Fe

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 53 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 53
  2. Mixed: 34 out of 53
  3. Negative: 1 out of 53
  1. Guardian
    Feb 22, 2018
    40
    It’s plausibly a commentary on the nature of an ecosystem, but the emotional reward doesn’t compensate a player for the amount of busywork.
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  1. Eurogamer
    Feb 15, 2018
    An earnest eco-platformer that is at once under and overcooked.
  2. Polygon
    Feb 15, 2018
    Fe is a magical, expansive and multi-hued world that creates a sense of marvel. Like a real-life walk in the woods, it is a thing of elemental beauty that demands to be inhaled and admired.

Awards & Rankings

91
#91 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2018

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 82 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 82
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 82
  3. Negative: 22 out of 82
  1. arw002
    Feb 20, 2018
    4
    I bought this because it looked interesting and in the same artistic style of games like journey or Abzu. Unfortunately it is not nearly asI bought this because it looked interesting and in the same artistic style of games like journey or Abzu. Unfortunately it is not nearly as compelling. I found the overall world and mechanics to be really confusing and tedious. The story is too vague to mean anything despite some cool moments, and the open world all looks bland and the same. Despite being a small fox creature the character controls are very loose with poor jumping/climbing mechanics. It's really frustrating that the fox can't climb any walls or pull himself up onto ledges...because the world is made almost entirely out of rocky ledges. You have to always find a tree to climb up and glide places, which is very tedious. I also don't like that progression is mostly tied to collecting miscellaneous stones - again, tedious. The progression relationship between learning new songs and collecting all of the various items is also vague and takes a while to figure out, making it unclear where you can go and where you can't.

    The art style itself is fairly unique but looks inconsistent in some areas due to foggy/faded backgrounds and strange lighting. I also couldn't figure out a way to fast travel around the world, which is frustrating because the geography is surprisingly large and tedious to get around. This caused me to not finish the game - I stopped about three hours into the supposed five hour length. The cat and mouse gameplay with some of the enemies is also annoying from unpredictable AI. Overall Fe feels like it's imitating better games, or trying too hard to be artistic just for the sake of being artistic - without a clear overall vision. It's visuals are not amazing enough to make up for the annoying controls and meandering game play. There are some fun moments and a few cool ideas but overall bland and tedious.    … Full Review »
  2. SuperkenGaming
    Feb 16, 2018
    7
    Fe
    A mix of charming, frustrating, and confusing
    Fe is a 5 and a half hour long open world 3d platformer with a dash of collectathon    Fe
    A mix of charming, frustrating, and confusing
    Fe is a 5 and a half hour long open world 3d platformer with a dash of collectathon elements where you play as an adorable fox like animal out to save the forest from these not so adorable glowing eye jerks that are trapping your animal friends..
    You’re sent to one section of the map at a time to complete a task to unlock a new song to sing...
    As singing is how you interact with the world...
    to learn a new language you have to help out the adult version of a certain animal...
    Youre able to sync up with the baby versions freely though, and they’ll help you through the worlds until you learn their language
    Learning a language can mean anthing from gathering stolen eggs, or freeing a giant deer and then climbing them shadow of the colossus style…
    these first 2 languages were the most clever and I feel as though the game quickly runs out of ideas for the remainder of the game..
    As the charm going forward is almost completely gone...
    these new languages will help you of course progress further into the game, but will also help you reach new areas for crystals that you can use to upgrade your abilities to make traversing this world just a little bit more easy…
    but traversing is just never fun...
    the platforming feels clunky aside from the snappy and satisfying tree climbing, youll be falling to the bottom of areas numerous times just to have to restart your climb especially once gliding is involved
    And interacting with the world feels more like busy work than actual interaction..
    Constant language changing with your wheel while you’re trying to figure out the right path to the marker on the map...
    The platforming isn’t awful though... its very passible, but the lack of polish is noticeable...
    Thankfully the beauty and the charm of this world makes up for all of this...
    the interactions with the different animals are adorable…
    the colors, the feel, and the music help immerse you into this world…
    Enemy encounters here are terrifying and are spread perfectly as well keeping this game perfectly paced…
    I never felt the game overstayed its welcome...
    Though the ending is definitely a head scratcher mostly because of how anti-climactic it ends up feeling and how lousy of a job the game does at making you care about its story ...
    The game just feels as though it ends abruptly and I felt no feeling of accomplishment
    I didn’t necessarily want more
    it was just like… um okay?
    But dispite my complaints I still enjoyed getting there...
    I appreciate the giant puzzle this game ends up being…
    the gameplay is constantly being changed, keeping the game fresh and engaging from start to finish...
    You’re never just going through the motions…
    youre always thinking and planning routes in your heads
    unfortunately though there just isn’t anything memorable here…
    It has the potential...
    The opening 2 levels showed promise…
    The game just drops the ball and forgets the great halfway through
    I give Fe
    a 6.5/10    … Full Review »
  3. Waxle
    Feb 24, 2018
    6
    I was initially very excited for this game. It was revealed in the Nintendo Direct and left me intrigued at what they were going for with theI was initially very excited for this game. It was revealed in the Nintendo Direct and left me intrigued at what they were going for with the artstyle. After playing it.... while it is good, it's got several problems.

    First, the good parts out of the way. The control is nailed down to a t. While your character's jump does feel a little fast, it feels like it has just the right movement speed, fairly fast, and the controls feel smooth.

    Next to mention is that the artistic and sound design is genius. I've always liked polygonal artstyles in games, and this one delivers that extremely well. Everything has a glowing effect that really makes it both dark and vibrant at the same time, and the ambient score does its job very well to set the setting. Plus, the animal sound effects in the game feel near realistic. It's really amazing how well Zoink Games could replicate the sounds with human voice actors (yes, they really did that). But.... the problem is that the art design feels like the only reason to actually play the game. I am not very familiar with this studio's other games, but this seems very counter to what they usually do, and I can appreciate the change in style (atmospheric as opposed to self-aware).

    Now.... the downsides. First, there's the tutorials. They are barely there. The game does a very poor job teaching you how to play it. I had numerous times when I forgot that A (I played the Switch version) was grab and died due to forgetting that. There is also no reference to remember the controls. Some mechanics are very trial-and-error in nature, and while this is advertised a puzzle platformer I feel like it leans too heavy on trying to make trial-and-error gameplay puzzles.

    Second, the stealth sections. Fe has an interesting combat system, which is a way to say it literally has no combat at all. You are incapable of attacking or really doing anything to fight the main enemies of this game, the Silent Ones. So instead, the combat portion is 100% stealth. This is definitely a risky move, as stealth sections can either be really good or bad, and here..... it's a mixed bag. The hitbox on the 'spotlight' you have to avoid is a little weird, and often times you'll get detected from somewhere you can't see. Sometimes, the enemies are scattered around with little way to tell where to hide. It's a risky move to have no way to take out enemies in a stealth game, but it paid off a little? I do wish you could take out enemies from behind, that would improve the sections.

    Third, and this may just be a problem with the Switch port, is the framerate. The framerate in this game is EXTREMELY inconsistent, rarely ever running at full speed. There are a lot of assets and particle effects, but it should not be enough to load down better. The poor optimization makes me think that it was a last-minute choice to put it on switch. If BOTW can handle even more on screen at once, this can too. No excuse.

    So in the end, I WANTED this to be a 9 or 10 game, and it's definitely got the amazing visual design it needs to be one, but the poorly implemented stealth, badly explained mechanics, and framerate issues drop it down 3 pegs for me. This is really more an 'experience' than a 'game'. If you want this game for a good platformer, you'd be much better off picking something else. If you want a stealth game, I'd say the same. Only buy this if you want to look at the artstyle and world design.

    This is also my first review on the site, because this game left me so mixed.    … Full Review »
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