FATED: The Silent Oath

5/10 - A Unfinished Game.

the Good,
for a 2016 title,
Amazing VR Visuals, Sounds, Voice Acted.
even in 2024.

the Bad,
Need to use Game-Pad,
No VR Controls, only head pointing and nodding...
Slow pace, movement.

the Ugly,
bout 80 mins of Game play,
Unfinished Game, Story,
Abrupt end with no sequel.

Worked well on Quest 3, with VD streamer
Only try at extreme sale.

One of the fantastic experiences in VR still playable and fun in 2022. This game is from 2016, perhaps it might have been developed before, at Oculus DK times. Because, touch controllers are not supported, even though it is first person view and based on full body presence. Sounds weird, right? You control your hands with a gamepad and a head-based pointer. And actually, it works well once you accept that it is ok. After all, how could we complain when everything works fine and if they did this game in the very early days of vr? By the way, these mechanics reminded me of Ascent Spirit VR, which would make way more sense if touch controllers were supported. So, it is not alone :)

Walking is so slow. Luckily, there is no need to rush since you can be busy with enjoying the beautiful art style.

The textures seem beautifully crafted and hand-painted.

The gameplay is very easy. Unfortunately, the content is very small in terms of gameplay. I liked the horse carriage driving part the most. Beside, there are a few small puzzles, a few platforming, and a few bow shooting for like, less than a tutorial length.

So, it is mostly an experience based on a story. For me, it is more for enjoying the visual art style in VR. The story is always not as cute as its visual style. It is not a complete melancholic story though, but it has some tragic moments based on losses. I think it deserves a better end or continuation.

Experienced on the Oculus Rift with Xbox One Controller

Well, I liked the game, but to end it that way and then openly admit to focusing on another platform instead of finishing this game is just a huge no-no. We call that "abandonware".

One of your developers said:
"All the groundwork for Episode 2 is done but unfortunatly we do not have an ETA for now because we are currently focused on the PlayStation VR version at the moment. "

I even checked your website for news updates, but nothing.
It's been over 2 years, and no word on a second installment, so as far as I'm concerned you've abandoned the game.

FATED: The Silent Oath is a great idea with okay execution.

I cried a few times through the story, the story is great, the voice acting I found to be sufficient to draw the player in.

The motion sickness was managable but compared to others I seem to have a decent tolerance.

What was an issue for me was a couple of the control mechanics and the character pathing.

There were multiple times an NPC was standing infront of me looking at me, I assumed they wanted to speak however I was simply standing in their way and this wasnt clear. This was a bit annoying as I was standing there looking at them expecting dialogue.

Second the controls could use some tweaking, the comfort options are great but what would have made this game would have been motion controls and idle interactions.

Multiple times I wanted to reach out and pat Lif on the head, I reached for Svens torch before he was able to hand it to me or I wanted to take Freyas hand when we sat next to eachother. Small things that could have been done with the current controls.

I hope in future chapters motion controls will be implemented.

Lastly many seem to have issue with the freelook/body turning motion they used in the game. This could be remedied with a snap body to head orientation control such as clicking a thumbstick.



PROS:
Story is heart-wrenching and convincing
The visuals are pretty
Voice acting added to the game rather than detracted

CONS:
Lack of motion controls
Control scheme and mechanics could be improved
Interaction with NPCs could improve

The game is only 9.99 and I would say though short, it is worth it. I look forward to the next chapter. I know the developers can improve upon the mechanics and I want to see where the story goes.

I don't often leave negative reviews, but I have to recommend avoiding this title due to it's stagnant development and lack of support for modern control interfaces. It still feels like a well-polished tech demo, all these months later.

Without motion control or an updated locomotion paradigm, this purchase will leave you frustrated and feeling like you're on a last-gen VR set. The publisher should consider a significant price drop or some badly needed updates.

The game/experience srarted off a little slow for me, and the turning makes my head spin a little. However, once the actual story started to unfold I was hooked.
This game grabs hold of my fatherly insticts and emotions and doesn't let go. There were many times I wanted to pat my ingame daughter on the head for being extermely cute, and other times I literally tried to grab her to save her from dangers.
I really look forward to the next episode, and recomend anyone who enjoys VR experiences to try this out.

Where this "game" shines is the characters. They are well animated, voiced and just feel very real despite the very cartoony style (or maybe because of it). In this regard it is probably one of the best VR experiences at the moment and for that reason I would also recommend it.

BUT:

1) This is not really a game. There are a few puzzles and a few parts where you have a slight interaction with the world, but for the most part you push forward on your gamepad to progress along the extremely linear levels and navigate to the right spots (which are even highlighted) so the next scripted sequence can start. I felt especially cheated in the ending sequence which is somewhat dramatic and you soon realize that the control you are given during that sequence is completely meaningless. Personally I think the developers could have made a completely non-interactive experience out of it and it would have worked better.

2) The story is pretty forgettable and the "game" ends at a point where the prologue of a normal story driven game would end. I.e. the premise of the story might be interesting, but you don't really get much more than the premise.

In summary: Buy the game because it shows what might be possible in VR in the future (esp. regarding emotional attachment to virtual characters), but don't expect a teriffic story or an actual game.

Excellent game/experience that really makes you feel like you are the character of a pixar movie. Everything from the graphics to the animation and sound are absolutely phenominal so far and really help to set the atmosphere.

If you are disappointed about the lack of story telling games in VR, this shows you the potential how it could look like.

Its very short, but the voiceacting and sounds are good and the graphics are one of the best until now (I have over 65 VR Games played, only a few are on this level).
The story would be boring on a normal 2D screen, but here you get sucked into the world and story.

However, it has a few downsides:
-If you dont have your VR Legs yet, you might feel discomfort while moving.
-Very short
-Chapter one is very slow, the game begins to kick in with chapter two.
-A lot of slow walking (not realy a negative for me, but for impatient persons)

Besides that it has great moments.

If you want more storytelling in VR you should buy this game.

Is...is that the end? Some of the comments seem to indictate that this is en episodic thing, but I've found nothing from the creators that suggest that. If that is the end of the story, then I'm angry, and I dont get angry easily. And I'm not saying that because it is a relatively pricey game that is only an hour long, I'm saying that because it has one of those endings that is done so poorly that you actually get angry. Absolutely no resolution. You're brought back to life at the beginning of the game to protect someone's life. You fail. The end. You dont know why the person was important enough to warrant reviving the dead to protect them and you dont see any consequences that arise as a result of your failure. They die, end. And they die in a way that is not at all plot-relevant. The game literally ends in the middle of a dungeon.

Aside from that, I found that many of the other reviews were spot-on. The game has its good moments, but the characters all have these big-soulless eyes that give an uncanny valley vibe, the voice acting is just as wooden as the characters, and the walking speed is way too slow. The NPCs even walk faster than you! And they can run, too! If I ever learn that this is not, in fact, the end of the game, then I will remove this review. But until then, I cant reccommend this game to anyone.

The agonizingly slow walking speed is a deal breaker.

For a game that falls into the 'walking simulator' category, it needs to give the illusion of options, choices, and exploration. This means you need to be able to walk around a bit and explore your surroundings - even though ultimately you will be sheparded into the next scene since that is really the only place to go.

When you can only walk at 2mph like in this game, nobody has the patience to try and walk around to look at anything. So you just walk in straight lines from one thing to the next.

Game is very short. Granted, I walked mainly in straight lines to the next thing, but still, 80 minutes total. If you explore a little more, you're still definitely less than 2 hours.

For graphics, the characters look good - the ground looks awful. Ground textures are super low resolution and have no life to them at all, so flat.

A very good story about family. I felt like I was in the story and got attached to the characters and world. The controls are simple walk and look around and shake your head yes or no to answer questions the characters ask you. It was short but worth every penny for fully pulling me into this world and story unlike any other game.

This game is really designed more as a seated expereince for the Rift than a room scale experience for the Vive. I tried playing it both ways. Sit or standing without turning my body worked best. I would have enjoyed it more if it played like Vanishing Realms for the Vive. That said, I still really enjoyed this game. The experience was worth the price of admission.

My issue is the price. If it were $20 for all future episodes it would be a great deal, but from what i understand we paid $20 for what is a 1.5 hour game. If all episodes end up costing the same, then this will end up being a VERY expensive game once they finish every episode, and its clearly not worth that much.

I have some other minor complaints like Walking seems a little slower then it should be, but overall i did enjoy the game. It is fairly well polished. Its a bit of a walking simulator, with a few puzzles, but the story keeps flowing. The giant actually makes your heart beat because in VR its legit scary.

I can't downvote a game i enjoyed, but i do feel the price is too high for one short episode. As much as i like roomscale games with motion controls I have zero complaints about the lack of motion controls because the game works fine with a Xbox controller while sitting down. Not every game needs to use every feature on the Vive to be good.

Played on a DK2 with Oculus' 1.3 Runtime.

This game is visually stunning, the low-poly environment is brought up to almost Dreamworks/Pixar levels by the excellent texture work. There's lots of techniques done really right for making convincing VR, e.g. a tracked torso that moves as you do (as does your shadow), and characters' gazes follow your own. It's easy to get swept away in the narrative, and the game's world is very lively. I initially intended to play just one act then ended up playing through the whole thing from start to finish. Note that this is definitely a movie-like narrative experience first, and a game second.

The presence of animated, fully voice-acted human characters really breathes life into narrative games, even more so in VR. This shouldn't be taken for granted, it's something missing from quite a few VR experiences at this early stage. The characters in FATED are all really well done. I've seen at least one review criticize the voice acting, but that's a problem with video games in general and FATED's voice acting is fine, it's at least better than any Bethesda RPG.

FATED's price is undoubtedly steep for a 1.5 to 2 hour long game. Discounting the economic necessities of developing for a niche, budding or unproven technology, I suppose you could compare the price per unit time to paying a similar amount for going to the cinema with snacks, which provides the "immersion" of a large screen and surround sound, both of which are easily surpassed by VR, where you feel like you're really there,

Some occasional bugs are present but not particularly distruptive and will probably be fixed with time, so my only real criticism is the rune puzzles, which are embarrassingly simple whether they were supposed to be created by humans or giants, and really don't make sense being there. I understand not wanting to stall the narrative by getting the players stuck, but really, were they trying to keep out babies? The game's story, lively world and characters are its strength and it seemed pointless to throw these in. (This was just a criticism of the "puzzles", not the handful of brief action sequences, all of which definitely added to the game.)

FATED is well worth picking up for the experience of dreaming while you're awake, if the price isn't an issue for you.

--Be Aware-- This game only works with gamepad and has terrible walking mechanics that will make you sick.

There is barely any gameplay here....The developers were too focused on making an animation short than an actual game. Your core mechanics are walking very slowly listening and doing some face shooting archery.

If you want to know what it is like to play Fated.. Imagine a Skyrim side quest...... that has boring writing ... no monsters to kill.. no loot to collect ... your walk speed is reduced to snail's pace... and just the hint of rotating your character will make your stomach turn.... You got Fated.

Its a short game, but has quite good production values, and I enjoyed it a lot, especially the last half. Like most games this early on its a bit light on content for the price. I still think its worth the purchase. Need more games like this. Not to go in to spoilers it has som nice action sequences with great sense of scale and vertigo. It has standard 1st person controls, but it works great. Using snap turns I didn't get I'll. The walking is slow enough for that not to happen, at least not to me. Recomended.

On a side note it wouldn't launch in VR for me at first, playing on Vive. That is a known problem with Unreal games when you also have Oculus Home installed. Uninstalled that and worked flawlessly.

I really wanted to like this game and, maybe after a few updates I will but, for now, I can't recommend it to anyone. The experience is short. Very short. You'll be done in a little over an hour. The previews have made the game look like a lot more polished experience than it is. Below are the issues which I have encountered.

1. The Game Doesn't Launch in VR Mode - I was unable to run the game on muy HTC VIVE until I set the executable ("jottun.exe") into Windows 7 compatibility mode, which was extremely frustrating to troubleshoot.

2. Poor Controls - This game begs for touch controls but the developers have made a choice to have it work exclusively with a gamepad, maing the expeience a sitting one. As the result, the movement is unpleasant and turning, regardless of the choice of control you make, is either incredibly nauseating (it takes a -LOT- to make me sick in VR. I pretty much never feel even a bit queasy. Using the "natural turning" ade my stomach swim almost immediately). You are able to make choices and communicate by nodding or shaking your head which is terrific. The rest of the control scheme is clunky and unpleasant to experience.

3. Stiff, "Dead" Characters - though the sence of scale is great and the art style is delightful, the characters animate in a very poor, stiff way, stanidng in default poses, barely moving, except for opening and clothing their mouths and, occasionally, blinking. Everyone just stands there, upright and manequin-like, walking and turning in an awkward way. On the bright side, the character models and environments are beautifull.

4. Uninspired Voice Acting - Voices seem fitting to the characters they come out of but feel stiff, boring and uninteresting. Your character's father's voice is particularly flat, as is the oen belonging to the first distraufght vilager you find upon returning "home".

5. Price - Fot as short, clearly unfinished, and unpolished game, "Fated" costs a lot more than it should. I would -gladly- pay $20 and more for a short yet breathaking and engaging game. I desperately wanted "Fated" to be it and it just wasn't.

If you are looking for a great episodic game on the VIVE, I urge you to try "The Gallery: Call of Starseed" if you want to know what I am talking about here - it's worth every penny and is an unforgettable experience. "Fated", on the other hand is bland, poorly animated and uncomfortable to traverse at this point in time.

Bought this thinking it would last longer than 90mins but it is very short. Will there be more episodes or is this is it....it says episodic but it is not clear if it means the episodes included in the 90 mins or future episodes.

Lot of potential and the fact that they added many ways of combating motion sickness, including snap rotation to a degree of your choice, or fluid rotation with a choice of speed, or on screen comfort markers, is great and i wish all developers would do this as it will eliminate motion sickness for many and is better than teleportation (snap did it for me, or fluid rotation at full speed with tiny taps on the stick also is great as its kind of like snapping but with more control). Sadly, it's very short, so if you are on a budget £14.99 for 90 mins might be to much.

Great story, really immersive and stays with you for a while after playing the game. Also there's loads of comfort / movement options to choose from and you can change them on the fly in the game which is always nice.

The only downside is that it's pretty short and it's arguably expensive for such a short story but I guess that's the trend for VR games since it's such a niche market.

Other than that, 5/5, would recommend to anyone owning a Rift / Vive.