PC Gamer

L

et’s talk about worthwhile
experiences. Tale of Tales’
FATALEis an experimental
adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play,
Salome, itself an interpretation of
the Biblical story of Herod’s
daughter, her desire for John the
Baptist, and how his head came off.
I’m wary of being too pat here,
becauseFATALE is a sophisticated,
purposeful act of expression. It’s art
from a time when that wasn’t
something that games were thought
to encompass. It is 30 minutes long
and without challenge, things that
don’t need excusing now but did
when it was released in 2009.

Despite its short running time, what’s

still striking about FATALE is the

lack of immediacy. In the first

sequence, you are locked in a cistern,

watching through a grate as Salome

performs the Dance of the Seven

Veils in the courtyard above you. Her

lines from the play appear in the

space above you, drawing your

attention upwards. When the dance

ends, a guard silently enters your cell

and decapitates you. You might see

him coming, you might not. You then

spend FATALE’s midsection floating

around an atmospheric, rooftop

diorama, extinguishing candles.

There are aspects of FATALE that

can seem standoffish – particularly

the way it relies on you to do the

majority of the interpretive legwork.

I’d argue that its midsection is a little

too long, and its strange Descent-style

controls make it harder to let yourself

sink into it. But even so there’s a lot I

appreciated – the little anachronistic

touches, the way those controls and

its purposeful stillness make FATALE

feel like an art exhibit set inside an

old-school graphics demo.

It is thought and mood

provoking, which is

entirely the point.

ExploringFATALEattraction

EXPECT TO PAY

£5

DEVELOPER

Tal e of Tal e s

PUBLISHER

In-house

NEED TO KNOW

Plot twist: this is an oil

lantern instead.

The acclaimed sequel to

Candlesnuffer Origins.

REVIEW

CISTERN SHOCK

75

I

’d like to take a journey to the

bottom of games, now, if you’ll

entertain me for a moment. Clicker

Heroes is Steam’s most popular free

clicker game. In it, you click on

monsters to make them pop. When

they pop you get some gold, and you

use this gold to buy and upgrade

unseen characters who do a certain

amount of damage over time. The

numbers go up, which feels nice, so

you do it forever. Eventually, you

• real you – will die, because your
  time is finite. Clicker Heroes’ time is
  not finite, however. It will give you
  things to click on forever. I’m not
  angry that somebody made Clicker
  Heroes, nor that it found
  popularity. I’m angry that it
  works on me.

CLICKER HEROES

12

T

his is the issue with numbers

that go on forever. Games about

numbers sit on the knife edge

between hobby, work and

compulsion that seems to be a unique

danger of this medium. In being so

degenerate, they’re basically pure

games. Realm Grinder sounds a bit

like a dating app for LARPers but it’s

actually a city-building clicker game.

It’s better than Clicker Heroes but not

by much. I like its magic system,

which deems ‘tax collection’ to be a

magical spell. It allows you to opt

between a ‘good’ path, which involves

more clicking, and an ‘evil’ path,

which involves more passive

resource gain. I do not agree

with this interpretation of a

morality system.

REALM GRINDER

34

I

dle Championsis the official D&D

clicker game and Minsc from

Baldur’s Gateis in it. It is basically not

about clicking at all, but about

arranging your characters in

formation in a way that makes the

numbers all big without you having

to do much of anything. Here’s

another thing: I’ve been playing it in

the background this entire time. I

was playing it while I was playing

Baldur’s Gate. I was playing it while I

was playingFATALE. Please

help me: the numbers are

now very big.

IDLE CHAMPIONS

56

STOP SMILING,

I DON’T CARE.

Don’t ‘Settlers’

me, sonny Jim!

WHY DO I LIKE

THIS SO MUCH.