choose your fate

When people get excited for a game like Oblivion, it gives me hope. It's a single-player RPG released during a period of RPG development where if it's not massively multiplayer, it's not important. It'd be like a step backwards, right? Last year wasn't a great year for games overall, but it was also pretty poor for RPGs. Even I spent most of 2005 binging on World of Warcraft, dragging myself away from it long enough to play through Dungeon Siege II. Which incidentally, has been named best (only?) RPG of 2005 by many media outlets. What struck me as noteworthy was that Wild Tangent's FATE was named runner-up to PC Gamer's RPG of the Year. The same year where the genre was obliterated by a single MMORPG kept out of the running only because it was released in 2004. Granted it's quite the feat to receive that much attention as an independently published title, but that doesn't mean it's a good game.

After playing the three dungeon level demo last year, I wrote FATE off as a clone of Darkstone rather than lazily comparing it to Diablo. The distinction being that it was a clone of a clone, boiling out everything that made its inspiration interesting. My initial impressions were correct after adventuring through seventeen more levels, though now I have more to say about it.

I played Darkstone because I was waiting for Diablo II. Having a dungeon hack in three dimensions was an added benefit, and in hindsight was the more attractive option when seen next to Diablo II's 256 colors locked at 640x480. But the game itself was mind-numbing in its execution. Watching stats increase and getting new gear to ultimately defeat some arbitrary enemy was dreadfully uninspiring. Diablo II had a more interesting setting, and had you going after your character from the previous game with new areas to explore and an entirely redesigned set of classes. How cool was that?

Similar to Darkstone, FATE takes the familiar click-kill-loot formula made famous by Diablo and brings it into three dimensions. Though some could argue this has already been done by many more MMORPGs since, but I'm talking about single-player RPGs for now. FATE has a great engine that is used to create a very unique looking game world that doesn't rely on drab tones or "gritty" artwork to convey the medieval setting. The detail on the character and monster models is quite amazing, and overall I think the engine itself is probably FATE's biggest strength. However.

The game is reduced to its basic principles within the first two hours of play. In an endless loop, you are asked to kill monsters or retrieve items for gold and experience. What has devotees of FATE head over heels is seemingly limitless replayability through randomness. The quests and dungeon levels in FATE are randomly generated every time you play the game. The obvious problem with randomly generated quests and maps is that they've been designed by your computer. This means that the quests are disjointed, having no link between them except the acquisition of more experience and better items (the rewards for quests are also randomly generated). The ensuing dungeon layouts aren't exactly convenient, either. Navigating the multitude of dead end corridors, giant areas joined by a single narrow passageway, and annoyingly abstract looping caverns is a significant part of the game. The theme of each dungeon level is random, too. You can go down through catacombs, lava pits, ancient ruins and then back to catacombs. Even though Diablo's levels were randomly laid out, there was at least a visible progression towards Hell, the lowest levels of the church. The monsters are also random, with their only commonality being their character level. As a result, some of the monsters just felt out of place: on the lava pit levels, I could count on encountering a mob of Frost Beetles before I would see a fire elemental. Though at least the monsters dropped weapons that they were actually carrying - a feature that is strangely absent from most RPGs.

As a time waster, FATE easily succeeds, because by being so random it requires little thought on the part of the player. Though this also makes it less engaging, and as a result I felt detached from my character. There is no story in FATE; you are dropped into a small village and asked to slay a randomly rolled monster waiting on the lower levels of the town's dungeon. Until then, there are items to loot and stats to watch increase. Yay? Where this whole concept could have worked is a multiplayer mode, which wasn't included. Co-operative pickup games would be incredbly easy, because there are no story-based quests that you would have to worry about having in common with the people you played with (which was the case with everyone except power levelers in Diablo II).

While FATE shares many of the mechanical aspects of Diablo, Diablo actually worked because there was an over-arching story. The town was a believable place corrupted by what lay at the lowest level of the church. You didn't know what was waiting, but you knew it was bad from talking to the NPCs and completing related quests. There was a goal in sight. Not simply the insipid task of slaying a dragon, but to be the saviour of a town gripped by fear. In FATE, you don't feel like you need to get through the dungeon. It's just kind of...there.

Which basically leaves the only thing under the player's control: their character. FATE has a decent amount of options for choosing a character's appearance, but there's something about the overly cute character design that makes your adventurer look like he was a kid playing dress-up if you choose to have a beard. FATE uses a classless system for character development, meaning you can spend points wherever you want in the standards (STR, DEX, VIT, INT) and in a series of passive skills increasing proficiency with weapon types, critical strikes or the potency of combat magic. While this is being hailed as a brilliant design, I think classes were simply left out for convenience. No classes means no balancing - it's easier to let the player plug in numbers and figure out for themselves their character sucks when it's too late. Diablo's classes only determined the starting stats. You could still create a fighter/mage by learning from spell books found in the dungeon, but it took a shrewd player to balance spending the points. This was changed in Diablo II, which implemented a skills system for each class and a more obvious dividing line between them.

FATE's classless progression may give the illusion of freedom, but you basically only have two options: fighter or spellcaster. The game gets too hard to be able to maintain a Fighter-Mage and expect to get very far. Even then you'll have to level up as a fighter at first to get the gold to buy spells (the scroll drops are infrequent at best) and the associated mage gear. The system just isn't as deep as it seems. Depending on which route you take, you're stuck levelling up two or three passive skills because that's the only way they'll prove beneficial. There's no need to take proficiencies in multiple weapon types, because the weapons all seem to get better at the same rate. That is, there wasn't a time when an axe was ever better than a sword. Diablo II's Barbarian class does the same thing, and it was pretty pointless to bother levelling up more than one weapon skill when you can stick with one and be more powerful with it.

In an interesting twist to the experience grind, killing "special" monsters and completing quests also gives you Renown. This increases your reputation through levels like "Unknown" to "Local Hero". Along with a fancy label added to your character name, it also allows access to better magic items, depending on your rating. What would have rounded out this feature is cheaper prices at the vendors depending on your fame, or access to more lucrative quests.

FATE also gives you an animal companion to join the adventure, with the choice of a domestic cat or a dog. Feeding your pet different types of fish that can be purchased or caught in the dungeon's many er...pools...will cause them to temporarily change form and deal out (and absorb) more damage, but they will never die. Having an animal sidekick that was useful as an off-tank with some decent attacks was my favorite part of playing a Hunter in World of Warcraft. But FATE goes a step further, and allows you to outfit your pet with charms. Best of all, you can pack your pet up with items and send it back to town to sell them, leaving you free to continue slaying monsters. Okay, so maybe FATE has two strengths.

Many reviews made a point of distinguishing FATE's audience, calling it "the greatest [only?] RPG designed for casual gamers." Perhaps they're correct in doing so, because in the end FATE is simply another Bejeweled or similarly noncommittal game that does its best to impersonate an RPG with impressive visuals and an open character development system. However it's hardly roleplaying; it's more like gaming at its most inconsequential. But at least you don't have to pay every month to play it.