A worthwhile experience for anyone who's into a good dungeon crawler.
Fate comes as the solution for the problem. Very similar in look and feel to the style of Neverwinter Nights, Fate is an action/adventure RPG that is basically your typical hack and slash dungeon crawler. What sets it apart is the fact that you can save and quit anywhere and whenever you feel like.
Combining the goodness of great RPG titles with the convenience of casual gaming, Fate is the perfect game for gamers who don't have much time to play but still want to enjoy something more than just puzzle or quick card games.
Alex St. John, Wild Tangent's CEO, stated that "With the introduction of Fate, we are ushering in a new category of gaming and, for the first time, bringing together the best characteristics of what has historically been two separate and distinct gaming markets." He added: "Fate provides PC gamers with all the enjoyment of traditional PC retail titles, yet without the time commitment and experience demands previously associated with games of this magnitude."
In a matter of minutes, you can download, install and start playing. Creating a character takes only a few clicks. Pick the sex, face, hairstyle and a pet cat or dog to accompany you in your travels and give both a name. You then pick one of four difficulty levels (Page, Adventurer, Hero and Legend), and you're ready to go.
The Town of Grove will be your home base. The NPCs here will give you quests, heal you, sell you armor, weapons and magic items. You also have a deposit box where you can keep things for later use. To find a quest, look for someone with an exclamation mark over their heads.
You can have up to three active quests at a time in the quest menu. Once you have found the first three, head out to the large gates and enter the dungeon. The dungeon is packed with monsters, treasures and some magical artifacts that can give you stat bonuses, refill your HP or magic, treasure or enchant your weapons.
You will soon find out that your pet isn't just good for helping you fight. Since your inventory space is pretty limited, you will want to move items over to your pet's inventory, especially things you don't want. You can then send the pet to town, where it will sell all the items and bring you back the respective amount of gold. Nifty trick, isn't it?
You can also change your pet's appearance and stats temporarily by feeding him fish. You can find fish as you kill monsters or open chests, but the best way is to purchase a fishing pole and find bodies of water with fireflies around, both in town or in the dungeon levels. That means you have a fishing spot there. Different fishes have different special properties that will transform your pet into other creatures and give him stat boosts for the duration of the process. Quite handy!
Pets can also equip a necklace and a pair of rings, so if you find some extra ones with bonuses, instead of selling them, give them to your faithful companion.
Items you find sometimes need to be identified, so it's a good idea to buy a book of identification in town. Identifying an item will reveal its properties and increase its selling price. Keep in mind that items with sockets mean you can attach different gems to them in order to increase their properties. Enchanting items will give them an extra socket.
As you progress through the dungeon and gain levels, you will notice that you have two kinds of advancement: attributes and skills. Attributes are your stats (vitality, strength, dexterity and magic). Skills imply your proficiency with spells and weapons. Every level, you earn a number of attributes and skill points to distribute amongst them.
When your level is high enough to complete the main quest, you will then be given the option to retire your character. This means you won't be able to play it anymore, but you will have a descendant of that character to play with. Descendants have the advantage of gaining a level automatically at the start of the game, and to gain extra fame based on their lineage. You can also pass down one of your items to your descendent, like an inheritance, and that item will have a 25% improvement rate when handed down.
Fate is an original concept for a hack and slash action/RPG, with gameplay that will appeal to both hardcore and casual gamers. Give it a try and download the demo at the official site.
One town and a single dungeon spanning through infinite levels, no class restrictions, a simple interface and the ability to save anywhere anytime make it a worthwhile experience for anyone who's into a good dungeon crawler.
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