The Hand of Merlin is a turn-based technique sport printed by the workforce at Versus Evil. If the title “Merlin” sounds acquainted, that’s as a result of this title relies on the legend of King Arthur, Merlin being his trusted mage. The sport provides a twist to the fabled lore in a multiverse-spanning story that launched on Steam earlier than making its option to consoles. The one query is, has it been well worth the wait? It’s a little bit of a “sure and no” scenario.
Let’s begin with a number of the optimistic facets. The Hand of Merlin options story-driven gameplay that follows your band of heroes by means of lands stuffed with hazard and intrigue. The narrative actually unfolds by way of an enormous guide, with new conditions revealed each few web page turns.
My favourite a part of that is the non-linear, choose-your-own-adventure storytelling model, with selections introduced on the finish of every web page. Are you courageous sufficient to research that creepy tombstone? In case you spot a toddler in peril or come throughout two knights combating, will you select to have interaction or quietly exit stage left? Some selections merely transfer the story alongside; others supply rewards, like gold, meals, or mana. At instances your selections rely upon probability, and also you’ll be requested to attract a card from a deck to find out the end result. These might be as critical as an encounter with witches or as frivolous as a sport of disguise and search with some native youngsters.
Some conditions drag you into an precise battle. These kind the second a part of The Hand of Merlin, going down on an isometric area with a turn-based strategy akin to Hearth Emblem. As anticipated, you select and carry out your workforce’s actions earlier than the enemy chooses and performs theirs, and so forth, till one complete workforce is defeated. The battles play fairly nicely and make for a enjoyable distraction from the storybook scenes.
Now to a number of the negatives. My preliminary impression of The Hand of Merlin was considered one of annoyance. Firstly, the sport begins extraordinarily slowly, with a really lengthy loading display screen to welcome you. And by “very lengthy,” I imply virtually two minutes! These loading screens are a recurring situation, with delays greeting you earlier than every battle, albeit shorter in period.
Secondly, I used to be regularly annoyed with the consumer interface. There are a lot of choices whilst you’re enjoying, which appears nice, besides that they’re additionally complicated and poorly defined, regardless of a devoted assist web page. For instance, a “helpful” pop-up saved reminding me to stage up my characters – how, precisely? There are menus in every single place, and none of them make sense at first. It’s extraordinarily cluttered and troublesome to navigate. The usage of a “+” image in a number of areas can also be complicated – it doesn’t imply utilizing the + button, which I’d assumed. In truth, I’m nonetheless undecided what it means.
I get the impression this sport wasn’t optimized for the Swap, which additionally explains the poor loading instances. For instance, one menu asks you to “hover” over sure choices for data. Nonetheless, that is not possible and not using a mouse. These points might be forgiven if touchscreen controls have been included, however they’re notably absent.
Graphically, The Hand of Merlin fares higher, sporting a darkish aesthetic throughout battles that fits the medieval theme. The battles are additionally nicely animated, with attention-grabbing enemies to come across, together with some beastly beasts. The storybook strategy additionally works nicely, although the textual content could be barely laborious to learn due to the best way it slopes – it’s designed to appear to be an open guide, in spite of everything. Every web page does embody some neat stills to accompany the textual content, although.
Total, The Hand of Merlin is a tactical sport that performs nicely if you happen to can look previous the lengthy loading instances and consumer interface points. Whereas it initially put me off with its difficult menus, the first rate visuals and fascinating battles are enjoyable when you get the grasp of them. It’s presumably a tad on the costly facet, however followers of turn-based methods will seemingly discover some delicate enjoyment right here.