Fate: The Traitor Soul is an action role-playing game developed and published by WildTangent. The game is a continuation of the popular Fate series and was released in 2009 for Microsoft Windows. The player character takes up the challenge of a mysterious Traveler in the Temple of Fate and must defeat the Nemesis along with its minion called the Phur, in the depths of a dungeon called the Chamber of Trials.
The game-play is similar to that of previous installments of the series with the addition of some new features. In addition to the human character from previous Fate games, the player also has the option to select an Orc, a Cogger (a type cyborg), or a Shadow Elf warrior as their player character and include intrinsic stat bonuses. Cosmetically different pets are included, adding a fox, boar and mechanical wasp to the original selection of dog and cat. New items such as capes and earrings are added, as are new spells and monsters. Notable interface changes include the addition of an inventory auto-sort button and the ability to switch between two sets of equipped weapons. A new Realm was also added called the Chamber of Trials. In addition to the new Chamber of Trials dungeon, the towns and dungeons from Fate: Undiscovered Realms are included in a mostly unaltered state. Also appearing in boxed versions of the game, are the town and dungeon of Grove from the first game, again in a mostly unaltered state.
The game-play of Fate: The Traitor Soul is very similar to its predecessors. Combat is real-time and takes place in dungeons and other areas throughout the game. Players can attack enemies with a variety of weapons, spells, and abilities, and they can also use their pet to assist them in combat. Each enemy defeated drops loot and experience points, which can be used to level up the player’s character and improve their skills. The deeper players go into the dungeons, the more difficult the enemies become, and the better the loot. There are many and varied quests to complete which can be found by talking to the various NPCs in the surrounding outposts as well as the Temple of Fate. Quests range from simple tasks like finding an item or defeating a particular enemy to more complex missions that involve multiple objectives. Players can also gather resources throughout the game and use them to create new items, weapons, and armor. Weapons, armor, and even jewelry can be found or bought that have sockets. These are places you can place gemstones into, and it will upgrade the item with a variety of bonuses.
The dungeons are the same as previous installments. Each dungeon is procedurally generated, meaning that no two dungeons are exactly the same. This adds a lot of replayability to the game since players will never experience the same dungeon twice. The game also has a variety of boss monsters, which require strategic thinking and careful planning to defeat.
As a casual gamer that has never cared much for dungeon crawler games or RPGs, this was the first game that I ever played in this style. I appreciate the relative simplicity that the entire fate series, but this game in particular brings. Inventory management is most certainly something that I found that I need to pay attention to. The players inventory will fill up very quickly once you pick up a couple swords and a staff or two. I found that directing your pet to pick up the weapons and shields that are dropped, and sending them to town is a great way to turn any useless drops into gold. Overall, I personally love this game. I can’t say that I have found much to criticize in this game at least not anything that is glaring. If you are like me, this is a great game to break into the dungeon crawler/RPG genre.
