The wizard has been imprisoned. Will The Hand of Merlin help you save the multiverse from the Cataclysm?
The legend of King Arthur is known well throughout the world. Experience a different spin on the legend in The Hand of Merlin. Arthur, the English warrior king, has perished in his mission to return the holy grail to its resting place of Jerusalem. As a result, the multiverse itself is in danger. Merlin, who brought the king into being, lies imprisoned in crystal after being tricked by the sorceress Morgana La Fey.
From the minds of Room-C Games and Croteam comes a King Arthur story on a multiversal scale. From his confinement, Merlin communicates that “there are as many worlds as there are stars in the sky.” And as The Hand of Merlin, your band of warriors must succeed where the warrior king has failed. But will it be enough to beat back the mindless Cataclysm that threatens existence itself? Only by following the guiding voice of the immortal wizard might all these worlds be saved.
This title was amazing from the very beginning. The developers should be applauded for coming up with such a spin on the well-known legend. This darkness known as the Cataclysm has begun to eat away at the multiverse, and each world has a chance to save everyone. A literature enthusiast wouldn’t be able to get enough of how the story was told. In the spirit of classic popular text-based adventures, a majority of the story was told through the pages of a novel.
A good portion of the game is played on the book’s pages containing the game’s story. The player is given a choice to choose between five cards. Three of them were sometimes a success and two others a failure. Depending on the region of the map, one might fight against three enemies or seven. On the off chance that the right card had been chosen, I could avoid the fight altogether.
Battling was something in The Hand of Merlin. While I’ve played similar games, it felt like this title had more depth. As the party went into battle, the fight was fought with a Warrior, a Ranger, and a Mage. Despite my team being limited to only three members at any given time, it wasn’t hard to make it work. Thankfully, there were ratings for both armor and health. This provided a buffer for quite a few of the enemies’ attacks.
Battles themselves took place on a grid system. And both enemies and my own, The Hand of Merlin warriors, had to move in small squares. My ‘allowed space’ was highlighted in green. I could go further than that, but these squares outside the green would prevent me from attacking after moving. To attack, one’s characters had must spend action points. Without hesitation, and because his armor rating was so high, he was sent in to draw aggro from most enemies when any fight first began. He could take the brunt of most attacks for his insanely high armor rating compared to his companions.
The mage took on the role of healer. Only the healing spell was something that could only be unlocked by running into special nodes on the world map in The Hand Of Merlin. These were special runes that would unlock spells that were once wielded by the wizard himself and now bestowed onto you. Once they were acquired, they could only be used once per battle. While a failed run could close that particular storyline, the specially unlocked abilities were unlocked even in new runs.
She could attack from a fair distance due to the ranger’s bow. Depending on the angle, there was either a higher or lower chance of landing a strike. And if an enemy gave themselves a buff called Quicken, hitting shots with the arrow was near impossible. Luckily, there was an excellent special ability known as Decoy. A decoy was deployed within a specific area a given a health/armor rating. While it couldn’t attack or move in any way, it provided a distraction to enemies that might have killed a party member otherwise.
The Hand of Merlin ensured that nothing could be done on the battlefield without Action Points. Each skill or attack took a varying degree of them. Those that cost two to three AP would recharge after three to four turns. But when they were used, they could unleash devastating status effects on the enemies that would damage them when they moved.
The minions of the mindless Eldritch horror known as the Cataclysm were no easy task. It took more strategy than fighting human bandits and rogues. Each had its own set of unique skills. Some of them could infect entire sets of squares, making it impossible to cross without suffering severely. The only solution I found that worked for this was executing a ranged attack on the enemy caster.
What was most entertaining was what happened when the party lost. The Hand of Merlin begins with the wizard alluding to a multiverse and a grail that must be returned home within each world. But if the party fails, that entire universe is consumed by the Cataclysm. Thankfully, it is not truly the end of the multiverse. After one party fails, the task of returning the Grail to Jerusalem falls to a party somewhere else in the multiverse.
Visually, The Hand of Merlin was quite a sight to behold. Shown from an isometric perspective, the graphics were done surprisingly well. Despite the small scale of battles, the graphics that showed when executing an attack was very colorful and did well to keep my attention.
And the stories told on the pages of the ‘novel’ were inspiring. Complete with hand-drawn images, much of the story was told through these very pages. It was a wonderful sight to see, promoting the idea of reading while still giving a visually spectacular show. The developers and writers of the story certainly outdid themselves with something in the modern-day.
The music complimented every event surprisingly well. Hearing the battle music as one fights the spawn of the Cataclysm, it can inspire one with the determination to achieve victory. Every track that met my ears fit perfectly into every situation. The composer, Old Sorcery, did a fantastic job piecing together scores for each occurrence.
This game is a great recommendation for anyone who is a fan of turn-based strategy games. There isn’t a steep learning curve. And it’s easy to get into The Hand of Merlin without too much frustration. Even with a handful of failed card draws, it doesn’t weaken your party to experience them. It was a great deal of fun the entire time I was playing, and I would gladly play through the game again.
There aren’t very many issues to speak of. It is certainly difficult to find much to criticize in the game. But one of the biggest might be the inability to see the battlefield with a 360 View. Aside from that, it was an amazing adventure with very high replay value. If you’re looking for a new, fresh take on the King Arthur story, this is a great place to find it.
If you’re interested in playing it, you can find it on Steam for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
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