Fate: Undiscovered Realms

"The FATE you know and love, only better."

If you've ever played the original FATE, you'll know what to expect - dungeon-crawling, monster-slaying, and saving the town from a big monster. That holds true to FATE: Undiscovered Realms, but this time with a bigger, broader, and all around better game.

GAMEPLAY - 9/10
Fate is a fun and surprisingly deep game, but unfortunately it's basic idea (go into a dungeon and kill a monster) has been used so many times it gets pretty old pretty quick. But it's still good, with a game that can be easy or very, VERY difficult. It all depends on your difficulty level and how deep you want to go. And with over 2 billion floors, you can go deep!

STORYLINE/PLOT - 6/10
The story of Undiscovered Realms picks up where the original Fate left off - you come out of the dungeon, collect your rewards, and are drawn into defeating another boss deeper in the dungeon by an old man. Again, this story is used to many times in other games, so it's not as exciting. And once you actually start the game, there's no sudden twists - no good guy turns out to be an enemy spy, no one dies - it's just go into the dungeon and come back to town to restock your supplies. Fun your first play, but boring afterwards.

REPLAY VALUE - 9/10
I haven't seen many dungeon-crawlers that I've really wanted to play again, but Fate: Undiscovered Realms is an exception. Every time you complete the game, you want to play it again on the next difficulty, or go down farther in the dungeon, or see what items you can find - in short, there are many reasons to want to start over.

GRAPHICS AND SOUNDS - 7/10
Surprisingly, the graphics aren't that bad. You can almost see the fury and blood-thirsty rage in a Jackal Fiend's eyes, and the faces on the townspeople and beasts. The graphics could be better, but a game with so many things happening at the same time that still shows everything in crystal-clear precision is a keeper. The sounds, however, leave much to be desired. Often, all you'll here is the clang of metal against flesh, and the screeches and moans of a dying monster. And that's about it. Even the town music gets old fast! I often find myself playing with the volume on mute, just so my head doesn't hurt for three hours afterward. And yes, it HAS happened before.

OVERALL SCORE - 8/10
All in all, FATE: Undiscovered Realms is a great game. A couple things could be improved in preperation for Fate 3, but there's many more things that make it great. Go out and buy it, for, 'it is your FATE, adventurer? Will you meet it?'

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/08

Game Release: Fate: Undiscovered Realms (US, 05/14/08)