Hand of the Gods

Hand of the Gods

GENRE: Strategy / CCG (cards)
PLATFORM: Windows
DEVELOPER: Hi-Rez Studios

OVERVIEW

A chess like board game strategy combined with card collecting game (CCG) mechanics Hans of the Gods is an adaptation from the developers MOBA Smite. In the game players are able to build up competitive decks using key ancient pantheons, from the Greeks to the Egyptians. Gather cards and build up a force then challenge other players in 1 on 1 duels for ranks and rewards. Hand of Gods is a free to play title with optional microtransactions where players can purchase additional cards for their collection.

KEY FEATURES

- 6 Key factions and 1 neutral faction to build up
- Play your cards and convert them into units to move around the game board
- 1 on 1 battles across multiple PVP and PVE modes
- Hundreds of cards available to collect with different rarities
- Purchase card packs through the store, or craft them with ingredients
- Free to play

GAMEPLAY

The game is a combination of classic CCG where players must collect cards and build up their own decks to take into battle. Each turn cards are drawn from a players deck at random and then the player can spend mana accrued each round to play cards with different costs. Cards come in two main forms: Item and Unit, with Item cards being classic spell type cards that have various beneficial and detrimental effects. Unit cards place a physical unit on the gridded game board and each turn players can move their units around and try to attack the enemy. As the game progresses and players accrue more mana they are able to play increasingly more powerful cards or simply more lower cost ones at once. The main objective is to get units to the other side of the board to attack and destroy the opponent’s shrine, whilst simultaneously defending your own.

DECK BUILDING

The available cards are divided up into seven primary groups; the six pantheons (Roman, Greek, Mayan, Egyptian, Chinese and Norse) as well as a Neutral group. Each pantheon has cards that are completely unique to it that fall within the theme of that location and culture, as well as other deities, heroes and creatures of power from that pantheons mythology. The pantheons and their cards all cater to particular play styles that will suit different players, such as aggressive, defensive, control and more. The Neutral cards can be used by any of the pantheons to bulk out their own deck. Each deck comprises of 25 total cards with no more than 2 duplicates of a single card allowed.

Item Cards – These cards are played directly from the players drawn hand and have various effects on the table. They can deal direct damage to enemy minions, heal up allies, add various status effects, and more

Minion Cards – The bulk of the creatures from a deck are minions, being that are put onto the table and given their own unit token. These creatures can be melee or ranged combatant and each will have three values: mana cost, attack damage, hipoint score. When engaging in melee combat both the attacking and defending unit deal their damage and remove that number from their opponent minion’s hitpoint score. When a unit is reduced to zero hitpoints it is removed from play. Many cards also have a particular trait that gives them additional bonuses to allies or banes to enemies. A Protection trait gives adjacent allies damage mitigation from attacks, whereas a Silence ability removes an opponent minion’s trait altogether.

God Cards – A powerful unit card that can turn the tide of battle, these higher cost units are instrumental in a player’s strategy.

ACQUIRING CARDS

Cards are typically acquired by earning in-game currency through the various game modes and using it to purchase Card Packs. These packs give players five random cards that can be from any of the pantheons or neutral cards, and come in different rarities. Players do have the option of spending real cash to purchase more Card Packs. If a player acquires a card that they do not want, or simply one that they already have duplicates of, then they can disenchant the card for resources that can be then used to create their own card.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENT

O/S: Windows Vista or above
RAM: 4GB
Video: AMD Radeon R7 or GeForce 630
DirectX Version: 11