Handmancers Preview

Sit back and get comfortable, because today we’re taking a closer look at something truly bizarre. We’ve all played “rock-paper-scissors” at some point to decide who gets the last slice of pizza or the front seat in the car. But the developers at Handmancers decided to take it a step further and turned this childhood game into a full-fledged card RPG that recently launched in early access. If you’ve been looking for a reason to start trusting your fingers more than swords and magic again, then this review is for you.

The premise here is classic for the genre—you could even call it a cliché. The world has been at peace for too long; everyone has let their guard down and grown weak, and now the Corruption has crawled out of the shadows. You play as the Handmancer—a sort of mage whose power lies solely in his gestures. The rules are well-known: rock beats scissors, scissors cut paper, and paper somehow magically defeats rock. If you win this clash, you deal full damage. If it’s a tie, the attack is parried, and damage is usually neutralized on both sides. Well, if you lose, get ready to take whatever comes your way. It might seem like pure chance, but the devil, as always, is in the details.

At first glance, the game looks like a typical mobile title that somehow ended up on Steam. It has a simple interface, bright graphics, and strange monsters—like a slime with a weapon inside or a chest with a long tongue. But spend just half an hour in the game, and you’ll start to notice layers of mechanics that transform this “guess-and-try” game into a strategic duel. There’s no mana in the usual sense, but there is a pace that you set yourself. And it’s precisely this pace that determines whether you’ll become a master of your craft or end up as a pile of dust at the feet of the very first boss.

The depth of Handmancers truly shines through in the "Sprint" mechanic. As the battle progresses, you run out of cards in your hand, and you can press the draw button at any time to refill your hand. But there’s a serious catch: if you do this while you still have unused cards in your hand, “Convulsions” get shuffled into your deck. These are completely useless junk cards that can’t win a single battle and just take up space. The skill here lies in reducing your hand to exactly zero and performing a “Perfect Sprint,” keeping your deck clean. This creates an excellent tactical rhythm as you balance the desire to strike harder with the need to discard excess cards in time so as not to clutter your build. And for those who generally crave fresh experiences in games, it’s worth checking out our 50 best action-adventure games on PC, PS5, Xbox, and Switch; there are plenty of titles there that can also surprise you.

But Handmancer isn’t just about sprinting. The game’s true depth lies in its customization system. It’s not just deck-building—it’s full-fledged crafting. You find gems and then literally embed them into your cards. Want your gem to not only deal damage but also inflict bleeding? Go right ahead. Need to add a shield to a paper card or make scissors inflict a weakness on the enemy? Just inlay the right gem. The coolest part is that gem effects trigger before the outcome of the play is resolved. That changes everything. You can weaken an enemy or heal yourself a second before your cards clash, turning a losing position into a tolerable one, and a draw into a crushing victory.

The enemies in this game are quite the tricksters. The developers clearly didn’t want you to just lazily throw stones at the screen. Take Mimic, for example—he forces you to frantically try to remember what kind of card you played in that same spot on your last turn, because he’ll copy it. It’s a real test of your short-term memory, and if you, like me, can’t even remember what you had for breakfast a couple of hours ago, this guy will drain you dry. There’s also the Distorted Dragon, which literally blinds you with flashes and floods you with Filth, changing the rules of the game on the fly. Each boss requires its own approach: sometimes you need more defense, other times aggressive scissor spam with bleed effects. And if you don’t want to suffer alone but share the pain with friends, here’s a nice selection 60 best co-op games for low-end PCs.

The Taint system deserves a special mention. As you play through the game, you may encounter events that allow you to alter your card. Such a card becomes an absolute trump card; it always wins in a clash, no matter what move the opponent makes. It feels like a cheat code, but this bonus doesn’t come for free, and you still have to manage to pull it off at the right moment. Overall, the variety of builds here is surprisingly high for early access. You can build your character around vampirism and healing, piles of armor, or pure damage that increases with every move of the same type you play.

Another feature that works better than the screenshots suggest is the first-person view. On paper, it sounds like a minor cosmetic detail. In practice, it’s not quite that simple. There’s a noticeable difference between looking down at an abstract table of cards from above and standing face-to-face with an enemy as a duelist. The connection with your opponent really feels more, let’s say, direct, and the battles themselves take on a slight tension that many other games in the genre lack.

This isn't a revolution, and the camera alone wouldn't have saved the game. But it does something very important: it helps Handmancers stand out not only technically, but also emotionally. You're not just laying out a solitaire game on a table. You're facing off against an opponent head-to-head. By the way, for those looking for something to play without breaking the bank, here’s a list of the best free PC games.

Handmancers today is a classic "early access" game in every sense of the word. The interface looks low-budget, and the fonts are rather plain. The game froze once, and I had to force-close it and restart it. The sound effects, for their part, feel flat and lackluster.

However, the game has—and I’m not afraid to use this grand word—a soul. You can feel it in the way the card art changes when you socket gems, and even in how the developers ask for feedback right within the game. The music, by the way, is excellent: upbeat, atmospheric, and perfect for methodically beating up goblins. Yes, there aren’t many classes yet (only three at the start), and progression through the skill tree looks pretty standard: buy an HP boost, buy a chance for a rare gem, move on. It’s not on the level of Hades or Balatro in terms of being “addictive” for hundreds of hours, but as a game for a few evenings—it’s damn intriguing.

Handmancers is a solid and unique experiment. It takes a concept as simple as possible and layers it with tactics that really make you think. It’s a game about risk management—about knowing when to discard cards and when to take a chance, hoping for a lucky gem. Yes, visually it’s a bit rough around the edges in places, and technical glitches can spoil the experience. But the very idea of turning a children’s game into deep deckbuilding is exactly why we love the indie scene. It brings fresh excitement where big studios are afraid to venture. And if you suddenly feel like taking a break from gaming, you can always switch gears and check out selection: What to watch in May 2026: The best movies and TV shows of the month on Netflix, HBO, Apple TV+, and in cinemas.

If you’re a fan of the roguelike genre and have grown tired of standard fantasy decks, Handmancers will be a pleasant surprise for a couple of evenings. There’s enough content here to keep you hooked, as well as enough complexity to keep you on your toes. The main thing is to remember that this is still the beginning of the journey, and the developers are actively refining the project. Personally, as the author of this review, I’ll be keeping an eye out for updates, because this “hand magic” has enormous potential. It’s a project with soul that just needs a little polish, decent fonts, and a more satisfying “boom” when you cast spells.