The legend continues. In first part of this trilogy, you were Brandon, soon to be a king, and only heir to the throne determined to stop the evil jester - Malcolm. Now, you're playing Zanthia, the young sorceress. Kyrandia is dissapearing. The high council found the cure for that - the anchor from the center of the world. When you come to that anchor, you'll see that this is not the answer. Marco's Hand is behind that sabotage (Marco is your friend, clumsy but with nice attentions. Hand is a big hand that isn't that nice as you think). Now, you must save Kyrandia before everything else vanishes without a trace.
If was to say Hand of Fate is best game ever created, I would probably be wrong (taking into account other great titles like Quest for Glory 1, Dragonsphere, and so on). That's why I'm going to say it like this: Hand of Fate is one of the best games ever created. This excellent game is the sequel to Legend of Kyrandia 1, and the predecessor of Malcom's revenge. In my opinion, HoF is the best game in the series, although I only played a small part of Legend of Kyrandia 1. But enough of that as this is a review for HoF, and not some other title in the series.
In this second part of the trilogy you play the part of Zanthia, the youngest of the order of Kyrandia mystics. The story goes like this: Kyrandia is slowly dissapearing (trees vanishing into thin air right before your eyes and things like that). The only solution to save the land is to find the anchorstone, located in the centre of the world.
You start the game in your hut. This is when you find out that all your belongings have been stolen. The hut is trashed and Zanthia is very upset. The first two things you need to obtain are the cauldron, and the recipe book. With these two, you will be able to concoct all sorts of potions, which you will need throughout the game. There are numerous puzzles, many of which are not simple, and require some neurons to be wasted :) However, there are also some puzzles which can be solved only by trial and error, simply because you don't know what you're supposed to do. You're all probably wondering what's so great about this game. Well, where do I start?
Graphics? Stunning! Just look at the screenshots to the right, they say a million words. There are also wonderful animations. The game also has a short intro movie, which describes the desperate situation very well. The music is simply gorgeous, and the sounds are great. Also, the game is very fun to play. In fact the graphics style and the humorous dialogues are characteristic of Westwood, so if you haven't played any of their games before, this is an excellent opportunity to do so. I'm sure you won't be disappointed!
Anything else I'm forgetting here? Oh yes, what's the hand doing in the title? Well, the hand helps in some parts of the game. In fact it helps you right at the beginning, by telling you where to get the anchorstone.
Closing thoughts: Another gem from my favorite computer company, Westwood (before it was bought by EA)
The Omuletzu curiosity bit:
About the game: Legend of Kyrandia 2 uses Trulight technology. This illuminates each scene more cinematically, to give the impression of a fuller, three dimensional picture.
About the company: Westwood, one of the 90's most popular software company, was founded in 1985, by Brett W. Sperry and Louis Castle. Their "office" was a garage in Las Vegas.
Part of The Legend of Kyrandia Trilogy
The Legend of Kyrandia: The Hand of Fate is one of the long line of graphic adventure games created by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Games Interactive. It was released in the early nineties for play on the personal computer and is entirely in the third person perspective. It offers a fun medieval theme that follows its predecessors fairly closely.
Kyrandia is disappearing. Yes, the land is disappearing, little bits at a time. While the Court Mystics don't have a clue on how to handle this unusual phenomenon, the Hand recommends that they elect someone to travel to the center of the land to retrieve the magical anchor stone that can hopefully stop the theft of the land. The tomboyish young Zanthia is chosen as the most likely candidate for the job, and becomes one of the few female protagonists in adventure gaming history, keeping company with Rosella from the King's Quest series, and Doralice, the ditzy protagonist of Lost in Time.
Zanthia has her work cut out for her. She begins with an act of vandalism in her rooms, forcing her to walk to the center of the world instead of creating a magical portal with the items she had previously acquired. It does not take Zanthia long to realize that there are bigger things at work here, and the anchor stone may well not be the answer.
The Legend of Kyrandia: The Hand of Fate is a point and click adventure game with an amazingly large inventory and a rather strong and long story line. It proves some anomalies from the previous games and does a good job of setting up the following games, as well. The Hand turns into a large question mark, and Marco does as well, for those who are familiar with the series. No spoilers here.
The user interface is easy enough. There is a shelf running along the bottom of the screen where Zanthia is able to place her inventory of items she acquires. One of the premier things she must locate, or re-locate, is the book of spells that was stolen from her home by the vandals at the very beginning. It has been torn to pieces, but at least a few spells still remain. Much of the game involves locating spells or ingredients needed to make spells work. Bear in mind that Zanthia was only able to recover part of her spell book, and only spells that begin with the letter S will work.
In total, this is a very nice adventure game and a solid sequel in the series. It is a fairly large game and will require a while to complete. It is a solid and satisfying play that will leave the user ready and waiting for a sequel.
Arguably among the best adventure games series ever, Kyrandia games tell the stories set in the fantasy land of Kyrandia, told from 3 different perspectives: Brandon (a hero chosen to save the land), Zanthia (a Royal Mystic searching for the Anchor Stone to save Kyrandia from disappearing), and Malcolm (the evil jester from the first 2 games out to get his revenge). Each game is better than the last, despite the annoying random elements in some puzzles which can only be solved through tenacious trial-and-error. Great games nonetheless, with a gentle sense of humor, Westwood's acclaimed graphics and user-friendly interface, and great music.
How to run this game on modern Windows PC?
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Legend of Kyrandia, The, Legend of Kyrandia, The: Malcolm's Revenge, Little Big Adventure, Day Of The Tentacle, Maniac Mansion Deluxe, King's Quest 5: Absence Makes the Heart go Yonder, Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes 2 (a.k.a. Case of Rose Tattoo), Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes 1 (a.k.a. Case of the Serrated Scalpel)
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