Game of Fate is an adequate time-bending FMV mystery game with light romance elements. The premise is that you have a communicator and can talk to yourself five years in the past. So you use it to save a loyal female classmate who died in a car crash, but this somehow creates a serial killer. And the killer murders the woman who helped you cope with the initial loss, so you call your past self again to save her and so on.
Ultimately the goal is to catch the killer by finding clues and placing items in the past to help you escape deadly situations. There are many endings where you die and some where you just accept the current status quo. Getting all the best endings unlocks a fun group ending, which hints at more (a sequel is coming apparently). Conceptually all of this is interesting. But jumping back and forth between 2019 and 2024 adds some confusion. Characters forget you, and yet they come back into your life because of the story. It is also easy to forget what has happened and who knows what.
This game is about a 70:30 mix of mystery thriller to dating game, so don’t expect many romantic encounters. Mostly you are just investigating the murders with one admirer, with the option to swap them for another. Although there are five admirers only four have a proper ending. Cheng Linwei (played by Fang Jin, also in My Destiny Girls) is a primary character and she is probably the standout, but the others are good too. Sometimes the story gets in the way of romance and sometimes the romance gets in the way of the story. A longer narrative might have allowed more natural romance, and a more lighthearted mystery could have blended better with the cheery disposition of admirers.
Video quality is very good, even without the 4K DLC that is coming soon. Audio is sadly ADR heavy to the point where over 50% of the dialogue has been recorded in a studio. Translation is mediocre with basic typos, and text often has no English version. It will take 2.5 hours to get the first final chapter ending, and another 5 or so for all achievements, so there is decent value. While worth playing, the dual-time mystery has both strengths and weaknesses.
Rating: Good 
Length: 2.5 hrs
100%: 7.5 hrs
Positives +
Cheng Linwei, Endings, Mystery
Negatives –
ADR, Mystery, Translation
Steam Store Link
