Eternal Fate

Full Review

Eternal Fate Review

By Chanel Hwang

Fight alongside your friends and guildmates in Eternal Fate, a mobile game ported to the PC. While the 3D graphics and interface may work on a phone, the transfer results in poor quality for PC/Mac players. Eternal Fate does some things right, but because of some gaping holes in details the game falls short of reaching its potential.

Simple Beginnings

Eternal Fate was first released in 2014 as a mobile phone game for beta testing. It hit Steam with a PC/Mac version in November of 2015, and has been met with mixed reviews. ing and installing the game took no longer than five minutes. I jumped right into the tutorial, where the directions were easy enough to understand. However, right off the bat, I noticed that the combat controls were clunky and difficult to use. I would highly recommend just playing on a keyboard because you have to point-and-click with the mouse to move, and for some reason hitting the attack button doesn't make you move toward your enemies. A lot of times I would be standing a hair shy of the boss, spamming my attacks, but nothing would connect. But I couldn't click on the ground to get closer to the boss because of the model sizes, so I would be stuck. So, keyboard.

It is blatant that Eternal Fate is a mobile game because the gameplay isn't complex, the controls are mediocre, and the 3D graphics are clean yet simplified to be visually appealing on small screens. The gameplay consists of going through randomly generated maps as a Hero, hacking and slashing through mobs, and fulfilling some kind of objective. While the game boasts over hundreds of levels, the maps only vary in of the "end goal," and generally look similar. So in reality, it's more like "over one hundred maps that look the same."

There are different difficulty levels for the maps, and the harder ones actually require some kiting and dodging. Clearing maps awards players with Gold (one of two forms of in-game currency), summoning crystals, and more. Surprisingly, the simplicity of the battle system makes the game somewhat enjoyable. Being able to time your moves and not having to button-mash is a huge plus. One of the most appealing aspects of Eternal Fate is being able to tackle the maps with friends and guildmates. There are also daily quests to complete, with different challenges and rewards. However, the gameplay gets a bit repetitive and can feel quite meaningless after an hour or so.

Summon Your Heroes

The best part of Eternal Fate is summoning Heroes. Heroes are your main characters with whom you defeat enemies. They come in a variety of classes, from Sorcerers to Rogues. To summon a Hero you need crystals, and the higher quality the crystal the higher chance of a rarer Hero. Rainbow crystals are the standard, where you can summon a random elemental affinity (Fire, Light, Earth, etc). There are element-specific crystals that will guarantee a Hero of that element, such as a water crystal summoning a water-type. Each summon has a time requirement during which a player must wait before their Hero is summoned. This time requirement can be byed by paying Rubies, and paying Rubies increases the chance of summoning a rarer Hero.

I found the whole system to be a bit more complex than it had to be. Why require a time limit and introduce the currency of Rubies when you already have Gold as a currency? I understand it is because of money, but it doesn't make sense. You can get rid of the Rubies and have players buy the summoning crystals. Anyways, that's how to summon Heroes and it is the most exciting part of the game. However, one of the biggest disappointments is also the Heroes. While every Hero has their own unique backstory and their own set of unique skills and ive abilities, they generally look the same. I think there are only four different hairstyles and three different body shapes for the Heroes. None of their portraits or images stick out, and even the rare ones can look generic. Keep in mind, the summoning and collecting of Heroes is the best part of Eternal Fate. Yet why would players want to collect them if they don't look awesome?

Gear Up Your Hero

Because Heroes are the bread-and-butter of the game Eternal Fate has a pretty cool Hero equipment and training system. Players can equip their main Hero with three other Heroes. These Heroes increase the main one's stats, affinity bonuses, and even give ive abilities. However, keep in mind that pairing up Heroes of the opposing affinities results in a lower elemental strength. For example, equipping a Light Hero with a Dark Hero will lower the Light Hero's elemental strength by 5% or more.

Players can also level up their Heroes in the "Train" tab. All Heroes start at Level 1, and can be leveled up with the in-game currency of Gold. You'll be getting lots of useless common and uncommon Heroes from your summons, so I would advise selling them for Gold to buff your main Heroes. If you happen to get two of the same Hero, you can merge them into one and Evolve them (resulting in a "+" next to their image). Honestly, because it's hard to tell some Heroes apart, it's hard to tell which ones you can merge.

A nifty feature of Eternal Fate is that you can have multiple loadouts (and you can buy additional Hero slots with Rubies). This makes it convenient to switch between Heroes to match the needs of whatever battle you're about to face.

Interface: Holes and Gaps

At first, I thought the Interface was very clear and well-made. However, there are several small nuances that ultimately render the interface frustrating. First off, the Settings menu should not exist. There isn't anything players to modify or set. Music and SFX are not sliders, but On/Off boxes. Controls can't be adjusted in-game either. Then there is the chatbox. It is immovable, clunky, and the text size is huge. I mean, on a phone maybe it's a good size but on a computer it's ginormous. And the Heroes! How do you access their backstory ever again? I've only ever seen the backstories once and that was when I summoned them.

Another limiting part of the UI is the limited chat options. If, for example, you want to reach out to someone who is not a Facebook friend or not a part of a guild, you can either (1) make your own guild, invite him/her, wait for them to accept, and then chat, or (2) forget it. If you see someone on the leaderboard, and want to see their loadout there's no way to access it. If you want to play 2v2 with a friend you can't! You will be paired with a random. And thus I conclude again, while the UI of Eternal Fate looks nice it is actually quite frustrating.

PvP, Guilds, and Events

One of the coolest features of Eternal Fate is going through the maps with a friend. The one setback is that you and your friend both need a Facebook . I could not find a way to search names or IDs to add people without using the Facebook Connect option. Even as a guild I couldn't quite understand how to find a friend to add them to my guild without using Facebook.

Playing PvE with your guildmates is easy. Anyone can jump into a map, and as long as they state in the chat which map they're going into you can by simply going to the same map and clicking on "Guild Play." PvP is a bit strange, as there is 1v1 and 2v2. The 1v1 claims to match you with players with similar loadouts, but it isn't very reliable. A few times, I was paired against someone who was incredibly powerful. They took me out in less than a minute. The 2v2 matches seem a bit pointless, especially because you can't choose to play with a friend. Again, the limited UI and options that players are given severely limits the potential of the game.

Occasionally, there are events held by the developers. During this time players are rewarded for clearing maps and ranking on the Event Leaderboard. To be honest, because the event doesn't offer a variation of the already-existent gameplay it doesn't exactly capture my interest.

Final Verdict – Fair

To be frank, Eternal Fate doesn't hack it as a PC game. As a mobile game it may scrape by as being good, but due to the terrible UI on computers, lack of detail in the variety of Heroes, and clunky controls, Eternal Fate is fair at best as a computer While it does boast an interesting customization system and fun PvE gameplay, Eternal Fate's simplicity and incomplete feel curb its potential.

Screenshots

Eternal Fate Screenshots

Videos

Eternal Fate Videos

Links

Eternal Fate Links

Eternal Fate Official Site
Eternal Fate Google Play
Eternal Fate iTunes Store
Eternal Fate Facebook
Eternal Fate Steam

System Requirements

Eternal Fate System Requirements

Minimum Requirements (Windows ):

Operating System: Windows XP
U: 2+ GHz
RAM: 512 MB RAM
Video Card: Intel Integrated
Hard Disk Space: 500 MB

Minimum Requirements (Mac ):

Operating System: OS X 10.6
U: 2+ GHz
RAM: 512 MB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 500 MB

Eternal Fate is also available for Android and iOS devices.

Music

Eternal Fate Music & Soundtrack

Coming Soon!

Additional Info

Eternal Fate Additional Information

Developer(s): Escalation Studios, Inc.
Publisher(s): Escalation Studios, Inc.

Other Platforms: iOS, Android, Mac

iOS/Android Release Date: September 19, 2014
PC/Mac Release Date: November 5, 2015

Steam Release Date: November 05, 2015

Shut Down: June 14, 2016

Development History / Background:

Escalation Studios, Inc. first released Eternal Fate in 2014 for beta testing. Their goal was to create a mobile MMORPG with action-based combat. The game was fully released in early 2015 for the iOS and the Android. In July of 2015, the developers added for Apple's Metal engine, which greatly boosted the 3D graphics of the game. Escalation Studios then decided to release the game for the Mac and PC in November of 2015. The game shut down on all platforms on June 14, 2016.