In 2015, Defiant Development released Hand of Fate, a neat action-adventure title where you must work through different sorts of dungeons formed by a mysterious deck of cards. Personally, I like to consider it as two different parts of the game coming together, with an overarching adventure-y side of the game, where you explore those card-dungeons, and action-y sections where you play out a combat encounter or rush through a room full of traps. In those combat sections, you get to run around with a big axe — among other interesting weapons with fun abilities — and smack a variety of monsters upside the head with a Batman: Arkham series-inspired combat system. As such, it’s great fun!
However, what I really loved was the exploring aspect. This magical dealer sends out an array of cards into a sort of maze, where you walk from card to card, uncovering a variety of different events; some good, many bad, and most falling somewhere in between. There’s always a risk to exploring too much, as you only have so much food on you before you start to starve; even so, you’ll want to look around as much as you can because there’s simply so much to do.
Some cards have their own running stories that you’ll return to time and again, others feature impressive loot that can help you massively on your future adventures. Wherever you go, though, progress will be made. It’s like a slowly-paced roguelite, with every step spelling either success or doom. It’s truly a captivating experience — the first time I played, I spent hours trying to go as far as I could and loved every minute of it. The performance of the dealer was impeccable and intimidating, the gameplay loop was solid, the world was engaging, and the cards were an overall great design choice. I’m glad I played it.
However, I didn’t play Hand of Fate in 2015; I don’t recall if I even heard of it back then. No, it was a year later, in February of 2016, that I first gave this gem a shot. It had been placed onto Xbox Games With Gold, a program featuring new free games twice a month for all Xbox Gold subscribers.
In the early years of Games With Gold, I was ecstatic. New games every two weeks? Amazing! I tried to play every single title that came my way, so I found myself with plenty of new favourites. Hand of Fate became a particular favourite among them — the way it used cards simply mystified me. Overall, I loved the thrill of getting to see a game I’d never heard of before or of finally getting a chance to play something I’d never thought I’d be able to buy for whatever reason. Each game was magical to me, and I cherished the chance to experience them.
Back on the Xbox 360, these free games were just that: free games. They were added to your account and if you ever stopped your Xbox Gold subscription, you would still keep them in your library. This was amazing to me, though it made sense. We were paying a regular fee and, in addition to getting access to online play, we also got free games for our trouble.
With Xbox One, that changed, and then the free games only stuck around as long as you subscribed, essentially giving you an ever-growing, never-shrinking pool of games you could only access as long as you paid the bill. Then, in 2023, even that stopped, having long been seen as failing to provide good games and thus overtaken by Xbox Game Pass, which skipped the whole “free games” idea and just gave you the library; only now, games could leave that library. Right now, I’m paying for Xbox Game Pass Core, which is what Xbox Gold essentially became. Sometimes, games get added to this Core library, but nowhere near the fortnightly additions of the past. And yet, all those games I acquired over years of Games With Gold are still restricted to being only available as long as I keep up Core.
I know I can still treat Game Pass Core like I did Games With Gold: I can explore the games I’ve gained access to now and maybe find new favourites. However, now I can’t trust that I won’t lose access to these titles. I tend to play my games very, very slowly — I’ve been playing Hand of Fate on and off for years and, though I love it, I have yet to finish it — so I worry that I will be cut off from a game partway through. I’ve still tried out a few (I rather liked Unpacking), but I can’t help but feel somehow cheated by it all.
Unpacking! A game that made me cry… a couple times
This may sound odd, but I’d like to own copies of games. I know I don’t actually own a copy of Hand of Fate, it’s on the Xbox One, not the 360. I could go try to buy a copy, but, well, plenty of recent events have proven that digital ownership isn’t as clear-cut as I’d have liked to believe. Heck, even if it were on the 360, I might still run into problems. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was one of the Games With Gold from back then and, for mysterious reasons I still don’t understand, I no longer own it on my Xbox account.
Ideally (for me, anyways), with Games With Gold now long dead, Microsoft would just let us have those copies of the Games With Gold. The service isn’t around any longer, so why should we be locked into paying for a different service just to keep these titles? Even more ideally, I’d love a return to that system, similar to what the Epic Games Store does with its weekly free games, where you can consistently gain games for free that won’t be taken from you later on. I’d feel a lot more comfortable exploring these new titles to see if there’s anything I can fall in love with if I knew they weren’t going to be taken out from under my feet.
Yet that’s not going to happen at this point. I have to play the hand (of fate) I’ve been dealt and, if I want a copy of Hand of Fate so I never have to worry I’ll lose access to it, then I have to look elsewhere. I hear Good Old Games has it, and they offer games DRM-free too…
