14 DAY TRIAL // A green glow lets me know that an enemy archer is getting ready to fire, so I move as quickly as possible to the left, moving out of the way. My fast dodge also makes one enemy sword ship move into the line of fire, where it gets hit. That’s a nice bonus, but I still have to close in and engage him in hand-to-hand combat. Again, he reveals his intentions, so I block a strike and then counter with a heavy attack that drains half its health.
Two other enemies are moving towards my flank, so I retreat towards an asteroid, which forces a collision that destroys one of them. I finish the other one off with a fast combo, after absorbing one strike from it. I hate losing health because I need all of it to have a chance against the coming sector boss.
Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime is developed by Spiritus Games and published by Prismatika and East2West Games. It is currently in Early Access on Steam, where it is likely to remain for at least one year. The game mixes arcade space combat with a focus on melee with a rogue structure.
Gamers will become the youngest son of a royal dynasty in a science fiction future influenced by feudalism. The Void Lords have stolen the sun, your brothers have been lost trying to regain it. The king is old and frail, so it falls to you to venture into space, using your skill at arms and your smarts to get back the light.
The premise mixes well with the gameplay, which is all about arcade, top-down combat between futuristic versions of armored knights. Their steeds are spaceships, the swords are titanium, and they have capable plasma projectiles. Players can deliver quick strikes, strong attacks, or launch projectiles. A guard move is also available. Combat capabilities can be improved by investing money and by activating a variety of perks.
Fabular is focused on physics. The gamer-controlled ship has to avoid micro-planets and carefully time attacks to eliminate opponents. And when the bosses show up, complexity and difficulty go up.
For each run, the game procedurally generates the nodes and connections, although the final battle at the end of a sequence is against the same enemies. This adds variety to the action but also means it’s easy to miss a vendor and be somewhat underpowered when battling the boss.
Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime also uses a rogue-lite structure to handle death. Gamers will be able to improve their abilities before making another attempt. Making solid progress during a run requires solid mastery of the mechanics and some luck with encounters and vendors.
Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime has a unique visual identity, which is a good thing given how saturated its genre is. Both the player’s spaceship and the enemy ones have clear visual indicators linked to attacks and special moves. And there’s a lot of personality visible during the node encounters, especially when it comes to character design. The sound design is as good as the graphics, with a mix of science fiction and retro sequences that really gel with the retro-future of the universe.
Conclusion
Science fiction feudalism is also a good choice for the universe. The game will certainly evolve during Early Access, based on player feedback, and I hope there’s more variety to Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime when the launch version arrives next year.
A preview code was provided by the publisher.
