When we heard about a new PlayStation VR game featuring some Viking elements, we were initially pretty excited. Fated: The Silent Oath looked pretty interesting, as it focuses more on story than gameplay. Unfortunately, that appears to be one of the game’s biggest shortcomings right now, as it is a lot less fun than we had originally anticipated. In fact, the game is borderline acceptable to play, which is not a good sign by any means. Users of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive can purchase the game from the Steam store.
Fated: The Silent Oath Can’t Deliver
The biggest problem with Fated: The Silent Oath is how the game seemingly relies on its background story. In some cases, that can work out quite well, but this game’s story is forgettable at best. It doesn’t interest players for over five minutes and immediately creates a disconnect. That is quite bothersome and never a good start to a VR game. Thankfully, the narrative aspect of the game is a lot better, as your voice is effectively taken away.
The player is sent out to complete different adventures, although that is not necessarily the right word. You get to know your family again, and that is about it. There is no real combat in the game, other than a hunting aspect. The puzzles in this game simply require one interaction by pressing a button, without posing any challenge whatsoever. Plus, there is lots of walking around seemingly aimlessly, which makes for a rather dull gameplay experience overall.
If the narrated story was more engaging, none of this would be much of a problem. Unfortunately, it is sub-par, as are the puzzles and the actual gameplay itself. The graphics look decent enough. At least we don’t have to sit through a boring game with ugly graphics, which is quite a relief. A lot of players will get quite frustrated with the gameplay, mind you. Your character’s movements are slower than a snail’s and there is no option to change this whatsoever. A major shortcoming in our opinion, as this could have easily been avoided.
It appears the developers purposefully made movements slow to increase the game’s play time. Unfortunately, this method doesn’t help all that much, as it only makes a dreadful experience even more annoying. Thanks to the good visuals and interesting side characters, Fated: The Silent Oath isn’t a complete disaster. It is not the best PlayStation VR title either, by any means. We praise the developers for “forcing” players to interact with in0-game NPCs rather than letting you run rampant and finish the game in an hour or less. A positive change, but the game is still average at best.
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