Fe

EA Indie, which I honestly didn’t know existed, has released a Journey-esque game titled Fe. You play a fox-like creature who sets off to explore a god-like world full of nature and other animals, while attempting to avoid/destroy large creatures that look as creepy as they do goofy called the Silent Ones. Along the way, the fox runs into giant animals, including a trapped deer God, and must navigate putting right what the Silent Ones are putting wrong.

Neat story, isn’t it?

The story itself really unfolds with the gameplay. You’re thrown into the mix to try and figure things out, while slowly uncovering an incredibly tragic narrative about the Silent Ones and what they want out of the destruction they’re laying down. The fact that the game trusts itself in telling you the story at its own pace and not feeling the need to throw you endless exposition is a huge plus. Sometimes this works well for games, such as Journey, and sometimes more explanation is required. For Fe, the way Zoink lays it out there with details and story and how they weave the gameplay and story together is breathtaking from a development standpoint. It takes a tremendous about of thought to design this type of gameplay and it’s not lost in translation on screen.

Anyway, the mix of story and gameplay design also creates motivation for the player to keep going in the game. There are times where you will encounter incredibly difficult puzzles or are forced to find a way to avoid the Silent Ones in the game to either go to the next part of the level or retrieve an item. The game rewards you with new powers, new story pieces or new ways to play game if you get through these tough patches. The reward is proper and it also expands the world most of the time. For example, after retrieving eggs for a giant bird, whom the Silent Ones were attacking, you gain the power to talk to birds, as well as the power to fly like one (mostly float). The floating like a bird acquisition opens up the game so much. Your fox creature can now climb up trees and then jump off of them into a floating pattern. This allows for access to things up high, while also becoming a technique to avoid enemies, if need be. Those are the rewards you get as you progress and those will be the motivation, outside of the gorgeous gameplay design, that makes you want to keep going.

Shifting gears just slightly, the gameplay difficulty lies somewhere between medium to hard. The world created by Zoink will allow for your improvisation when it comes to moving around. It’s big and it’s flexible, and it needs to be. Zoink has created multiple ways to complete tasks in the game and multiple ways to avoid enemies. For example, I accidentally quit the game when I had to pause to answer a phone call (it was my fault and only my fault). The game was in motion with enemies finding their place on a specific mission, but hadn’t quite settled in yet, which allowed me to take advantage of the situation before I paused it. Once I restarted the game, the enemies were in place. My original path to complete the level was blocked by a Silent One and I had to find another way around him/her (didn’t turn them over to check). Zoink built the map to have many different paths for completion and after about 10 minutes I found a different way to go around the Silent One. If the game wasn’t so open, then it would have been a very unpleasant experience, but Zoink’s design of the levels really made options available for the player to explore and try out.

The really difficult stuff is more puzzle oriented than enemy. For example, the level where you meet the deer God, and it’s Shadow of the Colossus huge, you have to climb up the animal to wrap up the level. Each leg of the beast contains trees that are patterned a specific way. Using the floating ability, you have to climb from the ground onto a large tree, jump from said tree to a tree on the deer’s leg, then navigate from tree to tree on the deer until you get to the top. Sounds easy, but jumping and floating while something is constantly moving (forgot to mention that part) isn’t as accurately easy as one might think. In fact, to put it bluntly, it’s a frustrating pain in the ass. That said, the reward for getting through it is quite good, though I will not be revealing what that is because — play the game!

Outside of difficulty, the other obstacle in the game are the enemies. The Silent Ones are a frightening bunch. They have giant spotlights as eyes, enormous bodies and long skinny arms/legs. They search for moving animals with their spotlight while standing upright, but scurry away (or towards you) on all fours if they need to move locations (or when they need to find you). When they detect you in the field, they spit some sort of metal chunks at you that will eventually freeze your body. If that wasn’t enough, then they will surround you with an unbreakable field. At that point, you’re dead. All of this is alarming and scary and the Silent Ones are always looking for good things to turn bad. While there are particular ways to get rid of the Silent Ones, and some are even fun to watch, you’ll spend a good chunk of your time simply avoiding them. This means hiding in bushes, climbing trees or simply staying out of their range of sight. They’re an interesting obstacle and don’t bring down the game in any way, though their purpose for being is a bit tragic.

To help combat the puzzles and the enemies, the game provides you with earned communication capabilities, which equal out to abilities for your fox. The abilities allow you to talk to other animals, such as deer, ferrets, birds and such. In addition, those communications can translate to the nature around you, which helps you access and progress other sections of the map you’re on. For example, if you can talk to small birds, then you can gain access to large green flowers that produce a round product that you can throw at cages the Silent Ones create around animals, thus breaking them out of their confines. This can only be accessed through communication awarded to birds. There are many different earned forms of communication and you can switch between them using L1 and the right thumbstick. It’s simple, it works and it works within the world built by Zoink.

As for the presentation of the game, it’s very artistic and Papier-mâché. One of the nicest thing about the presentation of this game is the color scheme, which is a bend of dark shades with plenty of neon sprinkled in. The game is built to look majestic and it certainly doesn’t disappoint.

The girth of the maps is also a huge plus. You have a large draw distance on the PlayStation 4 Pro, though there are some pop-ups here and there. The depth of the levels and the multi-tiers that come with that depth is impressive. For example, you will have objects sitting on the ledges of mountain tops and you have to figure out how to get to them. The game loves to make you work for things, and I’m okay with it if it means exploring the large environments.

All of this said, Fe is a wonderful experience that asks you to think a bit, while also entertaining you with a silent story and majestic moments that are Journey-esque. The gameplay for Fe is well designed, fits the bill for what is going on and does its best to make sure you’re entertained and challenged.