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LordGek
Village Dweller
Joined: 30 Apr 2005
Posts: 1
Location: Springfield, OR |
| Fate...more than just a Diablo 2 clone? |
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Hey Gang,
Anyone here already heard about Fate?
http://www.playfate.com/
At first, by the hype (introducing the casual gamer to the world of RPGs) and the screenshots it looked like WildTangent was doing nothing more than a BLATANT Diablo 2 ripoff (I mean the interface, character screen, inventory, potion belt, socketed items, etc.), but there are at least a few unique twists going on here:
1) A Pet: Possibly in a salute to the old school game Nethack, in this game you start off with a little familiar/partner in crime pet. Not only does he level up and grow with you BUT, via some food items in the game, you can transform him temporarily (possibly even permanently in some cases) into any of the game's various creatures (Dragons, Snow Panthers, Yeti, etc.).
2) Choosing Your Fate: A big aspect that most RPGs never quite seem to handle well is character death. Its either a case of there is no other option but to simply reload your latest save point OR, like many MMPO games, death doesn't really mean much of anything and you just dust yourself off and jump back into the fray. What they've done here that's kinda cute is when you die you get three choices as to how you'd like to be resurrected. Something like either keeping all of your stuff and getting right back up where you were knocked out for a big chunk of change or getting sent back to town without some items for a lesser cost (not sure on the specifics here).
3) Monsters Can Use Items: So more than just having items drop all sorts of prizes like most Diablo clones, it sounds as if the monsters will actually be using their special magical weapons or magical wands against you.
4) Clever Heir System: While the game will let you play on as any of your character's indefinitely, after killing the big baddy of the game there probably will come a time you want to play the game at a higher difficulty level (if not as a purely masochistic endeavour, its the only way to get some of the game's rarer elite items). What this game therefore lets you do is start a new game as an heir to your previous character. This heir will get one of your items (which will even have its magical properties boosted a bit) and a few other perks (based on how many previous heroes have retired in this family line).
So while on the surface its going to look like a fluffier/cartoony Diablo clone, I'm hoping there will be more to it.
Its supposed to make the rounds May 18th for $19.95 being published by WildTangent. |
Sat Apr 30, 2005 1:26 pm |
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n0k
Village Dweller
Joined: 07 Jul 2005
Posts: 5
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yes yes, i've been playing this non stop for a week now, im really beginning to like it!
has lots of gameplay tweaks compared with diablo! some hint of dungeon crawl in there too.
the pet thing is really fun (& better than the useless d2 hireling), morphing it into different creatures, sending it to town to sell your stuff. plus it cant die, it just runs away until you heal it.
and yeah the death thing is pretty cool. 3 choices, either you loose xp and fame, or you loose a % of your gold and is transported "to a level nearby", or let your gold stay where you died and be transported 3 levels up.
havent gotten around to the heir system yet, but yes it seems cool! |
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Thu Jul 07, 2005 1:58 am |
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Arma
Mysterious Lady
Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 1230
Location: in the middle of hell |
I played the Fate demo, and while I admit it is not that much, I found it just great. The pet, and the whole randomization system, with combination to the endless dungeon and the cherry on top of everything - fishing!, it is way better than Diablo. Both of them. Probably the best pure hack-and-slash-RPG these days.
However, I cannot say that Fate is not a Diablo clone. It is just not a bad one (like plenty of other games out there that some people are trying, or at least were, a great deal of money for them) and manages to have its own identity. And polishes all the nuicances of the Diablo games. |
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Thu Jul 07, 2005 7:00 am |
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corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
Joined: 10 Jun 2002
Posts: 8376
Location: Australia |
Check out the interview I did with game developer Travis. If I can find some spare time, I'll write a review as well. I'm just snowed under trying to test Grimoire; it's such a huge game!!
_________________
If God said it, then that settles it!
I don't use Smileys, I use Emoticons!!
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Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:11 am |
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yeesh
Keeper of the Gates
Joined: 03 May 2002
Posts: 113
Location: Unofficially representing Queens |
FATE is a fun game, but you can't say it's more than Diablo-lite. I probably played too much Diablo II for my own good, because when this otherwise delightful gem FATE came on the scene, I paid my $20 and was happy for a little while, only to find that as I got further into the higher-level content of the game that it's just utterly lacking relative to DII. But of course it is, I mean it's a small effort and Diablo II was very big budget AND a sequel, but it's hard to be impressed by such a limited magic system and so few weapons. I mean, all characters play similarly, cast all the blue buffs and melee your way to victory. There are no bow special attacks, and the extra attack delay with a bow or crossbow makes the weapons novelties instead of mainstays. You can try magic after the 1.19 patch, but you'll still run into monsters who can stop you from casting any spell for 40 seconds or longer, and there's no way to dispell the effect. What's a pure mage to do then? Your pet lags behind you, and starts dying in 4 or 5 hits towards the middle of a character's career, so the only really useful forms for it are the casting ones (like that awesome-looking beholder-thing).
OTOH it is a wonderful effort for such a small team and well worth the $20 I spent. But isometric dungeon-crawling point-n-click hack-n-slash has already been done to such amazing heights that FATE just ended up making me nostalgic for DII... and wondering why Blizzard hasn't done DIII for @#$%#@'s sake. |
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Tue Jul 12, 2005 3:09 am |
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