Fate

"Pure Genius"

This game is pure genius. It takes basically the basic play engines from Diablo I and II and combines them into an incredible dungeon crawler. Not to mention it's only $20.

Storyline: None really, Each time you start the game, it picks a random dungeon floor between 45 and 50 and creates a named monster on it. Your goal is to get there and slay the monster. Pretty basic. Quests are random as well, most of the time you will be told goto a certain level of the dungeon and slay this monster, or retrieve this item.

Playability: 10/10 This is where the game shines. They took the simplicity of the Diablo games and expanded greatly. One of the best things to do in the game is Fish. This accomplishes two things, first, it can give you fish which you feed to your pet to transform him into creatures for short periods of time which allow him to do a great amount of damage. The second, is that occasionally you will get a Rare item, not normally just any rare item either. Usually something you can sell for 40-60K in gold. The most I've seen pulled out as an item was 1.7 Million gold. The game also has a ton of different items, and more spells then you have slots for. Also, the skill-point system is simple and easy to use.

Re-playability: 10/10 Because the are new enemies at the bottom each time, and the dungeon floors are randomly generated each new game, you can play over and over and not get the same experience.

Graphics: 10/10 The game is a bit "cute" looking, but is still pretty good. It's got standard graphics that you would expect from the Top-down Role-Playing game.

Overall: This game is one of those rare gems that everyone who likes RPGs should have. The main lacking feature is on-line play, but since the game is $20 and you don't need the CD to play, this is easily overlooked. I know I've had hours of fun having a bunch of friends come over, pick a floor, and then race to see who can get to that floor first by starting a new character. I'd suggest that everyone try to get a copy, because not many games like this come around too often.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/29/07