Hand of Fate is the second
in Westwood’s Fables & Fiends series, a sort-of sequel to Legend
of Kyrandia. Sort-of, since the main character is Zanthia the alchemist
(a supporting character in the first game), rather than Brandon.

Kyrandia,
as usual, is in trouble. This time, the trouble is more than a megalomaniac
jester: slowly, piece by piece, Kyrandia is disappearing. If that
goes on much longer, there won’t be any Kyrandia left at all. Not
a pleasant prospect to contemplate.

Naturally, all the mages
and sages paw frantically through musty old volumes, hoping to find
a solution. Just as naturally, they don’t find anything, and the outlook
is pretty grim until Marko (a wannabe mage) shows up with his new
assistant, a hand. The hand, through diagrams, explains that they
need an anchor stone from the center of the world to keep Kyrandia
together. Zanthia is unanimously chosen to go get it. Lucky Zanthia!

The task would seem to
be a simple one, until Zanthia returns home to find all her equipment
smashed and supplies stolen. Obviously, someone doesn’t want her fixing
up the problem, and now she has to get to the center of the world
the hard way. This is where the game actually begins.

Hand
of Fate is a linear adventure, done in sections, starting with the
swamplands around Zanthia’s house. Each time a section is completed,
you move on to the next one, and there is no going back to a previous
area. Usually, this makes players nervous, as often linear games require
that some obscure item from the start be used at the end.

Happily, this is not the
case here. Every time Zanthia moves on, she tends to lose most or
all of her inventory. Thus each new section provides everything necessary
to solve the puzzles in it, and there is no need to worry about having
overlooked some crucial item back in the swamps, or anywhere else,
for that matter.

Graphically, and in terms
of the interface, the game is similar to Legend of Kyrandia. So Hand
is visually pretty, and the point-and-click system easy to use. Clicking
on an item picks it up to become the cursor; the item can then be
placed in the inventory, or clicked on something else (or a person)
to “use” it.

Conversations
are handled in a similar manner, but they are automatic sequences.
Clicking on people usually starts them talking, with Zanthia making
predetermined responses; there are no choices to make as to what she
will say. Then again, conversations are not a main item here, although
it is important to talk to everyone you meet at least once.

It was nice to see a female
lead character for a change. Too many adventures these days are still
male-oriented as far as the main character is concerned. Featuring
Zanthia in this one is definitely a point in Westwood’s favor.

There has been a definite
improvement in puzzle construction over Kyrandia, where too many solutions
depended solely on trial-and-error. You can, of course, solve almost
any puzzle in any adventure with that method, but it is often time-consuming
and tedious to use. Most players prefer situations where there is
a logical connection between the item(s) and the solution, even if
it takes them awhile to figure out what it is.

So it’s good to see that
many of the puzzles in Hand can be thought out, if you take the time
to think about what needs to be done. Naturally, some answers are
going to be a little obscure, but games that are too easy usually
aren’t all that satisfying.

However,
Westwood is still a little too fond of red herrings, which can be
found all over the place. One or two are traditional in adventures,
but Hand of Fate has more than its share of them. This can become
frustrating, with players wasting time over things that really aren’t
important at all. Mustard Island is a case in point. You can easily
spend hours trying to deal with the cannibals, when in fact the real
puzzle is to avoid the island completely in the first place.

There is also a certain
amount of subtle misdirection that can lead you down the garden path
if you aren’t careful. For instance, throughout the game, Zanthia
concocts little potions to help in different situations. The trick
is that she won’t be making all the potions listed in her recipe book.
So it’s easy to get caught in a mindset that looks to magic instead
of logic for a solution to a particular problem.

The best way to approach
Hand is to keep in mind that everything you need can be found in that
section of the game. If one or more ingredients for a potion can’t
be found, it’s a good bet that magic isn’t the answer to the puzzle
you’re trying to solve. Look for another way of doing it.

One of the surprising things
about Hand of Fate is that it’s really a rather short adventure. There
are only about seven sections to it, all of them fairly small. Some
areas may be more difficult than others, but in general experienced
gamers are likely to finish this one quickly.

If the game has one really
sore point, it’s the ending. Having gone through up to there using
your head, you are suddenly thrust into what is a type of mini action
sequence, which is done in real time. The only “puzzle”
here is figuring out which ways Zanthia should jump to avoid an unpleasant
demise. The use of what is basically an arcade sequence is a jarring
note, and really doesn’t fit in with the rest of the game as a whole.
A less active, and more puzzle-oriented, endgame would have been better.

Overall, Hand of Fate is
humorous, moderate-level adventure game. Much of what was wrong with
Kyrandia has been cleaned up, although Westwood’s technique still
needs a little more polish (and a few less red herrings). Anyone looking
for a short-term adventure workout is likely to enjoy this one.

Final Grade: B

System Requirements:

• Floppy disk version:
  IBM or 100% compatible 386-20MHz or better, MS-DOS 5.0 or higher,
  2 megabytes of RAM (1 megabyte of XMS or EMS), VGA/MCGA graphics,
  Hard Drive with 20 megabytes available, High Density Disk Drive,
  and Microsoft compatible mouse and driver. Supports: Sound Blaster,
  Sound Blaster Pro and compatible sound cards, AdLib, AdLib Gold
  and Gold Standard, Roland MT-32/LAPC-1, General MIDI.
• CD-ROM version: 5 Mb
  free on hard drive, 560K RAM, 2 Mb XMS or EMS, 386/33, VGA graphics,
  CD-ROM with MSCDEX 2.2, SoundBlaster and other major sound cards,
  MS-DOS 5.0