Several encounters flesh out Merlin’s rise and fall, during which he speaks through the party to old allies and foes. You can encounter the beleaguered populace fleeing monsters and brigands ancient landmarks and the mythical figures that inhabit them potential allies that could provide supplies, healing, or the ability to shift your odds in another encounter or even new heroes to replenish any that have fallen during your journey. Similarly, there are dozens of different encounters to experience in each region – some one-off events, some interlinked, many narrative-driven, while others trigger combat. Although the maps you pass through always feature the same paths, cities, and landmarks, you’ll encounter different leaders and heroes whose respective beliefs dictate the state of the world. It’s not just the narrative setup that impresses, The Hand of Merlin features reams of quality writing that incorporates historical campaigns and legends from the period of the Crusades. His grand plan to defeat the corruption fails when Arthur is betrayed and falls in battle, leaving Merlin with no choice but to recruit mortal heroes in each realm to carry a magical MacGuffin – the grail – on an epic journey from Camelot in Albion, across southern Europe, and finally to Jerusalem to save each world (or perish in the attempt).

His burden? Watching over the multiverse and preventing as many of them as possible from falling to corruption and being lost forever.

An insatiable corruption hungers to consume a multiverse in which Merlin is the only constant. The Hand of Merlin has a great premise that ties into the rogue-like structure.

The result is a meaty and engaging RPG – despite the rogue-like elements and potential restarts – that doesn’t always translate well to a gamepad and big screen. It arrives on console (and v1.0 on PC) after a year in Early Access, which means 8 major content updates, balancing, visual improvements, and plenty of polish. The Hand of Merlin (developed by Room-C Games, Croteam, and published by Versus Evil) is an Arthurian-inspired rogue-lite RPG, with choose-your-own-adventure-style progression, luck-based card-draws, turn-based battling, and plenty of replayability.

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