Fatum Betula

Genre: First-Person Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: Included in Horror Bundle : Paratopic + Fatum Betula along with Paratopic. It is also in Horror Bundle – 3 in 1 along with Paratopic and Blood Breed. It is also included in Mysterious Retro Games Bundle along with Mysteries Under Lake Ophelia)

Fatum Betula, released on PC in 2020 and brought to Nintendo Switch in 2021, is a First-Person Graphic Adventure depicting an abstract otherworldly realm where players are tasked with directing the future of existence by supplying a tree of life with a source of sustenance. Or something.

Yeah, this is another one of those games that plays like the videogame version of a film school art project, which means its creator almost certainly had some very heady, philosophical ideas in mind when creating it, but which just come across as bizarre and inscrutable. This game’s story and dialogue often don’t make much sense, nor is it really clear who I’m supposed to be in this game or what my motivation is to do anything beyond boredom and “why the heck not?”.

Beyond the odd dialogue, the presentation here is imitating the look and feel of an original PlayStation game, complete with pixellated low-resolution textures, low-poly characters and environments, and even old-fashioned loading screens between each area. Despite how dated everything looks, I have to admit it has its charms, with some of the scenes being depicted having a placid, serene look to them, while others are definitely more surreal. It’s not outright ugly to look at, but its appeal definitely won’t be for everyone. This is paired with a minimalist soundtrack that gives the game an eerie feeling overall.

As for the game itself, if you can parse what the game is looking for you to do, it feels like a short, straightforward Graphic Adventure where players collect items and use them to solve puzzles, coming into possession of various substances to feed to the tree to gain access to one of the game’s multiple endings. There’s nothing outright horrible here beyond the slow walking speed and at times unclear goals, but there’s nothing especially good here either.

For the price tag of $5.50, Fatum Betula may be something you can see as an inexpensive little art project, something that will likely fill you will feelings of “huh”, “that’s different”, and “well, that’s odd”. But this isn’t likely to blow your mind or be anything truly impactful in any way. As a proof of concept, it shows a sort of unpolished, limited promise. But as a complete game, it’s lacking that polish, depth, and clarity of purpose one expects from a complete videogame. Unless you want to try something unusual and experimental, this one probably isn’t for you.

tl;dr – Fatum Betula is a Graphic Adventure that imitates the look of a classic PlayStation game and feels like a film school art project. It feels more like a proof of concept than a finished game, and while it’s certainly interesting, it’s not very compelling.

Grade: C-

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