Fate by Numbers (FbN) is a freeware full-motion-video adventure game, made by the good people of Revival. As a daily scavenger of the underground scene, this game really got me by surprise. No preview, no previous post in any indie let alone mainstream forum but a full version just out the blue. FbN was made in the Netherlands, as a graduation project for Communication and Multimedia design. According to its developers,  total budget amounted to more or less 1500 euro.

There are two versions available for download, differing in their size (770 and 1.2 Mb) and in the corresponding video and audio quality. The version here reviewed is the smaller one, which run perfectly fine in a by-no-means top configuration (see below for details).

The first thing that you will notice about the game is its overall high quality and care for details. From the exquisite company logo to the menu screens to the inventory, everything is neat, consistent and stylish. The noir detective-story setting is also very well-depicted: a cyber-punk society that seemingly lives outdoors in a ring-shaped city with several levels serving to separate wealthy from poor. As in Blade Runner, those fortunate enough ride flying cars that move through an air space crammed with flashing billboards. And the similarities with Ridley Scott’s film do not stop here. As in the film, government has been virtually taken over by corporations. No replicants here, but security agencies that keep society under terror and, correspondingly, are fight back by the resistance. Both factions are trying to get a grip in a doomsday device and require your services. The main character, Alice, is as private detective, ex-cop that left the force after trying to untap its rampant corruption. Most of the remaining cast is a derivative of your run-of-the-mill noir-story: stranded mother, unescrupulous corporate manager, cardboard guerrilla fighter, smuggler, etc. The main character, however, is very interesting. Alice’s moral decisions are questionable, to say the least. Also, while she can sometimes come across as a sweet and outgoing girl, she is also bitter and mean. Granted, she’s faced many hardships. Some of these  past events are told through flashbacks that help understand the motivation underlying her actions. The acting level is really good particularly in the case of Alice. In fact, all the 15-people cast made a good gob but kudos to actress behind the main character (Nicole Mischler) who really shines in the role of detective.

Those who played EA’a Blade Runner should be able to notice many similarities between the games, and not only when it comes to overall theme and story. FbN also shares the same one-click interface as well as some puzzles, notably the one where you have to magnify images and scan them for clues. Maybe the latter is the only puzzle that will make you think for some minutes. The others are just inventory based or require some interaction with the environment. Your inventory never becomes crammed and number of locations available at a given time is also reduced. Hence, puzzles get really easy and you can breeze through them. Not only that, but there are plenty of in-game clues available, including a “hint” button that will highlight all available hot-spots as well an auditory cue indicating when you hit an important item or piece of information. Summarising, puzzles are a weak point of the game. I won’t go to the point of describing the game as an interactive movie, but this is a point that the developers should try to improve in their future installments. Also, level of complexity of the puzzles (or should I say, the lack of thereof) causes a certain waste of the content created. Let me explain, there are plenty of places to go and people to talk (again, total cast account for 15 actors); yet, most of the places and even the inventory objects do not play a significant role in winding up the story. You just visit these places once, maybe twice, pick up an object, and that’s it. Correspondingly, total gameplay shouldn’t take more than 4 hours for the experienced gamer.

Direction and editing is quite neat. Everything is in black and white, except for some nice effects in your inventory. Yet, the director managed to not make the scenes too dark. Also, there are transitions for almost every action, like opening door, riding your car, etc. They are really good and short enough to avoid becoming utterly repetitive. Also a nice touch is that there are plenty of idle animations for the characters when selecting a dialogue option. Sound and image are crisp, too. Sometimes you can notice and edge between the actors and the background, but it is not quite obtrusive. The background seem to be computer renderings or a combination of these with real life sets. Sometimes they come across a little crude, but all things considered they do the job. The same goes for the music, that without being jaw-dropping helps set the mood for the game’s events. I noticed just one bug: when in your office, sometimes the main character “disappears”. This can be solved by going out and re-entering the room.     

The game has some replay value, as at some point you can take decisions affecting the fate of important characters. Yet, no matter these decisions, the final scene is the same, a cliffhanger suggesting future installments.

All things considered, I had a really good time playing FbN. With just a little more extension and better puzzles, this would have been a game that I could have paid for it. Still, FbN is given a well-deserved B+ by this Reviewer.

System Requirements:

• Recommended Requirement for big version (1.2 Gb): P4 2700 or AMD 2700+, AMD or Nvidia pci-e videocard
• Recommended Requirement for small version (0.8 Gb): P4 2200 or AMD 2200+, AMD or ATI 9700+ or Nvidia FX+ videocard
• Successfully Played in: Windows XP SE, Intel Celeron 1.6 Mgz, 512 Mb RAM, ATI Radeon 128 Mb videocard