Do you suck at Hand of Fate 2? Then here’s some great news!

If you’re like me, you’re thrilled about today’s update to Hand of Fate 2, the deck builder meets brawler meets RPG that does some of the cleverest stuff with cards this side of a Now You See Me movie. According to this Steam post from the developers, the update is designed to “empower players of all skill levels”. We all know what that means, right? There’s no need to sugar-coat it. That’s the code phrase for “waaah, you thought the game was too hard, so now that it’s been out long enough for the real fans to enjoy it, I guess we’ll dumb it down for the rest of you losers”. Not that I’m complaining. It’s just that I know how to translate developerspeak.

For instance, the update includes “improvements to player character responsiveness and evasion.” That means “okay, some of you guys are slower than we realized, so we gave you more time to press the buttons.” You can use the bad-ass magic items called artefacts more often. The attack that used to bust armor is now useful for knocking dudes back and stunning them. This is all great news. As someone who’s barely unlocked half of the campaign, I’m grateful for the opportunity to not die so often when I play. And if the above changes aren’t enough, I can always just throw in the towel and play in the new “apprentice mode”. When you play this way, the stuff with tricky timing just happens automatically. Hey, look, I just riposted that guy who was trying to attack me! Aren’t I quite the accomplished swordsman?

I like a punishing rogue-like as much as the next guy, and so long as there’s some steady trickle of advancement, I’m fine with unrelenting death. But I really appreciate it when games like Hand of Fate 2, Enter the Gungeon (see this update), and Darkest Dungeon decide to ease up on me after a while. The people who are really good had their chance. Now it everyone else’s turn.

These update notes explain the changes in detail.