What if you woke up as a monstrosity made up entirely of hands? Developed by Game River and published by Chinese-based Lightning Games, Out of Hands is an interesting mix of deckbuilding, adventure, and psychological horror. In it, you play as a shut-in who is plagued by trauma and conflicting inner thoughts, having to come to terms with the strange dreamworld you find yourself in and your new, strange form.

The long, sleepless night

The unnamed protagonist finds himself trapped inside his own bedroom, which the game dubs “the room of pain.” They are stuck in a loop of nightmares, remembering details of their past and are accompanied by three aspects of their mind, identified through their choice of color: the bespectacled blue Logic, the cryptic Mystery in green, and the red and impulsive Action. They each try to assist the troubled protagonist in their own way. Despite occasionally butting heads, they work together to resolve the player character’s trauma and struggles and find the source of this madness.

It should be noted here that Out of Hands has many different art and presentation styles that blend together well. Segments in the bedroom (and a few endings) are depicted in stop-motion, the cards and mental aspects are made with photo and video collages, and the maps in the dreamworld are hand-drawn. No pun intended on the last one. The Steam page does make note that generative AI was used for some visuals, which is a shame. However, everything else is so lovingly crafted that I can excuse the use of it.

Out of Hands has four endings, multiple side quests, and a lot of secrets to discover. These secrets even include a few crossover boss fights from other deckbuilder games.  

Hand-to-hands combat

With the story set, gameplay is where Out of Hands truly gets interesting. As, despite the game’s bizarre premise and psychological horror plot, Out of Hands is a strategic RPG deckbuilder at heart, similar to Inscryption in a few ways. 

The battlefield is split between three zones. The top layer are the bosses, called “heart demons,” which are the sources of turmoil and trauma. The bottom layer are your hands and heart, the latter serving as your health. In the middle are the “midground” enemies, emotions that have varying effects, such as healing for every card you play or dealing double damage. Their base health/damage can be reduced by attacks, and they block damage to the heart demons unless otherwise stated. 

You add cards to your deck and your usual strategy is to clear the midfield to get to the heart demons. The player starts with two hands, I know, what a shock, which are used to drag and grab cards. These cards are everyday items, usually office or school supplies, or of supernatural origins, such as an eldritch deer’s antlers. Some items have the core personalities imprint different effects to them as well. In addition, you can also get eyes and mouth upgrades that have different effects. These come with somewhat unsettling visuals of using hands to simulate blinking eyes or chattering teeth. 

Ah, curses! (And nightmares)

So, Out of Hands has a very interesting grasp for on-the-fly dynamic difficulty. Sure, the game ramps up difficulty on its own with more complicated enemies and mechanics, but there are two other ways that prevent the player from becoming too complacent.

Starting with the nightmare counter, now and then Out of Hand’s difficulty will rise. Enemies begin to deal more damage and take more punishment, until the nightmare hits the max cap of 10. Matches can be either found or while leveling up to reduce the darkness. So, as long as you have a few on hand, you can always reduce the difficulty. Though, I’ve found the game to be on the relative easy side throughout.

Maintaining a good deck in Out of Hands is important. After being used in a deck for too long, cards can gain a curse. Curses start off with a positive and negative effect, where the effects of the cards are raised. At the same time, it has three effects depending on which personality core afflicts it; from dealing damage to the player, having its effect hidden, or being unable to play until more energy per turn is spent. Then, eventually, the card is removed from your deck entirely. This system adds so much depth, as the player has to exercise their deck-creation skills in order to progress. 

Final Thoughts

Out of Hands is a true standout game. With a carefully crafted narrative, decent but accessible challenge, and some unique visuals, the game has a lot going for it. While the game is overall on the easier side, the presentation of this game is top-notch and makes the player want to explore its weird and surreal world from top to bottom.

Out of Hands was released on Steam on April 22, 2025. The game retails at $17.99.