Fate: Undiscovered Realms is the expansion to the sleeper hit, Fate, created by Travis Baldtree’s WildTagent games which if you own a newer HP with Vista, you have definitely heard of, as your rig came with quite a few of their demos preinstalled.  This time around the small company has enlisted the talents of a French development team to create this perfunctory expansion to their Diablo clone from 2005.  While the game adds lots of extra levels and monsters, it lacks any substantial addition to character development, items and core gameplay.

     Not that this game really needs a greater diversity of items.  The weapon and armor types run the typical fantasy array from all sorts of pole arms, missile weapons, swords, axes, blunt weapons, robes, chain and plate mail, shields, gloves, boots and of course bracelets and charms.  These have such an absurd range of possible abilities, from different types of elemental effects and protection to Diablo-esque item and gold finding multipliers and Knockback, speed and all the requisite attribute enhancers.  The chance of finding the same item twice, even after a couple of play-throughs, is rare.  This can be frustrating if you are specialized in a certain type however and can’t seem to find a choice version of your liking.  Gems can be added to items, but their abilities are secondary types and rather weak.  Undiscovered Realms offsets this flaw with a an NPC who will, for a price, depending on how powerful your item already is, add a random enchantment to whatever piece of equipment you give him.  This has a fun gambling element and you can really end up with some insane items. One thing that did disappoint me though, was the lack of any new spells, which baffles me as the selection in the original was a tad lacking, with only two element types represented in the offensive lineup. Also, why no more summon spells, especially since we have a large new set of monsters to battle in this expansion?

     With two new dungeons to delve into, each has its own unique new set of monsters to go with the environment in the dungeon.  The jungle- type dungeon has various mutant bipedal animals, like badgers, and insect types such as roaches, bees and ants, as well as some stranger beasts modeled after D & D types including illithid, treants, displacer beasts and even a few unknown to a veteran tabletop role-player like myself.  The other dungeon is ice-themed and along with a new undead type (think skeletal valkyrie) has some crystalline beasts, Frost giants and some Lovecraftian style creatures.  In addition to all this, many of your favorites from the original game show up in the later levels.  After these first two levels are cleared, by defeating their respective gigantic bosses introduced to you at the start of the game, a third level will unlock, containing all the dungeon set types from the expansion and original as well as the original along with the full bestiary from Fate and UR as well.  This final dungeon will have its own, special boss.  While having all these new dungeons is great, the fact that the monster experience levels in them are scaled to the floor number can make the lower levels a real snore.  So when you enter the final dungeon, with your 60th level character, you are going to be massacring your way through sixth level Goblins and oozes.  This is the case with the introductory Jungle and Ice stages as well, and I recommend alternating between them as you progress through the game, especially if you have ported an uber-potent character from your original game.

     Importing characters will retain all their items, as will your pet, but your treasure chest will not go with you, so put what you can into you and your pet’s inventories.  The mechanic of starting a new character, who is the son or daughter of your previous character, with an extra level and one heirloom, is intact, and so are all the gameplay mechanics of your pet.  Also, there are more fish-types to feed your companion, based on the new monster types, but one will stand out as the clear choice because of its raw boost to your pet’s abilities.  Still, it’s always fun to have a buddy in the dungeon to help you fight, run errands back to town, and carry an extra load of loot.  This is one of Fate’s best qualities.

     Another quality of the original that I really enjoyed and I know I am probably standing alone on this one, was the hyper-cheesy music which ranged from bouncy folk tunes to a little less bouncy, folk tunes.  Well, if that music made you want to crush baby squirrels in your bare hands, then have no fear, mediocrity is here.  It’s not that the music is terrible this time, I just found it forgettable. But it is certainly less-intrusive, and if you hated the original, then this is probably good news.  Also less quirky are the monster models, while still very cartoony, aren’t quite as charming and over the top as some of their earlier brethren, though they certainly fit in the game, and definitely aren’t terrible.  The dungeons hit another graphical downgrade, in that you really expect something, especially with Jungle worlds, which in this range from swamps to forests to an amazingly monotype bee hive.  Again, not awful, just not as good as in Fate.

     What this all boils down to is, if you think new monsters and new dungeons would jump start your old fate addiction, then you might as well hop in, but if you are absolutely sick of that game, and would need more character development options to get you going, then skip it.  Or if you haven’t played Fate, and are dying for some click-fest gameplay while you wait in agony for Diablo 3, you may want to grab this baby as it is bundled with the original game and inexpensive.  I picked mine up at Best Buy for $15 and I am sure it’s cheaper now.  With its customizable character progression (you choose, fighter summon mage, archer offensive mage, cleric-archer etc. etc.), high replayability (dungeon floor plan and quests are generated randomly every new game), and pet mechanic (you pick a dog or a cat, which can later be transformed into powerful monsters who fight with you), Fate is a solid action RPG, but make sure you can stomach cartoony graphical styles and a really light tone.

                                                                                   -jr

SCORE: 5.5 Mediocre and a Half