Images courtesy of Game River/Lightning Games
Though deckbuilding games are increasing in number and popularity at a remarkable rate, quite often we see many titles building on or giving their own spins on a fairly familiar formula and common tropes. Rarely do we see or experience something that feels truly original, but that’s certainly not the case with Out of Hands.
Perhaps due to there being a singular artistic vision behind the project, given that it’s the work of a solo developer, Out of Hands is one of the most unique games we’ve ever played, let alone being one of the most refreshingly unusual deckbuilding games we’ve taken for a spin.
So what is Out of Hands all about? Let’s take a look.
What Is Out of Hands?
A deckbuilding game at its core, Out of Hands may feel like a roguelike at first, but it’s not an exact fit for the genre. At the outset of the game, your character wakes up to discover that their face is now comprised of hands, positioned to form the shape of eyes, nose and mouth. To uncover the truth of what has caused this disturbing development, you need to explore your home, and beyond, taking on objects, body parts, and psychological conditions in card-based combat.
Your cards are played by dragging your hands over to them (that’s your left and right hands, rather than those comprising your face!), then aiming them at the target. Your cards, and therefore your “weapons,” are usually everyday objects and random stuff, shown in shadowy, off-kilter photos.
You’ll explore different environments on the quest to escape the nightmare you’re trapped in, and the narrative, as well as the game’s audiovisual elements, constantly keep you on your toes and, it must be said, on edge too.
Yes, it’s weird. In fact, it’s perhaps even weirder, darker, and creepier than it sounds. The images of faces are full motion video, deliberately jerkily animated to give them an unsettling look, using a form of stop motion. This technique is most commonly used for animating clay models, and your in-game home, and full body persona seen between rounds, is mostly animated with this process too, using physical miniatures, which look entirely hand-crafted (perhaps appropriately).
There’s a mixture of animation techniques throughout, in fact, from the aforementioned stop motion to more traditional 2D processes, all used to create a disturbingly surreal, nightmarish ambience which puts the cinematic oeuvre of the late David Lynch in mind. If Slay the Spire, Kafka’s Metamorphosis, and Lynch’s Eraserhead all fell into a blender, not only would it create a spectacular mess, but you could probably pick through the gore to find Out of Hands as the end result.
Is Out of Hands Fun to Play?
Perhaps fun isn’t the right word, but Out of Hands is certainly a riveting and involving experience, with every aspect of the game fine tuned to be as surreal and unsettling as possible, while maintaining its own sense of dream logic. It’s based on an immediately intriguing setup, and despite its unique aesthetic, the gameplay in Out of Hands is actually incredibly simple and straightforward, with its card-based combat being particularly intuitive with little needed in terms of tutorials, and the between-rounds exploration of your weird environment feeling, at times, like a point and click adventure.
It is a relatively short game, however, and its replay value is certainly less than you’ll find in other deckbuilding games, specifically roguelikes; you won’t be playing Out of Hands for hundreds of hours in the way that you would for games such as Balatro, as one example. It’s worth noting that Out of Hands is fully compatible with the Steam Deck, but the touchscreen doesn’t work as well as using the standard control scheme.
It’s certainly unlike anything I’ve played before, and it’s very impressive that Out of Hands is the work of a solo developer too. The game’s oppressive, dark ambience and subject matter may not be to everyone’s taste, nor does it feel particularly “commercial,” but the creator’s vision has been executed brilliantly here, and Out of Hands comes across as not just a game, but a full on experience and a genuine work of art.
The Card Gamer Verdict
The ambience and artistic vision of Out of Hands feels almost peerless, with a superbly implemented nightmare surrealism that’s rendered with a variety of unsettling imagery and techniques.
Though not a roguelike, the card-based gameplay in Out of Hands feels fairly familiar. Players of games such as Slay the Spire will be immediately at home with the combat, though other elements of the game feel more unusual for a digital deckbuilding game.
The overall narrative isn’t particularly lengthy, and though it’s unlikely that players will continue to return to Out of Hands once the story is finished, it’s an experience which lingers in the mind long after the climax.
Out of Hands is available now on Steam. Many thanks to the publisher for providing us with a game key for review purposes.
Check out our reviews of other Steam Deck compatible card games, such as SpellRogue and Nif Nif.
