The Fidelio Incident

Developer: Act 3 Games, LLC | Publisher: Act 3 Games, LLC | Release Date: 2017 | Genre: Adventure / Indie | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

The Fidelio Incident opens with a man named Stanley flying over the coast of Iceland with his wife, Leonore. While Stanley tells Leonore a story about his childhood, their cargo plane is struck by birds, causing the engine to catch fire. As the plane plummets to the ground, it breaks apart, and the last thing Stanley sees is his terrified wife reaching for him as her section of the plane spins past. Against all odds, Stanley survives the crash only to find himself surrounded by the burning wreckage of the aircraft. Stanley is beside himself with worry, so he is relieved when he hears Leonore’s voice on his radio. Unfortunately, the radio is damaged, and Stanley cannot respond to her, but he knows that she’s alive. She is also trapped in the wreckage, and with the freezing temperatures, Stanley knows he only has a short amount of time to get to her before it’s too late. 

While it might not be immediately apparent, The Fidelio Incident draws inspiration from Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. The connection becomes more evident as players navigate this single-player first-person thriller. This is thanks to the diary pages that Leonore urges Stanley to find and collect while he makes his way towards her. According to Leonore, Stanley must find all of them as they contain incriminating information about their past in Northern Ireland. It quickly becomes apparent that the couple has spent many years on the run after becoming involved with “The Troubles” in Ireland during the 1980s. It is also clear that the past is haunting both of them and Stanley, in particular, has some inner demons he has to face.   

The Fidelio Incident can be completed in a single session of less than three hours, so we don’t want to elaborate much more on the storyline. Suffice it to say that the story is engaging and covers a sensitive topic not often addressed in video games. From a gameplay perspective, The Fidelio Incident is best described as a walking simulator. However, the game does throw a few puzzles at players to prevent it from being a literal walk in the park. Stanley’s first goal is to make it to the top of the mountain, where thick, black smoke can be seen billowing into the sky. This is easier said than done, as the freezing temperatures mean he can only survive for about half a minute before succumbing to the cold. The Fidelio Incident is not a survival game, though, as the mountain is littered with burning wreckage and steam vents, all of which are conveniently less than thirty seconds apart. Players can safely move between these to stay warm, and they serve as checkpoints from which players can restart should they manage to die. 

Walking simulators tend to shepherd players in the right direction, and The Fidelio Incident is no exception. In addition to freezing to death if they stray too far off the correct path, the landscape has unpassable terrain and stinging jellyfish to keep players within its boundaries. Finding all the diary pages incentivizes some exploration, but these are all situated next to smoking bits of wreckage, making it easy to spot them from a distance. A few are in less obvious spots and easy to miss, but most players should be able to find the bulk of them without any trouble. It’s worth keeping in mind that the game does not have chapters or saves that can be reloaded after completing it, so players must find all the dairies in a single playthrough for the associated Steam Achievement. 

While making his way from one heat source to the next, Stanley sometimes gets a respite from the cold by venturing into the bunker complex on the island. This long-abandoned facility is the source of the steam vents on the surface and provides a short change of scenery between all the ice and snow. In addition, Stanley can also find items, such as a flashlight and climbing gear, during his journey. These items are used automatically when needed, and Stanley also has to plunge into icy cold water for a swim on a few occasions. Puzzles mostly come in the form of valves and switches that have to be activated in the correct order. While very basic, these do slow down the pace of the game, and at times, it felt like their inclusion was simply to prevent players from finishing the game too quickly.   

The Fidelio Incident runs on Unreal Engine 4 to deliver a realistic depiction of the snowy waste in which Stanley finds himself. The game does not feature a HUD, which enables players an unobstructed view of their surroundings. Should Stanley linger too long in the cold, the screen will begin to freeze over, indicating that players don’t have much time to get him to some warmth. The smoke and fire effects also look really good, while some flashback-style sequences add more variety to the visuals. 

The audio is probably the game’s highlight, with forty minutes of original music playing while Stanley makes his freezing journey. The soundtrack cleverly incorporates themes from Fidelio’s overture, but there are also stretches where the music fades away to leave players with the shivering sounds of the cold. Players who enjoy the soundtrack should definitely add it to their Steam library, as it is available for free. It is clear that the developers opted for professional voice actors, as both Stanley and Leonore deliver believable performances. Stanley’s voice actor is not afraid to inject some emotion into his screams of frustration after being thwarted by the inhospitable terrain. Leonore also voices each diary page, but we would have liked to hear some more comments by Stanley about their contents. As is the norm with walking simulators, the controls for The Fidelio Incident are straightforward. Players can walk with the WASD keys and left-click on items to interact with them. Stanley cannot jump, but holding down the SHIFT key makes him pick up his pace. 

Even though players have to deal with the cold and solve a few puzzles, The Fidelio Incident still won’t appeal to those who are not fans of walking simulators. The experience is over in less than three hours and offers no replay value beyond trying to find all the diary pages. Ironically, Stanley’s journey has a real sense of urgency, which made us prioritize getting to Leonore instead of hunting down the diary pages. The game is really about the journey, though, and not the destination, so players should take their time and find all the pages for the best experience. The game reveals enough of the story that players who miss a few pages will still know what is going on, but ideally, players will want to find all of them for the complete picture. 

Overall, we found The Fidelio Incident engrossing enough to complete it in one session, but the puzzle parts sometimes felt like a chore. Nevertheless, we couldn’t help but find ourselves drawn into the story and looked forward to each new page to learn more about Stanley and Leonore’s troubled past. While better examples of the genre are available, The Fidelio Incident attempts to stand out with its unique storyline, frigid setting, and puzzle mechanics.