I replayed the opening levels of Dark Messiah of Might & Magic back in March and it still stands up (and then kicks an orc off a wall). That school of first-person physics fantasy is a much-missed flavor of RPG, which is why it’s such a treat to sit down for the trailer of Fatekeeper and realize, after the first tedious minute of exposition is out of the way, that this is a game all about shoving orcalikes off walls.
While it doesn’t appear to have a kick move, our hero—apparently a druid, which here means someone who uses magic but also will cut you—can shove, cast a gust of wind, and throw barrels to knock enemies down. It’s also got slow-motion decapitation and limb targeting and baddies who ragdoll like a motherfucker, which my lizard brain loves to see.
Here’s another selling point: it’s not open world. Though you can go at least a little bit off-book. “While Fatekeeper follows a focused narrative path,” the Steam page’s description says, “the world invites exploration.” Sounds ideal.
As you’d expect for an RPG it looks like there’s a whole bunch of progression, letting you “lean into raw strength, nimble precision, or devastating sorcery,” meaning that I will absolutely hoard points until I get to a difficult bit and then throw them into whatever build seems like the easiest way to get past it.
While Fatekeeper’s worldbuilding made an audible whoosh as it went right past me, the enemies look like an interesting bunch to batter around. As well as the orcalikes there are big lizards, gross centipedes, and an armored minotaur who seems like a boss I’ll enjoy carving into steaks.
Fatekeeper is the work of Paraglacial, a studio founded by ex-members of Grimlore Games—the studio currently working on Titan Quest 2, but back in the day known for the RPG/RTS combo Spellforce 3. Fatekeeper is coming to early access on Steam “this winter”.
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