unless you get it for free.

There are too many of these games out there that just do it better. I love the idea but the execution is dreadfully boring. Has no soul. Save your money

At first I was skeptical and wasn't really feeling the combat; however, as time went on I found myself enjoying the combat system and the slight changes in narrative as the story repeated. I ended up completing 3 successful runs and even took a stab at the endless combat trial. In the end I would recommend this game to fans of both tactical battles and rogue-like games.

Очень простенькая роглайт игра на 2.5-3 часа. Как игра неплохая, но не за такую цену. Not bad roguelite game for 2.5-3 hours but not for that price.

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This is a hidden gem among rogue-lites. Good progression and challenging but fair difficulty curve. Lovingly crafted Arthurian aesthetics and writing. Great, rewarding grid-based tactical combat.

Took a fast look at Room-C games (Croteam) Hand of Merlin. Let's get to what I liked and what I feel needs work. What I enjoyed: Mixture of Metas: This is Slay the Spire in selecting a path mixed with RPG game elements in a Rogue like format of turn base play. It is more building the right path that increases your pieces on a board to finish the end map challenge. Hmm. Book Choice: Each step you select a choice that effects that specific node's results. Expanding from Arthur's Tale: A nice perspective of beyond the fate of Camelot. Plus Familiar Mechanics: Isometric, Gear, Weapons, Magic, all easy to manage once learned. Optics: Solid voice acting, sounds, sfx, and controls. Short and Sweet: Does not complicate the path or choices. Challenging: It will punish you for bad tactics. What I think needs to improve 3/4 vs System: Done to death as a simple solution to those who do not grow from this basic format. Once again, another game in a long list that brings nothing new to that basic chess format. Other games have mutated past this format. Distance: The game keeps you at such a distance that you don't care about what your building up. Isometric is a tired format. No Mercy: Challenge is one thing, but death does not inspire replay, but deter players with staying with it and investing in its story-line. Multiple replays is punishment, not thrilling inspiration. Bland Characters: You are building up characters that you don't care about. Bland Game Elements: Spells, Abilities, and SFX of enemies bore you to tears, not make you say WOW! Final Thoughts First to make any game takes a great undertaking and what sounds great may not always translate well. Hand of Merlin is a game that would have been better in different perspective gameplay, camera movements and not forcing a node to node path. The story and it does fit the description it is, joins a massive list of games that truly don't take risks in advancing turn base presentations. Mordheilm still reigns supreme for daring first person turn base tactics that put you right into the very elements games story tale. I give Hand of Merlin a marginal thumbs up simply for the hard work put into it, but its not game you want to run to, to buy. Wait for a sale, see the game play in 'video" above discussion to see if its for you. I nice entry by all involved, but nice isn't what your goal should be in making a great game. It is not a bad game, but not a game changer either. My score 2.7 out of five.

This gets a thumbs down for one reason only. Meta-Progression. In this kind of games you expect to unlock stuff with each run, so you feel progress, even if you get screwed and dont finish a playthrough. In this you dont, either you do verry specific things, which you dont get to know beforehand unless you look it up, or you wont unlock anything new. Basicly making you having the same run over and over and over again. Apart from Inculinati, which I just cant enjoy because of the artstyle, this is the rogue-like that I have the least hours in. There must be dozens if not more in StS and Griftlands alone, hundreds if not thousand when combining all my rogue-likes. This just doesn`t do it for me.

The Hand of Merlin executes well on it's turn-based strategy gameplay and I think it succeeds in being engaging, but not cumbersome, despite it's longer runs compared to most roguelike games. For a more in depth review, check out my video below! https://youtu.be/XO-ZjPTeXUQ

This may not be a AAA game, but it has been done very well. Has a good story to it, and it is highly related to XCOM. Definitely worth a buy while on sale.