First Impressions of Fabula Mortis: Concepts Don't Make a Game

Published: November 2, 2014 11:00 AM /

Previewed By:


Fabula-Mortis

Design must seduce, shape, and perhaps more importantly, evoke an emotional response.” - April Greiman
 

Fabula Mortis is able to do this, but in the wrong ways. Unfortunately for Deadghost Interactive, several of the design decisions made in shaping this steam punk and fantasy world has led to a boring and unbalanced shooter. While it has an appealing visual design, it fails to register on the gameplay level. To put it bluntly: the game is not fun. And to top it off, the game feels unfinished as missing sounds on actions such as falling damage are not present, and the stiff animation makes the character models feel like dolls more then anything else. The game highlights a simple fact: that despite an interesting concept behind it, a concept can only take a game so far, if the gameplay and mechanics aren't fun to play with.

While some may believe that a majority of modern day shooters don't do anything innovative and keep to a strict formula, several of those decisions are made for the sake of balanced gameplay. Fabula Mortis attempts to remix the formula, but focuses on the wrong areas to do that. For example, large quantities of health mushrooms in one area lead to natural camping grounds that give a strong advantage for those who decide to set up shop (aka camping). Unique characters and weaponry are offset by one hit kill classes that have too many strong positives that outweigh their small amount of negatives. Unlockable skills and weapons give veterans of the game strong tools, such as radar, fireballs, and guidable rockets over newer players, who will feel they don't have the tools to fight them.

The game launched indicating that it had a single player experience, however it has been reverted as the game does not have a story mode of any sort, and while the ability to play with bots is present, the enemy AI is some of the worst I've seen in the genre for a long while. Basic path-finding skills seem almost linear in nature, and you'll find the AI constantly getting stuck on the map. Gameplay modes are limited, as death match, and VIP (kill the VIP, score while the VIP) and their team related counterparts are the only ones present.

Not to say that the game doesn't have some positives for it. The 4 maps present are vastly different and offer a lot of difference experiences, and the aforementioned visual aesthetic

Deadghost Interactive has responded to community feedback and added some necessary features to the game, such as text describing the powerups you are able to pick up in the game, but for a game that was technically available in April at gamersgate.com, it's come a little late after the fact. With free to play experiences out there that far surpass the current build of Fabula Mortis on there, it's hard to encourage to pay 10-12 dollars ( as it's currently having a 15% off sale). And while the game will most likely improve with time and hard work by the developer, it's a game that you should avoid picking up.

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Shaun Joy TechRaptor
| Former Video Lead

YouTuber Dragnix who plays way too many games, and has a degree in Software Engineering. A Focus on disclosure on Youtubers, and gaming coverage in general… More about Shaun