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7 people found the following review helpful:
 I wanted more, September 18, 2011by Deboriole (San Diego, CA) I just played Fate several times over, and then read much of the source (after I had gotten as many endings as I could on my own). I really enjoyed solving the puzzles, and was thoroughly excited about my prospects (and what I could achieve) later in the game. The story was very interesting, and I was glued to the game for most of the day. Why only 3 stars then? Let me tell you... Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Remove vote | Add a comment
Comments on this reviewPrevious | << 1 >> | Next Victor Gijsbers, September 18, 2011 - Reply Thanks for the review! I hope to revisit the game at some point, and I'll try to fix the places where you got stuck. About finding more positive solutions, though, I think adding them to the game would destroy it. If you can escape from your difficult moral choices by being a great puzzle solver, than they weren't real moral choices in the first place. (Or rather, they would be choices of the form "do you want to take the time to solve this puzzle, or do you want to do the evil thing", which are not very interesting.) Deboriole, September 22, 2011 - Reply Wow, thanks so much for your response. I never imagined you would personally respond. Now I feel bad that I only gave you 3 stars! Thank you for making such an intriguing game. I agree that I should not be able to solve the game by tiptoeing around the actual moral decisions. I just thought if I made good moral choices (not harming the pixie, not killing a servant, etc.) that I would get a better ending than if I recklessly chopped through the game without consideration for anyone else. The opposite actually occurred: the more violent I acted, the better the ending was for my child. When I said fairytale ending, I meant that I would succeed in saving myself and my child -- and continue to rule the kingdom. (Is that too much to ask?) I felt a bit defeated after having removed my rivals, when a third rival appeared whom I had no chance to defeat. I halfway expected that if I was good to my servant and my pixie, that they would rush to my aid at the end. I suppose I have been playing too much Fallout (not an IF game but still one of my favorite games of all time). Thanks again for your reply. Victor Gijsbers, September 24, 2011 - Reply One of the fun things about IF is that most of the authors are also actively engaged in discussing, reviewing, and so on. But hey, don't give me more stars just because I reply to you! :) I often give three stars to games I like, it's not a score I sneeze at. I see what you mean with your analysis. However, a game with that structure (if you do the good things, even though you don't need to, people will help you later on) is a game with a moral. It would illustrate the Dutch proverb "wie goed doet, goed ontmoet", that is, "who does good things to others, will receive good things in return". Of course, that is a fine moral, and I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to a game that is built up around it. But in Fate I did not want to have a moral; I wanted to have tough choices. You can do good to others, but only by harming yourself; you can do good to yourself, but only by harming others. What will you choose? In theory, doing good things should be its own reward, and doing evil things should be its own punishment. I don't think Fate is entirely successful in that respect, because there is just not enough time for the player to start caring about the characters. Do you feel a pang of guilt when you betray the king? Probably not. So that is something I feel should be done better in future games. |