FATED: The Silent Oath looks wonderful. Not only is the art style unique and striking, but it’s used in subtle ways to convey a stark contrast between the seemingly innocent world and intense, heavy emotional struggles that go on inside of it. Despite what it might look like at first glance, this isn’t supposed to be a frolicking adventure through a picturesque countryside. It’s more like a treacherous journey through an age of vikings and Norse mythology.
If you look around the landscape of games in development for VR platforms, you’ll likely notice that there is a whole lot of focus on either creepy, foreboding tones that try to scare you and make you uncomfortable, or first-person action games with lots of combat, which often take place in space or some other sci-fi setting. It makes sense given the borderline sci-fi nature of VR itself, but I’m all for more diversity in the virtual worlds I explore.
However, that shift in focus towards a mythical land of gods and fantasy doesn’t intend to discount the gravity of the narrative by any means. According to FATED’s official website, you’ll take on the role of “an everyday father and husband must do the impossible to save his family from the destruction of the world at the hands of giants of old.” We can tell from the trailer above that this VR experience won’t pull any punches at all.
“Fear is a concept that is relatively easy to achieve in Virtual Reality, but for FATED, we wanted to explore compassion, sadness, happiness and other complex emotions”, said Vincent Martel, Executive Producer on FATED at Frima Studio. “Nothing is stronger than the connection between a parent and his child. We knew we would strike a sensitive chord with players in FATED.”
You can expect to see FATED: The Silent Oath release on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive on April 28th and the PSVR later this year for that platform’s launch.
