Fatekeeper Preview: A Few Refinements Could Make This RPG Special

When I first saw a trailer for Fatekeeper, I instantly thought of Dark Souls and Oblivion. The reveal showcased a dark fantasy world that’s reminiscent of FromSoftware’s Souls games, with combat that can be compared to Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls universe.

As I looked further into the game, I noticed that it shares striking similarities to Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, a classic that released all the way back in 2006. Now, after I tried it for myself and played through the game’s early access, I can confidently say that it mixes all three of these games in a unique way.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing Fatekeeper and am definitely anticipating its 1.0 release, but it's currently not without its flaws. There are a few refinements that developer Paraglacial has to make to ensure this turns out to be the hit that it has the potential to be.

Satisfying Sword and Sorcery Combat

The combat in Fatekeeper is pretty straightforward and follows the following formula: attack, guard, dodge. When you look at it on paper, it’s not anything that you haven’t seen before in a first-person RPG of this nature. However, it feels incredibly polished and smooth, making for a combat system that feels very satisfying.

A player’s combat kit consists of one main weapon, which is usually a sword or axe, a secondary weapon, such as a dagger, and a free hand that can cast a variety of spells. I never found myself having to switch to my secondary weapon, since it’s significantly weaker than the primary and not really worth it, but I did find myself utilizing the spell system constantly to get the upper hand against enemies.

Spells are actually a standout in Fatekeeper as they each feel great to use and serve a different purpose. For example, you can use Ice to slow down or freeze your opponents, Fire to burn them and deal additional damage, Telekinesis to pull them toward you, or Wind to toss them off cliffs to their deaths.

My personal favorite was the Wind spell, considering there are a ton of ranged enemies to be cautious of. Utilizing the Wind spell at the right moment allows you to stop archers or rock throwers from attacking from a distance, as you can just push them off their platform.

Speaking of ranged enemies, and honestly just enemies in general, there are simply way too many of them in certain parts of the game. This wouldn’t be such a huge issue if the enemies didn’t deal as much damage as they do, but each hit drains a massive chunk of your health bar. Since the main character moves pretty slowly overall, being surrounded by a group of enemies, while ranged ones are shooting projectiles at you, just feels unfair.

Lowering the number of enemies you have to face at once, or at least decreasing the amount of damage they inflict, is my biggest wish for Fatekeeper when it enters 1.0. It’s understandable to place the player against a tough horde of enemies, but there’s a fine line, and crossing that line makes it so the player has to rely on luck. Unfortunately, Fatekeeper crosses that line at multiple points throughout early access.

Another adjustment I would like to see for Fatekeeper is tuning the boss fights. There are two main boss fights in the early access period currently, with more being added at a later date, and both of these fights consist of attack patterns with cooldowns that are way too short. While their overall aesthetics are great, their core design is flawed. They need slower cooldowns and more openings for the player to land attacks.

These are issues that the developers have plenty of time to fix, as the game is planned to remain in early access for 18 months. Still, even with the grievances I have with Fatekeeper’s combat, I can easily tell it has a solid foundation at its core.

Build Variety With a Strange Skill Tree Limitation

Fatekeeper features a solid progression system through an expansive skill tree. Each time you level up, you will be rewarded with a skill point to spend on the tree. Whether you want to increase your spell power, melee damage, health, stamina, etc., the skill tree allows you to do so. It even has specialty nodes such as increasing cast speed and recovering health on kill.

My least favorite part of the skill tree is the fact that it locks you out of the paths you didn’t initially choose from the start until you reach the outer circle of the path you did choose. For example, I chose to raise my melee damage, leading me into a branch that focused purely on melee and locking me out of the adjacent branch that focused on increasing stamina and health.

Once I reach the outer circle of the melee damage path, I can then start working toward the nodes that increase health and stamina. I don’t like this design choice at all, as it can put players at a significant disadvantage if they choose incorrectly at the start. Also, the game doesn’t explain this well, and if it had, I would have gone with the branch that offered health.

I’m hoping that the developers decide to change this and let players unlock nodes from each of the branching paths whenever they please. This would give the player more freedom over their build, make progression more satisfying, and prevent the player from feeling stuck and that their character isn’t strong enough in a specific field with no way to fix it.

The rest of Fatekeeper’s progression systems lie in exploring the world and finding various chests with goodies inside. These chests could contain a new weapon, a ring that adds buffs, or a necklace that grants a special effect. Finding these items was always very rewarding in early access as they’re usually off the beaten path and hidden, and they almost always make your character stronger.

A Stunning Fantasy World

The biggest standout of Fatekeeper is, hands down, its world design. Not only is it beautiful to look at, but the overall structure of each level is built to hide secrets, like the chests mentioned earlier. While it’s a linear game, with not many branching paths to take to progress further, I still felt a sense of exploration every time I entered a new area or dungeon.

I constantly found myself searching every corner of a room or outside area, and usually being rewarded for doing so. Whether that reward was a chest with a new weapon, a consumable that would help me heal during a challenging boss fight, or just taking in the beautiful scenic views off a cliffside, taking the time to look around was worth it.

It’s actually hard to believe that Fatekeeper is only being developed by a total of 13 people. It’s simply stunning and incredibly detailed, so much so that it puts some AAA developers to shame. You can clearly tell that these developers are super talented and know exactly what they're doing when it comes to utilizing Unreal Engine 5 to its full potential.

Throughout my early access playthrough, I ventured through rocky canyons, climbed to the top of mountain peaks, and crawled my way through darkness-filled dungeons. Each one of these areas had me taking a second to look around and admire the beauty of it all. The world design I got to see makes me extremely excited to see what Paraglacial has in store for release 1.0

Overall, I’m really enjoying Fatekeeper, and I am looking forward to future updates. So far, it offers a solid first-person RPG experience set in a dark fantasy world, which is something we don’t typically see too much of these days. However, it’s not perfect in its current state. I think it's crucial for the developers to make those refinements I mentioned when it comes to the number of enemies, boss design, and how the skill tree works. If these changes aren’t made, I can see Fatekeeper becoming more frustrating, rather than fun.