Fatekeeper Reviews

Not going to lie, I played a couple hours earlier today and had mixed feelings on this. I loved so much about this title. The visuals are jaw dropping, it ran smoothly on my pc, the lore is intriguing, and the gameplay was visceral and fun. But I couldn't get over how difficult the game became out of nowhere. Okay maybe it was a skill issue, but I got frustrated because there are very few saves early on and you would die a lot and lose a ton of progress. One part I died maybe 5 times, finally beat it only to die at a future part and respawn before the part I died at 5 times beforehand. And I had not even gotten to the first boss who a lot of people say felt absurdly difficult. The game just felt difficult to be difficult and not fun difficult if you catch my drift. Fast forward to later tonight and sure enough the devs released a small patch that nerfed the first boss and some enemies, while adding some health potions. So I thought, okay lets try this and see how it feels. Long story short, this update drastically improved my issues with the title. It feels SO much better now. I got to the first boss and while he was pretty difficult and I used up almost all my healing, I was able to beat him on the first try. I never struggled through the rest of the game until the final boss of the current build. He whooped my behind but then I came back and used a weapon coating and absolutely demolished him the second time. The game now feels very well balanced. It's not difficult to be difficult, but not too easy imo. It feels almost just right. The devs are actively listening and I am now extremely confident that this game will be something special when it's all said and done. It's visceral, stunning, and it feels incredibly satisfying to play! At the current price point, this is a must buy!

At first, I thought my review would be positive, but the longer I played, the more flaws I noticed. 0) Music/sound - fine. The music sets the right mood. 1) Graphics – stunning. I’ve never played a better-looking game; it’s clear where the developers focused their efforts. I've noticed some issues with the flags and the final location of the second boss - it's definitely lacking in detail, with bare walls. The location looks worse than the previous ones. 2) Combat – average/poor. a) Enemies, especially bosses, are difficult, but this isn’t due to mechanics or difficulty in the style of Dark Souls, where you have to learn how to fight them; rather, it’s due to mistakes on the developers’ part. When attacking, the enemies move toward us as if on rails, so it's hard to predict whether they'll reach us - enemies ANIMATIONS NEED FIX ASAP. The current state of the animations and combat will discourage many people from supporting the project. b) There aren't enough options for ranged combat. Sometimes there are too many archers in the arena, and you have to run into them, losing HP in the process. Telekinesis didn't let me throw objects that far. Bow/crossbow is needed. c) There definitely need to be more environmental ways to eliminate enemies. A few bricks and the occasional spike just aren't enough. d) Magic overall is weak in my opinion and needs some improvements. Hard to predict how telekinesis or wind will impact enemies. Telekinesis shouldn't use mana while holding an object. That sucks. e) AI – Enemies sometimes trip over spikes and die. Second boss can be lured outside arena - this is connected to broken animations and moving on rails. 3) Using consumables - Applying oil to your weapon or drinking potions takes way too long. The problem is exacerbated by the previously mentioned issue with enemy attack animations. You never know if the enemy will reach you or if you’ll make it in time. It's faster to eat a mushroom than to drink the potion. It should be the other way around... Also, I think potions should, by default, be more potent than the ingredients they’re made from. Why make a healing potion if it takes longer to use than a mushroom and restores as much health as three mushrooms. 4) Campfires - in my opinion, they appear so rarely in the game that they could restore full health upon saving. 5) UX/UI - We also need some kind of UI that tells us how long the buffs last. That's missing. 6) Skill tree – extensive, but boring. +5% +5% +5%... If you’re going to model the skill tree after POE, try to make them a little more interesting like in... POE? I plan to come back to this game every now and then to see how it develops, but at this point, it doesn't deserve a positive review.

Please let me change the fisheye fov(?) or the the vignette blurr or whatever it is, that hurts my brain when looking around. Besides that this looks promising, especially for the price.

Is it worth 10 bucks? If you're the kind of person who loves to explore every single corner for loot, fight in first person, make potions and play with rats, then definitely yes. Better to pay 10 bucks now than 60 later. Also note that for now you only got content for 3 hours. The Early Access version feels good, but the combat system needs a lot of work and some places to be more optimized, Lossless Scaling can help you a little.

Visually stunning but combat is feeling a bit clunky. I feel like spacing is difficult to pin down, enemies hits are almost magnetic, and the fact that you can only heal with pots is rough. there is definitely a future for this game

Gorgeous game which reminds me of "Dark Messiah of Might and Magic"

This game has huge potential, but as it stands, it’s a 2-hour demo of what might come. I like that they released it at a cheap price, given how little content there is, and since it’s been well-received overall, the likelihood of it being finished eventually feels higher. Gameplay is slow-paced. No health bars, no button mashing, just you focusing on enemy attacks, blocking, dodging, and using your magic. Graphics are astonishing. It’s breathtaking, and it runs decently well, but there’s room for improvement in that department. It needs a bit more optimization. As it stands, there’s not much to comment on aside from the obvious need for a lot more content: more areas to explore, more complexity in loot, builds, alchemy, harder enemies, different enemy types, and more challenging encounters. It needs more reasons to explore crafting and optimize your character. Sounds need tweaking. It doesn’t feel immersive enough with the ambience, weapon sounds, swinging, hit effects, etc. Animations are overall decent, but they could also benefit from an increased sense of weight when hitting.

I was hyped for Fatekeeper like most people, since the first trailer. However my first impressions were mixed, camera settings needed some work, and they did adjust them. This game visually is actually Next-gen... You know that UE5 demo we saw when Epic announced the Engine? Fatekeeper actually looks like that trailer! Crisp textures, no blurriness, sharp image quality and beautiful landscapes as far as rocky mountains go! Game is a love letter to Dark Messiah so if you've played it means you're old (LMAO) and you know what to expect. It's a literal moving forward adventure with good physics melee combat and low magic. Enemies react to your hits/spells and everything you throw at them or on top of them. You can kick them off the ledge, push them into spikes, burn them, freeze them... list goes on. Level are designed in a way to create mini-playgrounds to use against the enemies, again Dark Messiah style with some treasures to discover if you want to snoop around. - Dismemberment system is peak, refined and pleasant with enough weapon variety. - Simple magic spells that are actually useful, fun to use and easy to grasp. - Loot is straightforward, does what it says in the description. - Potion crafting is also simple, which is very welcome. - Talents are kind of Poe like but easy to follow along, some add actual different attacks & animations, enough to make "builds" in way. - You have a Rat chain smoker companion. Is so cheap, it's basically free for how much enjoyment you get out of it.

A few things need polishing but so far it's doing a fantastic job of scratching that "dark Messiah" itch. Can't wait to see more of this

Graphics are beautiful. Physics are incredible. Early access so not all in game content is active. Given it’s only $8, no real reason to not get it. The game itself has a lot of potential for growth