Category: Press

Körperlos, als reine Perspektive schwebt man als Spieler durch die Tempelanlage. Fast wie bei einem Kreuzweg besucht man Station um Station, vordergründig um Kerzen auszulöschen, in Wahrheit aber, um sich der Atmosphäre hinzugeben und um Details der Szenerie wahrzunehmen. Aus herumliegenden Schleiern, den Séparées, dem Henker und vielen weiteren, nicht nur ernst gemeinten Elementen (Zündholzschachtel mit Telefonnummer Salomes!) baut sich im Kopf des Spielers die fatal endende Geschichte auf. Man muss sich auf die Atmosphäre einlassen, sich in die Szenerie vertiefen, denn das Andeutungsgeflecht erweist sich als nicht dicht genug gewebt, um eindeutige Schlüsse ziehen zu können.

Alois Pumhösel, Der Standard

Jaime San Simón describes how he experienced FATALE on the Spanish Eurogamer website.

Tale of Tales ha logrado recrear la figura de la Salomé de Wilde a un nivel de complejidad asombroso, creando a partir de ella una obra con sentido y valor propio. Un trabajo minucioso que da pie a una obra que no será bien recibida por todos los públicos, pero ya se sabe que los grandes artistas siempre vienen acompañados de polémica.

And no, there’s no score. 😉

The ever eloquent Bruno de Figueiredo picked our brains when we were working on Fatale and has now published the result with a bunch of work-in-progress pictures. Enjoy!

To a large extent, FATALE is about looking. We follow Wilde’s version of the story in this. You start as John the Baptist in a situation where you’re being looked at – by Salome – against your will. Then because of the looking of another person – King Herod at Salome – you are put to death. And finally you meet Salome who claims that if you would have looked at her, you would have loved her. And, presumably, none of this would have happened.

Giochi (Games) Magazine of Italy has written a rather extensive review of FATALE this month, in which they give the game a perfect 10/10. We don’t read Italian but we can feel the love. Thank you!

Also a short article about us and FATALE appears in this month’s issue of Wired UK Magazine:

And Wired.co.uk has published more of the complete interview with us at their site.
Edit: journalist Daniel Nye Griffiths posted even more on his blog.

There’s a 4 page interview about FATALE in the current issue of Games TM (89) that was made before the release of the game. And there’s a rateless review of FATALE in Edge online, which I enjoyed because it’s about what the writer discovered while playing and how he appreciated it.

Video games rarely offer the chance to look so deeply at a single character, or to spend so much time lingering over an environment and enjoying it for its own sake. Tale Of Tales is a small team, but they went across disciplines to find experts in every field, from the art to the music to that wonderous dance sequence. Plenty of indies wear primitive graphics as a badge of honor; Tale Of Tales pulled off Fatale with a team of less than a dozen.

Christian Donlan has reviewed FATALE for Eurogamer. And quite spectacularly so! Not because he enjoyed the piece, but because he relates very eloquently how hardcore gamers might approach it. Expressing the confusion and even anger they might feel as well as the doubts concerning the sincerity -or even sanity- of the creators. I found it most enlightening! And an amusing read to boot.

Tale of Tales’ latest is another GameFAQs disaster, in other words: what do I do? Where do I go? Why won’t the door open? How do I get my seven quid back? If Fatale had a hints hotline – and I really wish it did – I’m pretty certain players’ calls would be patched directly to Mark Lawson and Umberto Eco, dressed as mimes, answering all queries in Aramaic.

We’re just plain astounded that a project like FATALE can be reviewed on a mainstream games site nowadays. These are fascinating times, indeed!

Sounds like Polarization Country again… 😉

Anthony was surprisingly mild. Lewis didn’t enjoy it. But Amanda did. VorpalBunny and Chris got all intellectual and lyrical. I think Simone liked it too, though my Italian is limited.

And I love what dandriel said on the forum, after playing FATALE:

I felt like when you get out of an art gallery, or a cinema… when you get back to the real world but your mind is blinded by the fantasy world you have just abandoned.