Written by Thomas G.J. Sharpe
Recently, I have re-read a bunch of everyone’s favourite
long-faced racist’s stories. Lovecraft doesn’t really do the dark ages as
site-specific locations. Odds and sods of lore come from humanity’s past, but
there isn’t a bit where you see the Albigensians deploy Bokrug, the Great Water
Lizard, to massacre the Cathars at Beziers. Lovecraft kept his stories
contemporary. So, it’s good to see some knights having a chop at unspeakable,
indescribable horrors. There are other games that have done this, but taking
the Arthurian legends and smashing it into cosmic horror is the context for Hand
of Merlin.
There are a few working components to Merlin, but at
its beating heart is tactical combat. You’ve a squad of heroes knocking about a
gridded area with human, and very far from human, enemies. Supporting this is a
role-playing system, a resource management slice, rogue-lite running, and an
overworld to traverse. All of this is wrapped up in a ludicrous, yet really
fun, story of Merlin searching different timelines to destroy the evil that has
been unleashed on the world by someone who lost their faith in the goals of
Camelot and its circular dining table.
This is a busy, dense game, both visually and
informationally. All these moving parts need bits to explain to the player and
for the player to operate. As a mild gripe, it doesn’t help that there are a
thousand type-faces present, and a few different art styles. Sometimes its
hokey and rustic, sometimes it’s clean and crisp. It is at once evocative and
ugly, clear and confusing. If you can wade through this, there is a deep game
that expands like the fetid iridescence of the Shoggoths.
The overworld map is probably the prettiest part of the game.
Nodes trail across the map leading on a world somewhere between Mount and
Blade and Dungeon Keeper’s legendary mission intros. Your motley
band visit these nodes (different every run) and you have encounters such as
straight-up combat, little events with multiple choices to interact, or
villages where you can rest, trade or progress the story. The node layout gives
it some measurable structure, enabling you to get a sense of how far you’re
getting each time.
Hand of Merlin is a hard game. I had to drop it to
easy from normal to make decent progress just to see more of the game. It never
felt unfair, but there was a lot to learn about how the game works, but also a
lot of information to inwardly digest. There is not a great sense of pace, as
you spend a lot of time fettling your crew, getting all the bits of the
characters in the right place. The combat isn’t as long as other X-Com-a-likes,
and also has a more laboured pace. There’s not too much excitement, but I was
glad for this as there’s a bit more to track here than the few ‘nades, action
points, and positioning systems that are typically present. The result is a
less frenetic and more overtly considered feeling. The little characters are
nicely made, nothing too flashy happening here, and the environments are sort
of grim enough to fulfil the intentions of the setting. Some of the monster
horrors are nicely vile, and are by far the most interesting visually.
Outside of combat, progression is made through the map and
then explored in a charming book-interface. There’s a choose your own adventure
quality to this that really works. I didn’t really miss having a “hub” a-la Darkest
Dungeon, nor did I miss wandering about a town looking for the bloody shop
in a sparse placeholder location. The book that you interact with is probably
the most consistent aesthetic piece of the GUI. The illustrations do the job
for keeping the human world in the picture.
There is a robust guide that is
well put together, which due to the many aspects the player is juggling, I
needed more than I expected. I often find in-game guidebooks to be deeply
frustrating (I’m looking at you Factorio), and are sometimes less use
than Clippy.
All in all, Hand of Merlin
strikes a really unique note. I thought I was going to give this a 3/5, but
getting a bit further into it, giving it a little more patience than my darting
mind can give things, let it sink in a bit more. It’s depth, especially the RPG
systems for the characters, are really satisfying. While not a quick game, it
hits a tonne of great notes, which minor foibles about sort of naff visual
style choices can’t really muffle. The thoughtful design and unique fusion of gameplay
types pulls this up to something to check out if you enjoy tactics, RPGs and
enjoy seeing some cousins of Rhan-Tegoth, Nyarlathotep, or even the horror from
the hills themselves, Chaugnar Faugn.
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