Getting closer to the NetHack ideal.

User Rating: 7.8 | FATE PC
By PikeWake | Review Date:
Way back in the earliest days of computer gaming there was this game called "NetHack". Based on an even older game named "Rouge, it was an almost infinite random dungeon crawl with ASCII graphics (your character was represented by an "@"), no sound except for the occasional beep when you filled up the input buffer, and a very unforgiving system that didn't allow you to load save games when you got killed. Sounds like fun? It was, and still is! The amount of thought put in to this seemingly simplistic game and its descendants is amazing. Almost anything you could think of doing was possible, or at least possible to attempt. There was tons of jokes and obscure references built into the game, and it was also highly addictive.
What has all this to do with FATE, then? Well, the game gets compared a lot to DIablo, which is inevitable I guess, but I really think that FATE is one of the better attempts to transfer some of the magic of NetHack into the modern gaming world. This doesn't mean that FATE is anywhere near as complex as NetHack or Angband or any of the other Rouge-clones, but I immediately got the familiar "Just another level"-feeling I used to get playing NetHack. The fact that you get an animal companion to escort you on your adventure, is another feature straight from NetHack.
The graphics are good, if somewhat "cute". Unfortunately, detailed graphics isn't always a good thing in this type of game. When you're in a fight with several creatures on both sides, targeting can be hard, since all the critters tend to blur together.
The sound is the only thing that I don't like about this game. The sound effects are extremely repetitive and some of your animal companions make their characteristic noises so loudly and so frequently that you'll probably want to turn it off immediately. A summoned pack of timber wolves is probably nice to have around, but six of them howling all the time made me wish for summoned moths or cotton balls...
The random and open ended system gives the game great replay value, even though some skills and attributes are so much more useful than the others that you might find that your characters at least partly look a bit alike. The "main" quest is somewhat disappointing. The first time I finished it i wouldn't even have noticed if it wasn't for the pop up dialog that told me so. Without giving away too much I can say that there is a definite benefit of finishing the game, though, especially if you want to create a new character and try again.
Apart from the flaws mentioned above I would say that this is a really fun and entertaining game, that I'll probably play a couple of hours now an then for quite some time. It's not NetHack - not even close - but it's getting closer.

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