Fe Review – The Nature of a Tiny Beast

Fe, EA

<p>It seems that lately I&&num;8217&semi;ve been drawn to indie adventure games&comma; entranced by unique aesthetics and interesting storytelling techniques&period; <em>Fe<&sol;em> is one of those titles&comma; though it feels a little weird to call it an &&num;8220&semi;indie&&num;8221&semi; title when it&&num;8217&semi;s published by Electronic Arts&period; It is the first in the new EA Originals line&semi; indies published by EA but made by other studios&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s the brainchild of Zoink games and is a gem with some rough edges&period; The game is an interesting adventure&comma; that relies solely on the game to tell the story&comma; and no dialogue&comma; text&comma; or clear exposition&period; It reminds me of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;abzu-review&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer"><em>ABZU<&sol;em><&sol;a> in this way&period; You are along for the ride with the cute&comma; fox-like creature Fe&comma; and mostly it succeeds but can fall a little flat sometimes in the controls and gameplay department&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;NW71v33Wc40<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story behind <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;ea&period;com&sol;games&sol;fe" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer"><em>Fe<&sol;em><&sol;a>&comma; at least from what I could tell&comma; takes place in a large forested area&comma; that is being invaded by robot-like invaders known as Silent Ones&period; You control Fe&comma; who comes across the Silent Ones as they are rampaging through the forest&comma; capturing various wildlife and appear to be searching for something&period; As the game goes on&comma; through some interesting flashbacks&comma; it starts to become a bit more clear to the player what the Silent Ones are doing in the forest&period; As the story progresses you&&num;8217&semi;ll save various animals&comma; do little tasks for others&comma; and gain abilities to help Fe further along its&&num;8217&semi; quest to figuring out what the Silent Ones want and how to be rid of them once and for all&period; That is basically the gist of the story&comma; however&comma; there are interesting observations made by the developers about nature&comma; and the interconnectedness of it&comma; all of which helped to make the world of <em>Fe<&sol;em> seem that much more alive&period; At the end of the adventure I was satisfied with the journey&comma; but still wished that I knew a little bit more about the world&comma; the creatures&comma; and even where the Silent Ones came from&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;135548" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-135548" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-135548" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;19124650&sol;1465766317-fe-screenshot06-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-135548" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Fe&comma; EA<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The gameplay in <em>Fe<&sol;em> is fairly decent but has its flaws&comma; especially in the controls&period; The game is an adventure game&comma; with a decent bit of platforming&comma; but I found that I would miss the jumps here or there due to the camera&comma; or not being able to know quite where I was lining my jumps up with and Fe just kind of veered off into nothingness&period; There would be other times where I would think that I was jumping onto an appropriate surface but Fe would kind of bounce off of it or not quite stop how I wanted him to stop&period; Other than some finicky control issues&comma; the game is decent&comma; and throughout the game&comma; you will acquire new skills that allow you to reach otherwise unreachable areas&comma; much like a Metroidvania game&period; You see&comma; Fe sings&comma; and can sing with other animals&period; You need to learn new songs&comma; however&comma; and once you learn the songs you can go to other animals and they&&num;8217&semi;ll often help you out in finding some new secrets or getting to a new area&period; Again&comma; this idea of interconnectedness in the realm of Fe is really interesting and plays out well&comma; with animals assisting each other in their own way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some of my favorite parts&comma; however&comma; were the stealth sections&comma; of which there are a few&comma; but they aren&&num;8217&semi;t too challenging&comma; It was nice to be forced to slow things down and take in the aesthetics of the game while sneaking from bush to bush past Silent Ones&period; There are also a number of glyphs to find in each level&comma; that kind of tell bits of the story or give you hints on what to do&comma; and it was always interesting whenever I would stumble on one to see what pictures were on them&period; There are other hidden collectibles that you can poke around for&comma; adding some extra length to the overall game experience&period; It took a little over three hours to beat&comma; but would likely take a couple more at least to find everything in the game&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not sure if you unlock anything special for finding everything&comma; but it definitely adds a little extra for the completionist gamers that like to track everything down in a game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;135550" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-135550" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-135550" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;19125104&sol;2999960-fe&lowbar;screenshot04wm-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-135550" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Fe&comma; EA<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>What originally drew me to <em>Fe<&sol;em> when I first saw it&comma; was the visual style&comma; and it definitely does not disappoint&period; The worlds are jagged and stylized&comma; but still can feel organic&comma; and the creature designs are always intriguing&period; I would be excited when I got to a new area just because I wanted to see what birds and animals lived in that section of the forest and mountain&period; The color palette used in the game was also of note&comma; as the world is often awash in purples and oranges&comma; all cool colors&comma; and it always evokes a calmness&comma; even when the game should be hectic&period; I also really enjoyed the music&comma; which is the kind of instrumental&comma; chill pieces you would expect from a title like this&comma; but with one exception&period; The cello is featured heavily throughout the game&comma; which honestly you don&&num;8217&semi;t hear a ton in games&comma; but it is the perfect piece to the soundtrack&period; The score is brilliant and will definitely be added to my Youtube rotation of favorite gaming soundtracks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"UXhQRnVdels" title&equals;"Fe - Launch Trailer &lpar;Nintendo Switch&rpar;"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;UXhQRnVdels"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;UXhQRnVdels&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"Fe - Launch Trailer &lpar;Nintendo Switch&rpar;"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Fe<&sol;em> runs fairly well on the Switch&comma; both docked and in handheld mode and of course a little bit better docked than handheld&period; In handheld&comma; I noticed a few times where the framerate would dip a little bit&comma; but really a minimal amount and nothing that ever ended up affecting any jumping sections for me&period; I could see it happening once in a while though&comma; but still likely not enough to affect a playthrough only on handheld&period; The game looks really good&comma; however&comma; I noticed that when it was docked&comma; it was easy to spot jaggies and gaps between polygons in the landscape&period; Not that big of a deal&comma; especially as it is coming from a smaller indie studio&comma; but still something I haven&&num;8217&semi;t really noticed in other games as much in the current generation of titles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All in all&comma; <em>Fe<&sol;em> was a cute little adventure game&period; A little short and the lack of instructions or clear narrative made things confusing from time to time&period; The game though does have a charming style&comma; and a great score&comma; and is another fantastic indie title to add to the Switch&&num;8217&semi;s great indie library&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re a fan of games like <em>ABZU<&sol;em> or <em>Journey<&sol;em>&comma; then definitely give <em>Fe<&sol;em> a look&semi; it may be the forest you were destined to save&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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