They say the devil is in the details, so, in the case of Fatekeeper, he’s got plenty of places to hide. It’s absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.
For a more-than-affordable, single-player narrative RPG experience Fatekeeper offers brutal melee and magic combat, a linear story with a breathtaking world to explore as you carve your way through monsters and beasts.
In its current state Fatekeeper is a little short, with only a few hours being available to play but in those few hours I have completely fallen in love with it. From the way that your magic projectiles have a satisfying arc as they shoot towards enemies, through to the thunk of your melee weapon as it connects with an enemy and sends them ragdolling into a canyon below, every part of combat is a treat for the senses. That’s not to mention the Dead Island style kick which can be utilised to send foes into absolutely anything and everything.
You are led on a journey with what I can only describe as your faithful magical rat companion who adds a bit of comic relief while teaching you the basics of combat in one of the portal worlds at the beginning of your journey. It’s clear from the start of Fatekeeper that your character has already been on a long journey before yours even begins which I find interesting especially as it was very easy to fall into the role of a wandering adventurer on a quest without knowing much about it.
It’s also important to point out that Fatekeeper’s combat is not a cakewalk. You need to be prepared with healing items, spells and weapons that will help with each encounter. What works for one enemy may not be the same for another, perhaps a long two handed sword works to clean unarmoured opponents but another may throw noxious gas from a ledge requiring you to think on your feet and adapt accordingly.
As you make your way through the world you’ll find all manner of items. Everything from legendary weapons with abilities and modifiers to flowers and alchemical ingredients to produce potions to heal and aid you on your journey. The crafting system stems around setting up camps and brewing the items you need. Each item you use will have an effect with me generally opting to make as many powerful healing potions as and when needed.
There are no moments to pause and heal like in the Elder Scrolls series where you can laughably eat fifteen cheese wheels and be back in the fight. Here you’ll have to use your equipment on the fly, mid-combat if you want to survive, which also leaves you wide open to attacks so choose your moments wisely or heal up when you get a moment of quiet.
If you’re also a fan of gritty melee combat but want to try something much darker and much farther into the future then be sure to check out Darktide with its new class release for the Skitarii, featuring similar melee combat to Fatekeeper but in an entirely different package focused around co-operative, mission based gameplay.
The enemies in Fatekeeper are not exactly the most complex, some can be easily countered and have some predictable attacks, however as you progress further into the narrative adventure and they start to blend enemies into small kill squads with melee, ranged and magic being thrown at you, it becomes much more of a challenge.
I could actually make the comparison to some of the more recent Doom games albeit with a much slower approach to combat and less of a flashy approach to the style. Instead Fatekeeper has a very grounded aesthetic which sets the tone for what was once a flourishing world that has slowly fallen into decay and ruin.
The locales you’ll be exploring in the short gameplay that’s available has you venture through pretty much everything from desert caves to lush mountainous regions with ruins and mines galore. There is also a sort of hubworld that you can explore that offers a safe place to gather equipment and travel through portals to enter the areas. Currently there’s not much to do there other than look around and gather items but clearly there’s the framework for what could be a shop or possibly blacksmithing services as well as the ability to safely brew potions.
Overall, Fatekeeper is visually stunning, mechanically satisfying and offers combat with weight behind it leading to every fight being varied enough to not get stale but also weighty and realistic which is actually hard to come across in a lot of fantasy games.
Fatekeeper is available now for PC..
