First off, thank you to Westwood for coming out with the masterpiece that is the Legend of Kyrandia series. Any person who grew up on point and click computer games has most likely come across this series during the Westwood/Sierra dogfight of the early years. Those of you who haven't, be sure to give this series (and this game in particular) a look at. Hand of Fate is Book Two in the Legend of Kyrandia series and you play the part of the tenacious Zanthia who is embarking on a perilous quest to stop the fair land of Kyrandia from disappearing.
As far as puzzle solving goes, this game finds itself sadly on the extremely straight forward level: you get items in a level, you use them in the level, you move on. That being said, the true beauty of this game comes from its absolutely hilarious protagonist, and all of the crass and embittered scallywags she meets along the way.
Hand of Fate manages to expand on the world of Kyrandia much more so than the first of series, and yet it also doesn't end up going too far into the absurdity of the third part of the series. There is, however, one thing that all three of the games have in common, and it’s the fact that each game has an absolutely annoying puzzle that deals
with randomly generated items. In the first of the series Brendan had to search for certain gems, and they were randomly generated throughout the landscape. In the third book, Malcolm had to use randomly generated dog bones in order to get dogs to dig up buried treasure (which, to my knowledge, was also randomly generated every time you re-entered the screen...which was a lot). Now finally in Hand of Fate there is a somewhat offensive potion making puzzle, it does not find itself anywhere near on the same plane of frustration as the other two game's puzzles do.
All in all this game is relatively easy, and the graphics don't stand up very well, but the sheer hilarity of the characters and the situations they find themselves in makes it an absolute joy to dive into for several hours. If you have had any interest in the early King's Quest, Space Quest's, or Laura Bow mysteries this game is right up your alley. If you have never played any of the Legend of Kyrandia series, but are a fan of point and click interface and like to look back at some interesting early years in gaming, I strongly recommend that you give this series (but specifically this game which happens to be my favorite) a try.
