The Fate of the Bully

In Brief

The Fate of the Bully is an early access side scrolling isometric view point life survival simulation. You can see a video of game play via the Steam store HERE (40% off until 6th Oct now £1.01). We are given a free standing version of the game, but the Steam version being in early access will possibly include additional content as it draws near to its full release in about 4 months time. the developers say the number of NPC's will be increased from the present six to at least ten or more as well as other additional content...

Introduction:

The city is full of crime and our hero by any means must survive here. He will have to ask for money from passers-by, sometimes steal money in order to survive in these harsh conditions. From the first minutes of the game you will immediately be given a unique task. You have to quickly perform tasks, move to locations and talk to the NPC, and at the same time monitor your hunger indicator and health. You will have to regularly visit grocery stores. So you always need to take care that in your pocket was enough money for food. By completing missions, you earn reputation and money. Become an authoritative Gopnik in the city and win the hearts of young priestesses.

Let me introduce myself, I'm a mugger, a thief. Do not rush to turn away from me his "Holy" face. Every one of you could be in my place. Sometimes there are circumstances that force a man of good character to become a criminal. It's not happening of its own free will. Almost Dostoevsky – "do You understand, my dear sir, what it means when there is nowhere else to go?»

I had to leave my old place, leave a high-paying job to get lost in the big city. I didn't run from trial. My escape was the only way I thought I could stay alive. I happened to witness a crime. What, let me keep silent. But believe me, these people weren't going to let me live.
Once in a strange city without means of livelihood, I myself, ironically, was on a criminal road, as an honest way to survive I failed: neither money nor documents I had. Do not judge strictly "honest" Gopnik. Although unlikely for my sins I will be justified in an earthly court. I already punished myself when I took the criminal path.

Reference accessed HERE. 30th September 2019

The Game:

Only played the game enough to take some screen captures. So far looks like a fun game. There are some issues with the language even when you select English by clicking on the flag that appears in the top right of the screen when you first boot up the game. Basically a lot of the text that appears is often in Russian interspersed with English. Also the main menu that only includes the Play and language button looks very blurred. apart from those issues, everything else works fine.

The game window opens in a window by default. to change to full screen click on the full screen button in the top right of the window. When you reboot the game it always reverts to the window mode. On the right side of the game screen are three icons, a question mark that brings up the quests you have to complete in that part of the game. There is a button on the right side that was in Russian, when clicked it tells you whether or not you have met the conditions of the quest. on the bottom left is the number of quests you have to complete to meet the conditions. Early in the game this will probably just be one. As you walk to the right you will eventually come to one, two or more circles with arrows pointing up or down. These indicate whether you have completed the quests/tasks that you have been given. I haven’t played the game long enough yet, but i think if the arrow is pointing down the conditions haven’t been met, pointing up indicates they have. The more arrows you see the more conditions require completing.

There are several NPC’s that walk around randomly. You can either ask for money or steal from them. Depending who you do this to and who is around you may lose reputation. There are other notifications but so far they have always been in Russian. Some shops you can access a menu by clicking on the shop and it will show you icons representing various items such as food and health etc. Other shops sell weapons such as knives and baseball bats. I presume later in the game more weapons will be unlocked. The game was release don Steam two months ago and has positive reviews which you can see HERE

Game play Videos:

You can see several videos of game play HERE (English commentary with some swearing), HERE (Русский комментарий), HERE (Русский комментарий), HERE (Русский текст), HERE, HERE (English Text) and HERE, HERE (Русский текст).

Conclusion:

My initial conclusion would say that the text based part of the game needs to be finished. As it stands it spoils the game somewhat as you cannot always read what is said due to the translations to English not being present. I presume the Steam version will include this as one of the things to sort. I’m thinking of buying a copy while it is on sale as I quite enjoyed playing it briefly.