EDIT: 19.07.2024
Changes in the Game:
- Empty Text Field Issue Fixed
- Second Chapter Cleared Achievement Fixed
- Story-Telling Issues Fixed (although Tate = Teytom in the translations?)
- GREAT: Skipping Added (you can skip, when you press the spacebar, hurray!)
Since I didn’t want to make my review cluttered after the changes, I deleted the parts that were fixed and added the issues that now persist.
First of all, a thank you to the developers for giving me a free copy. And also thank you for your reply, Wanderer, and thanks to everyone for taking my comments into account! I'm glad I could help.
I still can’t change this to a positive review because of the game crashes, however the game drastically improved regarding the overall playability since my last review. And I have to say that I have a very positive opinion about the developers of this game because they actually listen to the feedback and even fixed most of the things I mentioned in my review.
[b]Type of Game: [/b] Visual “Novel”
[b]Length: [/b] About 1h
When you start the game, you are greeted by a grotesque picture of a monstrosity. After a bit of confusion, it turns out that this monstrosity was part of a dungeons and dragons’ game and that the main character Alex is the dungeon master.
DnD in general is a major part of this game. You have the option to throw a die instead of choosing in every situation and you choose a character class in the beginning – a warrior, a mage or a rogue.
And this game has many situations involving choices indeed. You even have the option to cut the game short by choosing not to participate in the show. This unlocks the corresponding achievement without any flaws. However, the same can’t be said for the rest of the game.
All in all, Roll of Fate is a very short game. You have three chapters and then it’s finished, roughly an hour of playtime or even less for one ending. Like most visual novels it has multiple endings and routes told from different perspectives. [b]Perspectives[/b] because your class has a real impact on the choices and Alex’ personality. You even get locked out of some choices depending on your class. This is probably what I like most about the story.
What I really don’t like is that the game starts crashing, when you start a new game, after finishing your playthrough, in the ending screen.
For example: I finished one ending, where [spoiler] Alex wins [/spoiler] and then clicked on “new game” on the ending screen. It was fine until [spoiler] I chose to go with Winston and we entered the building [/spoiler]. There the game crashed multiple times and suddenly [spoiler] Alex was in the school and had to justify why he left Isabella alone when the monster attacked [/spoiler]. So, I basically skipped into a cutscene from another route.
Also, after the crash, the image gallery in the main menu was deleted. I suspect the image gallery deletion might be even an even bigger problem than I think because there is a hidden ending in this game. And I suspect that it has to do with “getting all the possible endings”. Well… and, if the images get deleted, does the game still track the endings you got so far?
I don’t know because…
Another persisting issue is that I am still unable to get ending 2. Maybe it’s me, but for me the ending that I get instead makes no sense. What I did: [spoiler] Chose Thief, then went with Isabella, afterwards killed Helen. Afterwards, chose the warehouse. When Isabella attacks, chose to use the surroundings -> box. In this ending Alex gets shot in the stomach and "dies", but somehow wakes up afterwards and is declared the winner. With a gaping hole in the stomach…? [/spoiler]
The final bug I want to mention has to do with the language. When I start a new game from the ending screen the language often changes to Russian and it takes multiple tries to fix this. For instance, I have to click on the menu then “change language” and then Russian and then go out of the menu and back in again and click on English. Weirdly enough in this case the menu is still in English although the game is in Russian.
The game itself, ignoring the gameplay issues, is actually nice. Especially now because some scenes got added (they were blocked out by the empty text fields). But I still like the art probably the most.
Considering the price of the game, I’d probably agree on it, if the rest of the bugs get fixed. Otherwise, it’s a bit of a high price, if I consider, how often it still crashes and that I seem to be still locked out of the two endings.
Anyway, I do honestly hope that the issues that I mentioned get fixed because it seems a very interesting game and an interesting concept and I will update my review, if I get notified about another update.
