Are you looking for a game which makes you need the toilet every 15 minutes? Worry ye not, Fatal League is here, adopting a medieval music soundtrack which features what can only be described as running water… Nitpicking here I know, but is it really necessary?
On initialisation of the game, my first impressions were bad. You have to read 8 paragraphs of writing, which sets the game in context, before you can proceed. It is quite long-winded and frankly no fun at all. To condense it all into a couple of sentences for you, your team is taking part in the “Fatal League” where you must fight against opponent teams in tournaments and matches. The winner of the entire league has to attack the King’s enemy, Hydra.
This isn’t the sort of game where you can just dive in and start playing like Doodle Jump. You will probably have to refer to the instructions quite a lot, but it only takes a couple of minutes to get your head around the concept. You begin with 3 fighters: a ranger, a warrior and a scholar. For each fight you partake in, your fighters gain experience and you win money. This money can be spent on upgrading weapons, armour, and magic spells, or hiring new fighters. It’s basically a mini-game of Runescape.
The game runs in a monthly cycle with 6 fights in each. At the end of each month, you will be given the opportunity to enter a major tournament for your fighters to gain experience; however they are very difficult to win because of the big prizes on offer. As time progresses, you work your way up to the 1st division with the big fish. After each month, the capacity for your army increases, so you can hire a new fighter to train up. The actual gameplay itself resembles a chess board. You make your move, the opponent makes their move. It’s quite a slow way of playing it and doesn’t do much to keep your interest.
This is not the sort of game I’d normally go for so I think it may well appeal to the die-hard medieval role-players out there. However, for me, it kept me interested for about 15 minutes and all seemed very unmotivating and pointless. Then again, is there a point to any iPhone game?
iPwnGames Score: 2.5/5
10 Responses for "Review: Fatal League"
Sounds like it’s the perfect game in times of constipation. RPG’s aren’t really my thing either, and I doubt that there are many iPhone gamers waiting for a more typical hardcore game like an RPG.
And indeed, there’s no point to any iPhone game, the same goes for almost every other game. Still, if they’re all pointless, you might as well play the best games out there then ^^
I’ve been playing this game many hours, and it’s been really entertaining and fun *shrug* but then again, I liked old RPGs. A lot. Heck, I played Nethack for months with just as letters for playable characters in the 1990s. And indeed, as a chessplayer I DO like this game. It seems reviewer doesn’t like chess either, though it is one of the hardest strategy games there is.
Game is an old type of RPG and does what it promises to do. Graphics were like this in the 80s when things started, and so was the gameplay. I like the old feeling of this game, but obviously the game is not ment for big public, rather just for oldschool game players to take a timewarp.
Dear Jack,
I know you may find this response to your review too long, and its vocabulary perhaps too challenging. Try to stick with it, anyway. If your bowels unexpectedly move you to … em … move, then please do try to come back and read another line or two.
Barely 3 weeks from its introduction in its market niche, hardcore players searching for challenging strategy games are deciding — and sharing with others — that they believe Fatal League is a great game.
Go read their comments in gaming forums for yourself. Look at the user reviews in the AppStore and TouchArcade and SlideToPlay.
Personally, I like the game very much. I was a bit puzzled by your references to ‘needing a toilet every 15 minutes’, and backgrounds that remind you of ‘pub toilets at 1 a.m.’
It has been so long since I’ve seen mature adults liken any experience to toilet-related activity that I wondered if, perhaps, your intellectual development arrested at some point during your potty-training days.
The crux of your criticism seems to be, “This isn’t the sort of game where you can just dive in and start playing like Doodle Jump.”
Yes, Jack, that’s why the game’s marketing message — printed in big colorful letters — is “Fatal League. Winning isn’t easy.”
Just to be fair, I wanted to get to know your work a little better, perhaps gain some insight into the method you use to evaluate a game.
I searched out a couple of other reviews you’ve written. Ahhh. That was illuminating. Your two top review credits include “Zzed” and “Bunny Shooter.”
You describe “Zzed” as “Tetris with a twist,” and “No longer do blocks randomly fall out of the sky in a random box with no context.” Indeed, in Zzed, the player gets to ‘shoot coloured meteorites at other coloured meteorites.” But the best part, you tell readers, is Zzed’s story line: ‘The cleaning company who have hired you .. are surreptitiously planning something … and there’s an alleged rumour of a conspiracy. Intriguing, huh?”
I’d like to add to your description that there are also LOTS of pretty green aliens and glittering meteorites to grab one’s attention.
About “Bunny Shooter”, you write that it’s “not as satisfying as annihilating those patronizing pigs on Angry Birds.”
Next you admit that, “It was an hour later and I hadn’t mowed the lawn, I hadn’t emptied the dishwasher and I hadn’t fed the cats. I looked at the clock and thought, ‘5 more minutes and then I’ll do it’. Naturally I was still sitting there after a further half an hour, murdering adorable bunny rabbits.”
Ahhh … NOW I understand why you hammered Fatal League. You couldn’t get past the first game. All you could do was sit on your … em … potty, I guess.
Better luck next time, Jack. Maybe your next assignment will be “Pillows take Manhattan”.
I did not enjoy the game. My job is to convey that. You need to learn how to accept criticism I’m afraid.
Not to take opinion in previous comments, but we old gamers also kinda hope that the games are revieved by someone, who knows the basics of the game niches they’re reviewing.
Like, what “turn-based” means, Yes, it means one has to wait his turn after the other player does his moves. Just like in the chess. That’s the main point of TURN-BASED games, and the main point of this particular game. I was puzzled why the reviewer of this game made such a huge point of the game being not-good by his opinion, because it seemed like a “chess” game.
Chess is the ultimate turn-based strategy game. Period.
If you like Britney Spears, don’t review classical music. And if you do not like turn-based RPGs, reviewing one only makes us gamers think, don’t you have reviewers who know the gaming niche any better.
By that, all I meant was that if teenagers are downloading this expecting thrilling action game play, they aren’t going to get it. The target audience for this website is teenagers/young adults so I have to write my review with that in mind.
Besides, the immature comment from “Stonemaster” has probably done more to ruin this game’s reputation than the review itself (which actually wasn’t all negative).
Found this link from Facebook. Interesting discussion, if you look at it from the reviewer’s ethic point of view. Does a reviewer actually have to know what they are reviewing or be objective? Can they pretend to act like their presumed short attention span teenage reader would act?
Web 2.0 let’s everyone paricipate. Everyone can be a reviewer, and reviews with toilet going times tell something of a site itself also. Maybe it’s what kids these days want to read? But the average gamer is 37 years old.
Have to try this game next time in the loo.
If you listen to the background music, you will hear running water. It was just a minor point I picked up on because I found it distracting.
Interesting discussion indeed. I can understand that Stonemaster doesn’t really like its game to get a slightly negative review if others rated it well. But as Jack says, the comment they put here is doing them indeed more harm than the review itself.
Referring to the loo in reviews can indeed look as if we aren’t really professional/adult or whatever. Then again, it’s this type of things that make reviews fun to read. It’s true that the average iPhone gamer is slightly older than the average gamer. iPwnGames will never be just as serious as for example TouchArcade is.
And as Keke says, it’s a bit of a dillemma to decide whether as a reviewer you should really try to be as objective as possible, or put some of your personal opinion in your article. Personally I think you should try to be objective, with a minor input of your personal opinion (even if it’s just to keep reviewing pleasant for yourself).
Still I really think it’s a good review and that Jack is doing a good job here on iPwnGames. I personally want the site to be a place where anyone who likes games, and who has proper writing skills, can come to write about their hobby.
Funny, entertaining review — not easy to do and I give you a lot of credit for that. I understand the target audience and the review seems to fit that.
But other people like my 50-year old self end up here as well via google. What would be helpful is if you put in a few caveats ala “I’m not one for turn-based games” or “old schoolers may want to take a look” or similar.
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