Even among the crowd of gorgeous illustrated games, At Fate's End is stunning enough to stand out

I’ve been writing about games for long enough that my threshold for a single piece of artwork grabbing me by the shoulders and screams “PLAY ME!!” in my face is pretty damn high. I did not attend an Xbox indie showcase at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco with a plan to play At Fate’s End. I did not, in fact, know At Fate’s End existed. But a few seconds of animation was all it took to magnetize me to that demo chair.

Even compared to stiff competition like Supergiant’s Hades or last year’s Dispatch, the artwork of At Fate’s End is striking. Much of that’s due to its fine touches that stand apart from other 2D games with hand-illustrated styles. When I first took control of protagonist Shan, the young outcast of a family of demigods, I noticed the way she’d shift her weight when she stopped running, her hair sweeping forward under lingering momentum. Conversations that at first seemed like they’d be static, driven just by dialogue boxes, were granted a breath of life by occasional shifts in posture and small gestures. The way the camera whirls around Shan during a climactic confrontation feels like a pure animator’s flex. At Fate’s End seems to relish every opportunity to bump the lamp.

But what is it, anyway, other than beautiful? A slightly odd mix of 2D action and family drama, but blessedly not aping Hades’ roguelite structure. Shan’s story, as best I could follow it from the opening 20 minutes or so, is about reconciling with her more powerful siblings after somewhat awkwardly becoming the Chosen One as the runt of the family. A conversation system lets you choose how to interact with each of them to figure out in what specific ways they’re sad, mad, or otherwise fucked up, and you collect clues that peel the corners of the layers-deep family trauma holding you at a distance.

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