If you can cut it down, you can make stuff from it and sell that stuff. If that was your aim in life, then Fell and Sell might be just for you. Fell all means of living things and pillage them for profit. Sounds totally ethical to me, but then I’m hardly ethical, just ask my friends.
Fell and Sell – Cutting it, or Hacked off?
Having played many first person dungeon crawl games, Fell and Sell should be a walk in the park, or maybe a forest or dungeon would be more accurate. XXX have peaked my interest and I can’t wait to lop the heads off everything I meet. Time to sharpen that blade and set off on an adventure.
Gameplay
Fell and Sell uses the standard methodology of PC first person games. WASD to move, the mouse to look and attack and various other keys to run, crouch and interact. The button required to perform a certain function appears on the screen to assist. You have a mild guide at the beginning to ensure that you have a fighting chance to survive. Dying loses all your equipment, but you do get a new broken sword at your grave, so it’s not totally bad.
So on to the story, Grandma has died (insert tears here) and left you a small shop, to make a success of the business you need to sell things. If you do well you get a letter from grandma from beyond the grave, weird eh? There is a noticeboard with tasks and rewards, do these to get the rewards. Please stop me if I am boring you. Get enough money and you can upgrade your shop to a bigger one.
To make items you need to delve deep into the dungeon or forest to seek out treasures and then craft items and then place them for sale. You get to choose the price, too high and no one will buy your product, too low and you wont make money fast enough, but you will be loved by the townsfolk. Being totally loved by the townsfolk isn’t a thing, but it so should be.
Dig Deep
As Fell and Sell has no advancement system, you don’t get better at combat or crafting, so you just need better weapons and armour. The deeper you go into the dungeon, the tougher the enemies, but the bigger the rewards. It is a risk worth taking. Strangely enough the deeper you go into the forest the same happens. Not everything you craft needs to be sold, some of it will save your life.
When you craft items you have two main categories. Firstly items that can be sold or used. Secondly, decorations that allow you to sell more items and increase your statistics. Sometimes logic goes awry, but after all, it is only just a game.
What’s good
Fell and Sell does a fair few things well, The combat is smooth and enjoyable. The range of weapons is also good, ensuring plenty of variety and tactics. Obtaining gold does not get overly hard so it never feels like you’re just grinding. The pricing of the shop upgrades keeps the targets well within sight to maintain progression.
What’s not so good
Whilst Fell and Sell hits the marks in some areas, it also seems that there is a lot lacking. The progression should have advancement options, specialise your shop, check out the competition are just a few examples. If Art Games Studio S.A. are going to keep on making improvements it can only be a good thing. Whilst there is only two things to do (fell or sell) it can feel there should be more to achieve. Although advances are made continuously, boredom can sink in after a while.
Graphics & Audio
Fell and Sell graphically looks like you would expect for the price. You can tell what everything is, so it is all good. I wasn’t blown away, but that just means that Fell and Sell did not exceed my expectations. Each trip to the dungeon is unique, the whole area is procedurally generated to keep the surprises coming.
The sounds that emmited from my headset was entirely predictable. Plinky plinky bard like melodies, but get close to a monster, dramatic music. Doesn’t detract from the playing experience, and doesn’t really enhance it too much either. The Luke warm of audio hath been achieved. Swing a sword, swooosh noise, pick something up, not sure how to describe it, sort of a pop noise. Questionable, but ok.
Longevity
Fell and Sell feels like the kind of game that can easily be improved on, and thus, I expect better games with similar concept to be rife in the near future. This being the case, Fell and Sell will be buried under a pile of imitators and lost forever. However, there is a road-map that will bring a lot of the changes that I thought would improve the game, and I have high hopes that the enjoyment level will increase with each one. There is however, one issue that trumps the others. Fell and Sell seems to have an end point, essentially once you have the best shop you no longer need money, so there is little need to hit the dungeons. The progression just drops off, and I feel that there just needs to be a higher purpose to playing.
Final Thoughts
Art Games Studio S.A. have done a great job in creating a game that is fun to play, and the £9 price tag is a steal. Fell and Sell can be great, and I hope that in the future it achieves all it can be. A wise eye will definitely watch this space and check the updates, but for the price, I think it’s already worth it.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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