I know exactly what you’re thinking sitting at home reading this, and it’s something along the lines of: “What the f@#% is Fat Princess, I’ve never heard of it, sounds ghey!”, if I’m correct, then may I say; SHAME ON YOU! However, in a gaming society dominated by 360 fanboys with no mindset of ‘the bigger picture’ I understand your confusion, your sins have been healed, for this is one of the most addictive and involving Network games ever released. So, many of you readers, will assumably own either a 360 or PS3, I’m fortunate enough to own both, if you own a 360, bad luck on not getting Fat Princess, if you own a PS3 and don’t have Fat Princess, pay close attention to this review, and get an unbiassed opinion on whether you should fork out your £11.99 on it. Read on...
The phrase ‘Never judge a book by its cover’ comes to mind when asked about this game, the cover refers to the immediate reaction, a torrent of abuse and confusion as stated above, which is triggered by two things: The name, I mean, Fat Princess is enough to make anyone think that the developer doesn’t take the game seriously; and the art style, visually, the game is incredible for a download, it’s stylish, the animation is great, but it’s oh-so misleading. I’m going to show you two pictures, one that forms the initial impression of the game, and one that changes it completely.
^Before^
^After^
That’s correct. Fat Princess is a stylishly disguised bloodbath just waiting to be discovered and have hours spent admiring the sheer amount of violence, blood and gore packed into one bite-sized (get the pun? Fat? Bite-sized? Hehe... Oh screw it, it’s not that funny...) package, it also combines a blend of Real Time Strategy, RPG and First Person Shooter to create a unique gaming experience which is accessible to everyone. The bare bones of the game revolve around a ‘cursed’ cake found in a location known as the Black Forest, which is also the name of one of the playable maps in the game, whilst two princesses are enjoying an afternoon out in the Black Forest, they find the ‘cursed’ cake and decide to take a bite, then another bite, and then another bite, for full details read from the first bite and repeat this step; you get the idea. Then, in the single player mode, you have to rescue your princess from opposing kingdoms before the arrival of her betrothed husband; this mode, abtly named ‘The Legend of the Fat Princess’ introduces the various game modes and classes to the player before they play the multiplayer mode.
As you can tell from the latter of the two pictures, there are various types of characters which each have a special purpose and ability that can be put to best effect in a team situation, this is where all the genres listed above become pieces that help form the puzzle that is ‘Fat Princess’. These classes include defensive players such as: Workers, who gather resources and stockpile them so that the team can upgrade their classes; and Priests, who can heal their team-mates at any time and receive points for doing so. Offensive classes include: The Warrior, The Archer and The Mage; which are all pretty self explanatory. Each class has an upgraded version which allows it to utilise new abilities, the best example of this is the Priest, who becomes a Dark Priest, this enables him to suck the life out of enemies as well as give life to team-mates, this proves that defensive roles are just as important as offensive roles.
However, this fact doesn’t seem apparent to many of the people who play this game, to the majority, defensive roles are just boring and a waste of time, why chop wood when you could kill things? Although the logic behind saying that seems valid, experienced players and skilled players, will begin to get frustrated by the fact that legions of n00bz come into an online game, pick up the Warrior, die a lot and lose games, it’s a fact of gaming, but in Fat Princess it happens just a bit to much. If you are lucky enough to find a game of sensible players, then the winds of fortune are truly blowing in your favour, but make sure you have time set aside, if you’re playing a good, tactical game, then the game modes could take in excess of 30 minutes of your time; for a network game this may be a burden to players as the game borrows various gametypes from the shooter genre, such as: Deathmatch, Capture the Princess and Territories, these gametypes are intended for ten minute bursts and not for incongruously long sessions.
But personal issues aside, this game is still great, if you can get past the occasional n00b and the long game time then you’re in for a real treat, especially with the ‘Gladiate’ single player mode, which pits you against increasingly difficult waves of enemies as a class of your choice. Fat Princess may get repetitive at first, but DLC is on its way, including new maps, and new classes along the lines of Kings, Cooks, Pirates, and you guessed it... NINJAS! So with DLC just around the corner now’s the time to be adding those funds and downloading the incredibly addictive gorefest that is Fat Princess!
Gameplay – 83%
Storyline – 74%
Presentation – 84%
Multiplayer – 78%
Replay Value – 83%
Overall – 80% FM Gamer’s Silver Award (Just)
Reviewed by Ben Dowling (Gamertag: Sik VelocityX, Playstation Network ID: bensta175)
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