Fata Deum is a 3D god-sim where you build up a following of faithful to fulfil the machinations of fate. Read our review of its early access build to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying when it fully releases!
Everything We Know About Fata Deum
Fata Deum Story
Fata Deum tells the story of a fledgling god trying to earn their church under the guidance and urgency of three supreme beings: The Fates. Shown the ropes of divinity and given an island’s population to sway into their faith, this newborn god will have to choose between compassion and wrath to cement their place as a formidable new deity.
Fata Deum Gameplay
Fata Deum grants players the power to influence, sculpt, and direct the actions of their faithful worshippers across various villages and settlements spread across an isolated island. Using a mana bar as a resource, players can choose to sow either love or fear to gain standing among non-believers, and eventually win over most of them to fulfill various challenges assigned to them by the Fates.
Depending on the game mode and game settings, players may have to out-god a fellow newborn deity for control over the island by answering prayers, creating infrastructure, inspiring individuals, or razing false idols to the ground. The first deity to fulfil all of the Fates' missions will be granted the supreme power to be eternally divine.
Fata Deum Release Date and Time
Released to Steam Early Access on September 15, 2025
Fata Deum was released on Steam Early Access on September 15, 2025. The game’s 1.0 release window is yet to be fully revealed.
We’ll update this article with the game’s 1.0 release date as soon as that information is available.
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| $29.99 |
Fata Deum Review [Early Access]
Godforsaken God Game
Disappointment is a hard emotion to express elegantly. While praise is the measure of greatness, at least for some, I don’t want to lay the insults on thick even if something deserves it. Double that hesitation if what I’m judging clearly isn’t meant to be the final product. Until now, I don’t wish to twist the proverbial knife, but this game is making it difficult not to.
Fata Deum wounds me just by existing. Rather, it reopens old wounds. Already scarred from the aftermath of a different god game from not so long ago—Peter Molyneux’s Godus—I was already afraid to have my heart broken yet again. Naively, I chose to give a new game touting itself as the modern evolution of the god game genre, and, once again, I’m left in shambles.
I’ll cut the melancholia for this preamble. The rest of this review will be evidence enough that, despite its title and genre, this game has been forsaken by all things divine.
Let There Be Light, Violence, Compassion, and Wrath
In the beginning, there was darkness. And the Fates said, "Let there be another", and a new consciousness, a young god still bereft of purpose, took its first breath in a virgin universe.
Already all-powerful, but no wiser about the world than a child, this new god needed guidance from the Fates. Without much pomp and circumstance, the new god, still nameless and without a single follower, was dropped onto an island of mortals to reign over in competition with yet another newborn deity.
This is where Fata Deum’s narrative begins and ends. This game is set on the fictional Island of Ylia, where players will run their godly free trial to see if they can be a better god to its people than up to three other gods-in-training.
From here, players are meant to carve out their own story by interacting with the people, earning their faith through whatever means they wish, preserving or destroying their pagan worship, and ultimately coming out on top.
This is admittedly a unique way to approach the usual God Game gamut of having primitive worship fuel your powers and doing whatever after the fact. It would’ve been great had the game’s delivery of the concept been something more than a prayer tossed in the wind.
The Training Wheels of Divinity
Discussing Fata Deum’s gameplay in detail now, I wish to make one thing clear from the beginning, before we get into the nitty-gritty of it all. This is a game in progress. Every critique I’m about to give is in full recognition of that fact. I also want to establish that I fully expect this game to improve in time, and that the criticism will only be about the game’s fundamental aspects that are unlikely to change without taking the game’s identity with it.
Okay, with that out of the way, let’s begin with the bits that make sense, because what’s left makes up the bulk of my problems with Fata Deum’s gameplay. As a god, you have access to a suite of various powers, ranging from the simple tugging of heartstrings and manipulation of nightmares with the "Spread Love" and "Incite Fear" powers, respectively, to the literal creation of matter and manifestation of divine will as forces of nature.
To fuel these powers, you must spend a resource called Mana, which is generated through worship, which, in turn, you can get by using your powers in the first place. It’s a positive feedback loop of spending resources to get resources, and these actions are all made possible through your faithfulness.
Your subjects can either learn to fear or love your power. Either way, they’ll make Mana and do your bidding, particularly when you use your other powers to do anything from inciting war against other heretics, destroying pagan artifacts, or just straight up telling them to build things.
All of these, you do in service to the missions given to you by the Fates, which are the ultimate goal of your existence, at least in this stage of your fledgling godhood. Fulfill 8 missions from the Fates before the other gods-in-training do, and you’ve proven yourself worthy of ascending to full godhood eternally. Now, these missions can range from simple prayer fulfillment to entire projects that require extensive planning ahead to accomplish. Either way, you have everything at your disposal to make them so…or at least you should.
For all the godly power you are given to fulfil an otherwise simple, if not tedious goal, you’re not given the knowledge you need to use them.
God’s Machinations are Too Confusing for Us Mortals
Credit where it probably isn’t due, not knowing how to use your own powers really helps sell the notion that we’re some newborn deity. That said, it’s awful for a god game, and it doesn’t make it any easier that the tutorial is somehow both clunky and devoid of any helpful information apart from the obvious.
Camera controls—check. Learning how to earn your first followers—a great place to start. Earning and using mana—a great thing to learn early. Building things using your powers and assigning followers to them—a bit of a jump, but following so far. Levelling up your powers—some things about building weren’t covered, and we’re already moving on. You’ve got another god to worry about, so make sure you finish Fate’s missions—and you lost me.
That’s the game’s tutorial in a nutshell. You go from basic camera controls to "There’s your opponent, good luck!" in record time, leaving so many things up in the air and unexplained. Sure, they are explained later, but you’re ill-equipped to get that far in the first place, making every playthrough quite the slog if you do manage to sleuth out what every unexplained stat is supposed to mean, like I did.
Optimization Hell
As if not being equipped with the knowledge to play the game well weren’t enough, the game itself is an unoptimized purgatory of 3D space. I like the scale of the island and the various perspectives it allows you, selling the omniscient POV you’re supposed to have, but the rest of this landscape is just a pain to look at and experience.
Clunky animations, weirdly generated terrain, and an admittedly unflattering and unintuitive UI all come together to create something worse than the sum of its parts.
Complete Lack of Clarity
The biggest thing holding Fata Deum’s otherwise serviceable premise—apart from what I’ve already mentioned—is just how lost it seems. It’s comparable to how lost it makes me feel, because between myself and the devs, there doesn’t seem to be any direction to speak of here.
I neither feel the absolute power of a god nor the limitations of a god-in training. I only feel the drag of trying to understand what the heck I’m supposed to be doing and how I’m meant to do it, while the game itself is seemingly working against me. There’s no entertainment or appeal to be had here, just the motions of a game and the suggestion of a sandbox.
A Long Road Ahead for Fata Deum
All early access titles have roads ahead of them to full release, but I believe Fata Deum’s will be longer than most. More than the weird UI, unnerving but charming enough visuals, and unclear entertainment value, this game has a few cornerstones to move around still, like the progression of its tutorial, the implementation of tooltips, and a clearer vision for what the game’s supposed to accomplish overall.
I ask—nay, I pray—that Fata Deum will see the light eventually, because I love god games, and I think it has potential still. For the time being, though, there continues to be darkness in this beginning.
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Fata Deum Product Information
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|
| Title | FATA DEUM |
|---|---|
| Release Date | September 15, 2025 ( PC Early Access) |
| Developer | 42 Bits Entertainment |
| Publisher | Aerosoft GmbH |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Genre | Strategy, Simulation, God Game |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Fata Deum Website |
