God games are a very niche and old subgenre of colony management and simulation games, but they have been largely overlooked for a few years now. Nowadays, the “god game” tag is applied to most colony and city management games, and while there is some truth to this categorization, it makes it harder to find games that actually put the player in the role of a deity within the game’s lore.
Fata Deum, developed by 42 Bits Entertainment and published by Aerosoft GmbH, is a god game that stays true to the subgenre’s name, putting us in the position of a new deity. We have to compete with other gods in the world to gain followers and worshippers, guide them to prosperity, pleasure, or destruction. Fata Deum was recently released in early access, with stylish visuals and fun gameplay.
Fata Deum fully embraces the god game subgenre on a meta level, and it is apparent from the moment we begin the game. It looks and plays like most city manager and colony sim games, but it regards the player as a god, and even the mouse pointer is treated as a glowing imp that acts on our behalf. Being a deity in the world is integrated into the tutorial, gameplay, story, graphics, and animation. It’s a large part of the game’s identity, and it shapes different aspects of it.
There is no campaign or story mode, but the game has a decent amount of contextual and environmental storytelling. When we begin a game, we can select different map sizes and settings, and similar to how sometimes there are other civilizations or factions in city management games, there are different gods that we play against in Fata Deum. The other gods banter throughout the game, commenting on our actions and progress.
When the game begins, every settlement and citizen worships Mother Nature. We and the other gods each start in a different corner of the world, competing to get more worshippers and expanding our influence. Worshippers grant us mana each day, which is the main resource we use to act and influence the world. We get more worshippers by different means. We can fill someone with love or fear in order to worship us, restoring relics and landmarks, or showing godly acts of power. With more worshippers and more mana, we can start designating new buildings, changing the focus of settlements on different productions, and expand and establish new towns and cities.
Worshippers have needs and wishes, and they often pray for different things. And we, as a god, can either grant their wishes, reject them, or just for the fun of it, mess with them. The latter is the best part of Fata Deum. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously. The writing, the mechanics, and even the tutorial are light-hearted, and messing with the citizens of the world, punching them with a godly fist, throwing them around, or putting them in the middle of a fight between two military groups is all part of the gameplay, and is fun to watch.
The game has a very detailed and deep tutorial that is well integrated into normal gameplay. The imp that acts on our behalf teaches us the basic mechanics and game concepts throughout a playthrough, and explains new mechanics and powers whenever we unlock them. Some parts of the game are still not fully implemented, as is expected with an early access release, but interestingly, the imp also comments on these unfinished features and breaks the fourth wall by saying the developers are working on them. All of these lines, even the comments on unfinished features, have a high-quality voice-over, which shows a great production quality.
The game has a very charming and stylish visual design. The landscapes and the world can look stunning, yet the character models and animations are cartoonish and funny. It’s an interesting combination, which creates distinctive differences when we are zoomed out and exploring the world, versus when we are zoomed in to micromanage the settlements and answer prayers.
There are a few small issues I noticed during my playthrough. The most important one was the lack of hotkeys. For a game with dozens of menus and features, there aren’t enough hotkeys to easily navigate between them. I did experience a few performance issues as I played for longer and had larger settlements. The game has a feedback submission form integrated into the game, so hopefully, a lot of these small issues can be addressed during the early access period.
Overall, Fata Deum offers a fun, charming, and fairly complete experience for an early access release. The game is decently polished, with minor performance issues, and it looks on track to become a well-made game in a niche and forgotten subgenre when it is officially released.
Nima reviewed Fata Deum on PC in Early Access with a provided review copy.
