Isometric procedural dungeon-crawler, which, despite being a slightly obscure series these days, is a surprisingly high-quality entry into the genre.
Fate is a charming little example of isometric hack-and-slash gameplay condensed into its purest form and framed in a neat little setting. Despite appearances of being a more kiddie-oriented example of the format without the gritty grimdark Diablo / Grim Dawn / Dark Souls edge of modern fantasy settings, it actually offers a hardcore gameplay experience boiled right down to the dungeon-crawling mechanics that will really appeal to those who particularly appreciate planning an combat build and carefully managing stats and figures to create an effective combat character.
To this end, Fate offers a game so devoted to the pure top-down fighting experience through fifty-or-so randomly generated arenas filled with incrementally greater opponents and better piles of loot that it avoids much in the way of plot or story whatsoever. There is no more story to be found within than a brief opening textcrawl introducing you to the starting town filled with merchant NPCs, and after that, there’s nothing - no room roleplaying, no character motivations beyond “kill the evil monsters”, and no exploration of the world or its lore beyond just being generically fantasy-medieval. Even the game’s title couldn’t go beyond four nondescript letters, but, for many fans of the isometric fighter, this won’t even matter because the combat itself is solid, the opportunities to build different combat styles from an extensive roster of skills and stats is present from the moment your game starts.
This is practically just a purely gameplay experience without gimmicks or any other bells and whistles. This may appeal to you or it might drive you off all the quicker, but either way, know that if you’re a fan of top-down dungeon-crawlers, this is a darn good one that between daring you to reach for its Steam Achievements, finishing the main goal at least once, and offering a limitless new game plus mode, even a newcomer to the genre might just be able to easily find themselves absorbed in Fate.
If this sounds decent to you, might as well give it a go, it’s fairly cheap even when it’s not on sale, and even if you end up hating its’ almost utilitarian approach to game design, you can always enjoy listening to the Celtic flute soundtrack and collecting the accompanying Steam Trading Cards.
Tentatively recommended.
