Fate is a 2005 single-player action role-playing game originally released for the PC by WildTangent. Fate was released for the PC Steam client on December 12, 2013. Three sequels—titled Fate: Undiscovered Realms, Fate: The Traitor Soul and Fate: The Cursed King—were released in 2008, 2009 and 2011 respectively.
Gameplay
Fate is a fantasy action role-playing game. This type of game is also known as a dungeon crawler, in which the player takes their character through progressively difficult levels of a dungeon, fighting monsters, completing quests, collecting valuable items and gold, and improving the character's attributes and skills along the way. The dungeon in Fate has a randomized layout for each level; treasures found within each level are randomized, as are the number and type of monsters. Fate is rendered fully in 3D, allowing the player to zoom in and out of the action as necessary; however, the camera can only be rotated selectively.
There appears to be an effectively indefinite number of levels to the dungeon.
The player is accompanied by a pet, which can initially be chosen as a dog (specifically, a terrier) or a cat. This pet fights on behalf of the player, can carry items, and can be sent back to town in order to sell unwanted findings (though it cannot collect rewards for fetch quests). If the pet's Health Points are driven down to zero (due to blows or damaging spells from enemies) it does not die, but merely flees the fight. Hence, the game's introduction describes the pet as invincible since it cannot be killed. It will still follow the character, but it will not fight until it regains some health. To fully heal their pet, the player can send it back to town, feed it healing potions or charms, or make it drink from a health fountain. The player can also transform the pet into various (and more powerful) creatures by feeding it fish, which can be caught in fishing holes found throughout the game or purchased from vendors. The time of the transformation depends on the 'size' of the fish, but a flawless fish makes the transformation permanent until the pet is fed a different fish. A "Dogfish" will make the pet return to its original form.
It is also possible to get rare items from fish. A patient player who takes time to fish can make their character very wealthy and obtain top-notch gear. There is a fishing hole in the town; by selling fish that the player catches, the player can get money for purchasing better gear before braving the dungeon. The deeper the character is in the dungeon, the better items and more powerful pet transformations they can find while angling.
Player characters
When the character gains enough experience points, they are promoted to the next character level and given five Attribute points as well as one Skill point. Increasing the four attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Vitality and Magic) allow the character to wield stronger weapons, armor and magical spells, while Skills denote proficiency at certain things (Sword Skill, Charm Magic Skill, Critical Strike Skill, etc.—there are a total of 15 different Skills). There are no set character classes in Fate, allowing maximum customization. Additionally, the player is rewarded with Fame points for completing side-quests and defeating enemy bosses, which contribute to the gaining of Fame levels. Four Skill Points are awarded for gaining a Fame level. Elite and Legendary items cannot be used until the player is at a certain Fame level. Certain items (i.e., weapons, armor, and jewelry) contain sockets, into which the player can put special gems in order to customize the item. Having sockets does not create higher requirements for using an item, although they make the item more valuable. Finally, a denizen of Grove, specifically a minstrel, can be paid to increase the character's Fame, "allowing savvy players to buy Skill points."
Non-player characters and quests
Several townspeople of Grove offer randomized side-quests to the player. These are sometimes called fetch quests (retrieving a valuable item from the dungeon), though they often require the player to kill off all enemies of a certain type on a certain level of the dungeon or dispatch an enemy boss. Upon completion of a side-quest, the player can return to the townsperson who gave it to them, and receive a reward of Fame Points, Experience Points and gold.