Fate of Late

The latest installment of the Fate series, The Cursed King was released in 2011 by WildTangent, and was preceded by Fate, Fate: Undiscovered Realms, and Fate: The Traitor Soul. A computerized role-playing game (RPG), Fate: The Cursed King is essentially a video version of Dungeons & Dragons. The former is a much simplified version, one that lacks the element of character development so enjoyable to seasoned gamers who long for more than hack and slash. But for what it intends to be, The Cursed King succeeds remarkably well.

The story lines in the Fate series are well-written and dramatically presented, with scrolling storyboards at the onset of the game, and with narration and accompanying text. Since all of the Fate games are quite intuitive, players are given the option of simply "fast-forwarding" through the introduction and jumping headfirst into the game. The premise for The Cursed King is that a pernicious hex has fallen on the desert kingdom of Ekbatan, which is the result of the inadvertent release of the ghost of T'Kala, an evil sorcerer executed by Ekbatan's king. And guess who is responsible for opening up Pandora's Box?

Three different dungeons present themselves to the intrepid adventurer: the Caverns of Living Fire, the Haunted Palace and the Crypt of T'Kala. A quest is required to gain ingress into any of the dungeons, and the saga always begins with the Caverns of Living Fire.

Various orbs, consisting of balls of colored light, float throughout the dungeons, appearing as treasure when you defeat monsters. Some orbs heal or restore manna (which you need to cast spells), but the benefit that these tiny flickers bestow is negligible. I find them to be annoying. As for monsters encountered, some are new, some are old, others repackaged, a few extinct. New to the dungeons as well are locked chests, which can only be opened with keys. The keys are sometimes found in the dungeon or more often, can be purchased from select merchants in town. The loot inside the locked chests is usually insignificant.

Fate cards have been improved in The Cursed King. In the previous two Fate offerings, these cards could be traded in town for mostly worthless gifts. But in The Cursed King, Fate cards earn you one or two extra ability points. This can really come in handy.

In three of the four playing modes, death is but an inconvenience. Page, Adventurer and Hero modes allow for resurrection, but with an experience or gold penalty. If you select Hardcore mode, you only die once. Although unlimited resurrection seems appealing, it somewhat lessens the challenge. If you simply want to start again after your unfortunate demise, you can select Quit, return to the main menu, and choose Continue Game.

Death for your henchmen is a similar predicament, but not an impossible one to overcome. When a trusty ally is reduced to zero life, administering a rejuvenation potion within 60 seconds will bring him or her just above the threshold of eternity, at which point a healing procedure is necessary to return said ally to fighting strength. However, henchmen will eventually recover from death on their own! Your pet is similarly immortal, and will temporarily "flee" when reduced to zero life, until he is healed, or goes to town and returns.

Other game additions include an extra character race, that of Imp; two new pet choices, the phoenix and the strider; henchmen for hire and interactive gaming through Facebook. I don't personally feel that the new Facebook feature is an asset; I had a Facebook account briefly and found it to be very superficial. But for some folks this is an essential add-on.

The extra species of pets is superfluous because you want to feed your pet magic fish to turn it into a more formidable fighting creature. Even the Help section of Fate: The Cursed King states: ". . .there is no difference in strength between pets, so pick the pet you like the best." The game developers should have just stuck with the two pet choices from Fate: a dog or cat.

Some tips for character survival include fishing in a safe place, such as the oasis in the northern edge of the city. Fishing is a good way to catch not only critters that can transform your pet into more powerful creatures, but also a way to gather treasure without fighting monsters. Lingering over a fishing hole in one of the three dungeons may activate part of the curse which summons the dreaded ghost of T'Kala. This is also a danger while waiting for your pet to return from town with items that you sent it to sell. I've dared to wait as long as two minutes for my pet to return, and have not encountered the reprobate revenant. But another time, the spirit appeared after about 10 seconds. And he was not happy!

Keep the map and the magnifying glass icons enabled. Without the map you can potentially wander excessively through parts of the dungeon that you have already explored. You may need to find the upstairs or downstairs, designated by blue or red arrows respectively. And the magnifying glass will help you see items and gold that you might otherwise miss.

Don't waste time at the deeper levels picking up worthless items. If you are a 30th level sorcerer with a full collection of awesome, arcane accoutrements, you would be foolish to pick up a halberd (a combination spear and battle axe), which takes up eight slots and sells for 87 gold pieces, when you could eventually collect eight magic rings, gems or amulets that individually sell for 10 times as much!

Observe how your hired help helps, if they do at all. Henchmen can be found to accompany your character on his or her dungeon forays, but you have to acquire a certain level to obtain followers. Aside from initially hiring them at a fairly expensive price, you have to fully equip them, providing them with progressively better armor and supplies if you want them to survive. Henchmen (or women) will either fanatically defend your character, fight only if attacked, or passively observe the melee and perhaps heal your character, if necessary. I once hired a pair of allies, only to discover after several dungeon outings that one of them never raised a finger to assist the party. I dismissed her, an option which is available to a player at any time. But prior to dismissing her, I stripped her of all the expensive equipment which I had purchased for her, and sold everything. At last recoup your investment!

Too many henchmen become difficult to manage. They will not turn on you, but you need to keep track of what equipment they have, which spells they know, what levels they are, and how or if they will assist you. I prefer to have one good henchmen, a pet, and maybe two or three tough, summoned monsters.

There is an ample storage chest for keeping items which you may want later, possibly a weapon or piece of armor that your character hasn't yet achieved the renown (a type of level) or ability scores to utilize. Keep them in the storage chest. Also, if you get killed in the dungeon and select the option Fate gives you: "I will heal you to full strength and transport you three levels upward, but your gold must remain here for now," you can always cash in the contents of your storage chest.

Fate: The Cursed King is a fascinating fantasy microcosm, providing hours of entertainment, and a little more ingenuity and creativity than its three predecessors. The graphics and the interface are great, the learning curve is very short, and the game requires just a little bit of ingenuity. Granted, the game is mostly brute force, as your character and party members will chop, smash and zap their way through dangerous dungeon denizens to fulfill quest after quest, striving for the ultimate goal of restoring the cursed kingdom to normalcy. You may not succeed in reaching your objective, buy you'll have a lot of fun trying.