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Important note — the full version of Fate #1 comes as part of this game! If you don’t have either Fate game, this is the one to buy.
This game is basically Fate #1, but requiring more mouse clicks and equipment with elemental resistances (they pushed magic in this game, it was weaker in the first). Instead of one normal dungeon, you have two realms. A forest realm with an insect theme and an ice realm with arctic creatures. You need to defeat a boss in each of these realm dungeons before the ‘normal’ dungeon (copied directly from the first fate) opens up, containing some of the new monsters from the realms.
What I mean by ‘more clicking’ is the realms aren’t designed well at all. Your stash and the enchanter only exist in the ice realm, but each realm has two characters which exist only to take out gems, and these characters are centrally located so you accidentally talk to them. The healer in the forest realm is off to the side and surrounded by tree stumps, which are at the exact angle for your character to get stuck behind on the walking approach. It’s truly annoying because if you are doing the forest realm, you don’t want to go to the ice realm and hit four screens of loading just to visit your stash.
Also, because of the way the dungeons scale, you’ll have to keep going back and forth between the realms on the ‘higher’ difficulty settings (I played on hero), since the monsters can become too much for you to handle.
The other annoying thing about the game was when you unlock the ‘final’ dungeon, suddenly all the NPC only give quests for the ‘final’ dungeon, and not their realms anymore, restarting at level one. I ended up blowing through the first 20 levels of the ‘final’ dungeon in one sitting (without realizing this), so did without quests for the last few hours of the game. This wasn’t very fun.
As far as I could tell they kept the same equipment from the first game. They added more fish types, but all the new pets walk so slowly they are essentially useless in combat. They also added ‘fate’ cards, where if you are lucky to find 3 cards, you give them to a fortune teller. The rewards are useless, usually normal gems or 4000 gold. A big letdown. Oh, and there are two new types of quests. A hunt down ‘multiple moving objects’ quest that gets old after doing it once, and shrines. I liked the shrines until I realized the firewall spell answered the defending/attacking dilemma perfectly. Then it was just waiting one minute while spamming the spell.
Overall, this game takes a LOT longer to finish the the original fate with not much added. So if you are heirlooming up items for deep-delving, you are better off playing the first game and only importing your character if you want to try the ice or forest dungeon as a change of pace.
Personally, I found it less fun than the first fate. You do get the first game with the second one, so if you don’t have the first one, getting the second one is a good package deal.
Additionally I want to mention I had tons of installation problems with this software. My operating system is Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit. My system kept seeing my purchased CD as a ‘backup’ disk and demanding I insert the ‘real’ CD. This wasn’t fun to fix.
Rating: 3 / 5
I love Fate. But then again, this game feels like I played the original Fate more or less 3 times in order to finish the game. Which is basically what happens. You have to conquer 3 dungeons in order to finish the final boss, where then you have the option to retire. Other than a few minor additions – like hero artifacts, slightly different themes for two of the dungeons, a unique boss at the end, and a better balanced system than the original fate (the original fate, favored fighters I think more than other types of “classes” – such as mage or archer), it basically was the same go down in the dungeon, escort this guy, kill this guy, or find these things type of errands that were exactly in the first version of Fate. Whether or not you consider this a good thing or not depends on how much you like fate and don’t mind playing it over and over again.
Rating: 4 / 5
Expanding upon the very diabloesque Fate comes Undiscovered Realms. The same style of play as long as you want RPG. Various realms to explore, new monsters, dungeon scenery and weapons. The play is the same as fate, but there are main missions (to kill a level boss), plus the same style level missions, and some artifact collecting. Other new features are the tarot cards which you can collect and trade in for items (usualy gems and jewelry). You character and heirloom can transfer over from fate, or you can start again. Since you do start on level 1 of any of the new dungeons, I found it best to retire my fate character, start a new one with the updated heirloom and then transfer that character to Undiscovered Realms.
I tip of the hat to Wild Tangent for this really fun sequel.
Rating: 5 / 5
I like the hack and slash, gather loot style genre of Diablo, which is definitely repetitive, but at least Diablo had some variations in the dungeons. With Fate it’s the same dungeons, over and over and over. I stopped playing after awhile. It bored me to death.
Positive points: Fate is a good break from more micro-management action/strategy types, like Civ4 or CeasarIV. The cartoonish type style world is also a nice change.
Another concept that differs from Diablo is building your own character. Instead of starting with a pre-set character, your Adventurer starts clean, allowing you to create the character you like. Build up your sword and shield abilities to create a warrior or put all your points in magic. You can create many characters this way with no two being quite the same.
There is the pet which is a neat change and it changes form when you feed it fish, which you can catch or purchase. You can buy Fame and skill points for a hefty price. You can also remove gems from socketed items, although you lose the gems. The dying feature is a little different. You get three choices when you die. Restart in exchange for Fame points and money, be sent to another area on the map plus lose some money or be sent up 3 dungeon levels and all your money drops (you can come back for it). This is a new concept which I couldn’t quite figure if I liked! While I appreciate new concepts, I didn’t like losing the money and being sent back 3 levels, I liked even worse.
Negative points: I didn’t like that if you cleared out a level and get sent back later (or just end up going through it later for whatever reason), it not only respawns monsters, but the “fog” is reset, meaning you’re going in blind like you never were there. When you cleared a level in Diablo, the monsters may respawn, but the level remained clear.
You can only collect 3 quests at a time which adds to a lot of running back and forth to town. Also, with the pet’s inventory window plus yours, there’s a lot of keystroking. It would work better if you just had a larger backpack and none for the pet. More quick bars would be helpful. So would stackable potions. Spells are listed on the side of the screen, but only one at a time. You can program them to function keys, but once you select a spell, the others disappear. Selling items is also cumbersome. You either drop and drag or hold down the shift key. Right-clicking would be a lot better. In fact, right-clicking should have been used more than the drag/drop or shift key style.
It’s not a bad game. It’s not a great game either. Maybe good for beginning gamers. I go back to old games often when I get bored, but I doubt I’ll come back to this much.
Rating: 2 / 5
I enjoyed the original Fate, and introduced it to my grandchildren. This expands the areas to explore as well as adding more adversaries and challenges. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to be getting housework done promptly!!!!
Rating: 5 / 5
July 21st, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Important note — the full version of Fate #1 comes as part of this game! If you don’t have either Fate game, this is the one to buy.
This game is basically Fate #1, but requiring more mouse clicks and equipment with elemental resistances (they pushed magic in this game, it was weaker in the first). Instead of one normal dungeon, you have two realms. A forest realm with an insect theme and an ice realm with arctic creatures. You need to defeat a boss in each of these realm dungeons before the ‘normal’ dungeon (copied directly from the first fate) opens up, containing some of the new monsters from the realms.
What I mean by ‘more clicking’ is the realms aren’t designed well at all. Your stash and the enchanter only exist in the ice realm, but each realm has two characters which exist only to take out gems, and these characters are centrally located so you accidentally talk to them. The healer in the forest realm is off to the side and surrounded by tree stumps, which are at the exact angle for your character to get stuck behind on the walking approach. It’s truly annoying because if you are doing the forest realm, you don’t want to go to the ice realm and hit four screens of loading just to visit your stash.
Also, because of the way the dungeons scale, you’ll have to keep going back and forth between the realms on the ‘higher’ difficulty settings (I played on hero), since the monsters can become too much for you to handle.
The other annoying thing about the game was when you unlock the ‘final’ dungeon, suddenly all the NPC only give quests for the ‘final’ dungeon, and not their realms anymore, restarting at level one. I ended up blowing through the first 20 levels of the ‘final’ dungeon in one sitting (without realizing this), so did without quests for the last few hours of the game. This wasn’t very fun.
As far as I could tell they kept the same equipment from the first game. They added more fish types, but all the new pets walk so slowly they are essentially useless in combat. They also added ‘fate’ cards, where if you are lucky to find 3 cards, you give them to a fortune teller. The rewards are useless, usually normal gems or 4000 gold. A big letdown. Oh, and there are two new types of quests. A hunt down ‘multiple moving objects’ quest that gets old after doing it once, and shrines. I liked the shrines until I realized the firewall spell answered the defending/attacking dilemma perfectly. Then it was just waiting one minute while spamming the spell.
Overall, this game takes a LOT longer to finish the the original fate with not much added. So if you are heirlooming up items for deep-delving, you are better off playing the first game and only importing your character if you want to try the ice or forest dungeon as a change of pace.
Personally, I found it less fun than the first fate. You do get the first game with the second one, so if you don’t have the first one, getting the second one is a good package deal.
Additionally I want to mention I had tons of installation problems with this software. My operating system is Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit. My system kept seeing my purchased CD as a ‘backup’ disk and demanding I insert the ‘real’ CD. This wasn’t fun to fix.
Rating: 3 / 5
July 21st, 2010 at 9:04 pm
I love Fate. But then again, this game feels like I played the original Fate more or less 3 times in order to finish the game. Which is basically what happens. You have to conquer 3 dungeons in order to finish the final boss, where then you have the option to retire. Other than a few minor additions – like hero artifacts, slightly different themes for two of the dungeons, a unique boss at the end, and a better balanced system than the original fate (the original fate, favored fighters I think more than other types of “classes” – such as mage or archer), it basically was the same go down in the dungeon, escort this guy, kill this guy, or find these things type of errands that were exactly in the first version of Fate. Whether or not you consider this a good thing or not depends on how much you like fate and don’t mind playing it over and over again.
Rating: 4 / 5
July 22nd, 2010 at 12:00 am
Expanding upon the very diabloesque Fate comes Undiscovered Realms. The same style of play as long as you want RPG. Various realms to explore, new monsters, dungeon scenery and weapons. The play is the same as fate, but there are main missions (to kill a level boss), plus the same style level missions, and some artifact collecting. Other new features are the tarot cards which you can collect and trade in for items (usualy gems and jewelry). You character and heirloom can transfer over from fate, or you can start again. Since you do start on level 1 of any of the new dungeons, I found it best to retire my fate character, start a new one with the updated heirloom and then transfer that character to Undiscovered Realms.
I tip of the hat to Wild Tangent for this really fun sequel.
Rating: 5 / 5
July 22nd, 2010 at 2:01 am
I like the hack and slash, gather loot style genre of Diablo, which is definitely repetitive, but at least Diablo had some variations in the dungeons. With Fate it’s the same dungeons, over and over and over. I stopped playing after awhile. It bored me to death.
Positive points: Fate is a good break from more micro-management action/strategy types, like Civ4 or CeasarIV. The cartoonish type style world is also a nice change.
Another concept that differs from Diablo is building your own character. Instead of starting with a pre-set character, your Adventurer starts clean, allowing you to create the character you like. Build up your sword and shield abilities to create a warrior or put all your points in magic. You can create many characters this way with no two being quite the same.
There is the pet which is a neat change and it changes form when you feed it fish, which you can catch or purchase. You can buy Fame and skill points for a hefty price. You can also remove gems from socketed items, although you lose the gems. The dying feature is a little different. You get three choices when you die. Restart in exchange for Fame points and money, be sent to another area on the map plus lose some money or be sent up 3 dungeon levels and all your money drops (you can come back for it). This is a new concept which I couldn’t quite figure if I liked! While I appreciate new concepts, I didn’t like losing the money and being sent back 3 levels, I liked even worse.
Negative points: I didn’t like that if you cleared out a level and get sent back later (or just end up going through it later for whatever reason), it not only respawns monsters, but the “fog” is reset, meaning you’re going in blind like you never were there. When you cleared a level in Diablo, the monsters may respawn, but the level remained clear.
You can only collect 3 quests at a time which adds to a lot of running back and forth to town. Also, with the pet’s inventory window plus yours, there’s a lot of keystroking. It would work better if you just had a larger backpack and none for the pet. More quick bars would be helpful. So would stackable potions. Spells are listed on the side of the screen, but only one at a time. You can program them to function keys, but once you select a spell, the others disappear. Selling items is also cumbersome. You either drop and drag or hold down the shift key. Right-clicking would be a lot better. In fact, right-clicking should have been used more than the drag/drop or shift key style.
It’s not a bad game. It’s not a great game either. Maybe good for beginning gamers. I go back to old games often when I get bored, but I doubt I’ll come back to this much.
Rating: 2 / 5
July 22nd, 2010 at 2:17 am
I enjoyed the original Fate, and introduced it to my grandchildren. This expands the areas to explore as well as adding more adversaries and challenges. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to be getting housework done promptly!!!!
Rating: 5 / 5