A Cult Classic Returns!
It’s back, and it’s looking better than ever! FATE: Reawakened is a remastered collection of all four FATE titles released between 2005 and 2011, delivering a fresh experience for fans – this time on the Xbox Series X. This includes FATE, FATE: Undiscovered Realms, FATE: The Traitor Soul, and FATE: The Cursed King.
With updated visuals – featuring ambient occlusion, directional lighting, HD textures, and full language localization – FATE: Reawakened is the definitive version of this classic ARPG franchise. But the question remains: how far will you tempt fate?
A Niche Following
The FATE series has built a sizable cult following over the years, supported by an active community that encourages exploration and light-hearted competition.
Right away, players will know whether this is their kind of game. It’s a classic ARPG through and through, with the main objective being to descend deeper into procedurally generated dungeons, collect loot, and upgrade your character. How you approach this is entirely up to you – and that’s part of what makes the gameplay so compelling.
That said, it can be a bit of a grindfest. Each title takes around 20–25 hours to complete, and the loop can start to feel repetitive if you’re not already a fan of this kind of gameplay. But for those who do enjoy the grind, you’re getting serious value for your money.
If you don’t enjoy repetitive mechanics or long-term character building, FATE: Reawakened won’t change your mind. However, if this is your jam, it offers some of the best looting and dungeon-crawling in the genre – complete with massive dungeon layers and a very welcoming, enthusiastic community.
Intrinsic Dungeons and Variable Enemies
The highlight of the FATE franchise has always been its dungeons – especially in the original game, where their size can be truly staggering. Later games in the collection shrink the dungeons slightly, but they remain impressively intriguing and complex.
Sometimes, the dungeons are genuinely fun to explore, offering high-tier rewards and loot. Other times, they can be confusing and slightly overwhelming. I’ll admit, I got completely lost more than once – especially when low on stamina and being chased by hordes of enemies that will not leave you alone! It’s stressful… but in a good way. It creates tense, exciting gameplay that can be quite rewarding.
The grind can ease a bit once you level up, but progression is tightly tied to gear and XP. Until then, you’ll often hit a wall where you’re forced to grind before tackling deeper floors which swiftly turns into a chore.
Enemy variety is solid across all four titles, and there’s enough differentiation between dungeon levels to keep things feeling fresh for most of the experience, enhanced by the procedural approach to level designs.
Fishing Forms A Welcome Break From The Action
In each game there are areas that act as a centre hub, where the player returns from their dungeon expeditions. This is where they can interact with other NPCs, sell their gear and purchase new items.
They make for a relaxing pitstop from the frantic action and really nail that fantasy town/village vibe. It’s in these areas that the updated visuals really shine, with beautifully saturated colours and shimmering water in the fresh dynamic lighting. The gloomy dungeons don’t quite manage to capture that same atmosphere.
It’s also in these areas where players can participate in the fishing mini game. Not only does this actually have a practical benefit, from feeding pets to selling for money, it’s also just a nice way to pass the time in a relaxing way. That being said, there’s not a whole lot of detail that revolves around the fishing mechanic – you simply press a button to cast your line, and press another button when a fish bites. It would have been nice to either introduce an updated mechanic where some skill is involved, or go the Old School Runescape route and make it completely idle-friendly.
Combat Isn’t All That Entertaining
Where exploration and enemies are great, the same can’t be said for the combat mechanics. It doesn’t go much deeper than repeatedly pressing one or two buttons. The exception is managing spells which are some of the most powerful forms of combat in the game. But once again, this is just pressing a button to cast them.
The most intricate part of combat comes in the form of inventory management and assigning shortcuts to weapons and spells. Players can swap between two main loadouts, allowing for some experimenting with different weapon pairing and equipment, as well as spells. It’s standard real-time, click to attack combat that never feels very exciting or engaging.
The combat remains largely the same across all four titles and it gets repetitive before the end of the first one. Each game manages to feel more fluid than its predecessor, but the core combat mechanics remain exactly the same. It’s a bit disappointing that there was no innovation between each release, and that this remastered package hasn’t seized the opportunity to make some changes.
Flexible Characters Allow For Experimentation
Another of the core features of the FATE franchise is its lack of classes and completely open character progression. It’s nice to just be able to level up your character however you like, choosing which stats to improve as and when, and have total freedom over what gear and weapons to equip. There aren’t any class-restricted items or features which means anyone can use anything (as long as you meet the required stats – which inevitably requires more grinding)!
Unfortunately, there’s not a proper respec system which feels like a seriously missed opportunity. If you regret putting that hard earned XP into a specific stat there’s no way of taking it back and putting it into something else. Again, this is a major feature that the remaster missed out on including, which is a bit of a shame.
The unique descendants feature is a great element that adds further immersion to the world, and provides a nice opportunity to keep things feeling fresh. Whenever players reach the main dungeon objective in each title they can choose to retire their characters, which means a descendant will instead be created to replace them.
These descendants inherit special items or loot, as well as gold, ultimately making each next character even stronger. It’s a great feature that not only increases replayability but also forces you to make decisions based on what future characters will receive.
A Somewhat Mediocre Update
Given that FATE fans have been starved for new titles, or anything at all for that matter, since 2011, FATE: Reawakened had a lot riding on it. Unfortunately, aside from its updated visuals, it just doesn’t feel like it adds enough to warrant its existence.
There is a charm in its simplicity, and the general gameplay certainly has an appeal. However, this remaster doesn’t take any risks or introduce any new mechanics. If you’re looking for a chill, loot-heavy dungeon crawler with a cozy, old-school vibe, FATE: Reawakened is probably worth the dive. If that’s not your style then there’s a lot left desired.
It’s tricky to know exactly what Wild Tangent are planning here. Are they testing the waters to see how this performs and getting ready for a new release in the franchise, or did they just want to give the fans who had been clamouring for a new entry something to chew on? Either way, FATE: Reawakened can be a very entertaining, challenging, infuriating and boring game all at the same time.
I’ll leave that to you to decide whether or not that sounds like a good thing.
Important Links
Revisit a Classic: FATE: Reawakened Launches on Consoles and PC – https://www.thexboxhub.com/revisit-a-classic-fate-reawakened-launches-on-consoles-and-pc/
Buy FATE: Reawakened on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/fate-reawakened/9p11z5r7p83f
