Fateel Review: Loss of control

There's something satisfying about solving a problem using just your wits and the things you find around you. It's why people enjoy puzzle games and escape rooms.

But the thing with puzzle games and escape rooms is that if things don't work like you expect them to, then they can feel more like torture chambers.

Which is where I found myself while playing Fateel, a clever but infuriating escape room-style puzzle game for iOS, Android, and PC from Evolite Studio, who are based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. While the game has clever situational puzzles, it's undermined by an inability to move intuitively.

Gameplay and Visuals

In Fateel, you wake up in a dark room with only a single light, a chair, and a barrel full of bombs. Don't worry, they're the cartoony kind that have to be lit, and take a moment for their wicks to burn down. Which is good, since you use them to unblock passages, but can't run or even walk at a normal pace when holding one. Though they also only work when the blockage is wood. The bombs are not just cartoony, they're weak as well.

Using the bombs, and other things you find, you have to figure out how to escape what is essentially a multi-room escape room if the designers were big fans of the Resident Evil games, and the complicated ways those games keep the door to the bathroom locked.

Oh, and puzzle games; they clearly like puzzle games, too.

Now, for much of Fateel, you have to figure out what to do on your own. You don't, for instance, get help from an in-game partner or A.I. assistant or anything else that game developers often use to give players hints in games.

That is, unless you tap the lightbulb button to specifically ask for a hint. But that hint comes with a cost. No, you don't lose one of your helpful bombs; you have plenty of those. And you don't have a limited number of hints; you can have as many as you need.

No, to pay for your hints you have to watch an ad, probably for another mobile game. And you have to do this every time. Sadly, being greedy like, well, a mobile game is the least of your concerns when playing Fateel...

Issues and Irritations

As I alluded to earlier, a puzzle game is only as good as its controls. And it's in this regard that Fateel becomes more frustrating than fun.

Like many games, mobile or otherwise, Fateel has you using a joystick to move (though being a mobile game, it's a virtual, touch screen one). And, of course, you move the joystick in the direction you'd like to go. Which is how it should be. 

But things change when you grab an object you need to move, which you do often. For instance, you sometimes have to move these mobile platforms into place so you can get somewhere. So, naturally, you use the virtual joystick to walk over to the platform and grab it.

But then, when you go to move it, the controls are off. It won't go where you're telling it to. Why? Because when you grab a movable object, it switches the controls to be relative to the perspective of your on-screen character. When trying to move a platform, for instance, you don't move the joystick to the left to pull it to the left, or upward to move it up.

Instead, you move the joystick down to pull the platform relative to how your character is standing. If you want to move the platform in whatever direction would be backwards for your character, you have to move the virtual stick down.

Oh, and no, the game doesn't change the perspective. It stays the same, third-person aerial, whether you're trying to move something or not.

It also doesn't help that controls in Fateel are clunky and slow. Not only does your guy move like he's not the least bit concerned about being trapped in a dark basement, but when he does run — which he can only do when not holding a bomb — he can only do so for a moment before the run button drains.

Your character also has to be in just the right spot to do anything. To use a ladder, for example, you need to stand at the bottom of it and hit the ladder button. But it only works if you're in precisely the right spot. Granted, this is a common problem in games. Death Stranding 2: On The Beach has a similar issue, and that game is a technical marvel. But as they say, two wrongs don't make a right (wait, is that how Fateel's controls work...nope, still bad).

Thankfully, Fateel doesn't switch the perspective when you grab a bomb. Otherwise, I'd still be in the first room, trying to unblock the first doorway.

Verdict

In the end, Fateel could've been interesting, especially for people who love the door-related puzzles in Resident Evil games. But it failed at the most basic level: the controls. Were it not for that, I would've had a good time trying to figure out how to escape those mysterious rooms, and maybe even figured out who bought such weak bombs.