3 
0 Fate Reawakened, maybe we should have let it sleep
It’s always exciting to see an older ARPG brought back to life, especially in an era dominated by Path of Exile 2 and Diablo 4. FATE was never the deepest or most complex dungeon crawler, but it had a certain charm—quirky pets, light-hearted adventuring, and a satisfying loot loop. With Fate Reawakened, fans get to relive that experience, but can it hold its own against modern competitors? Let us know your favourite ARPG’s Below.
Gameplay
Fate Reawakened remains faithful to the original formula—procedurally generated dungeons, real-time combat, and a flexible character progression system. Players can wield melee weapons, bows, or magic, catering their build to personal preference. The pet system is back, allowing you to choose from various companions, including fun additions like a phoenix.
However, the game quickly shows its cracks. Movement is still mouse-driven, with WASD reserved for camera control. The lack of a tutorial means new players are dumped into the world without much guidance. Stamina, a new addition, drains frustratingly fast, forcing players to stop and recover too often—an unnecessary feature that breaks immersion rather than enhances it.
The difficulty of scaling is also bizarre. Low-level characters can easily defeat high-level enemies even on hardcore mode, making combat feel weightless and unrewarding. While the procedural dungeons keep things somewhat fresh, the enemy variety is underwhelming—expect to fight rats, slimes, and goblins on repeat, with only the occasional unique monster to break the monotony.
Graphics & Audio
Visually, Fate Reawakened sits in an awkward middle ground. It looks better than the original but falls short of what a true remaster should achieve. Character models are simple, and the environmental design feels outdated, reminiscent of the Fable Anniversary remaster. Worse still, the graphical quality is uniform across all four games, meaning there’s no real progression in visual fidelity as you move through the series.
Audio is another weak point. The town music has a quaint minstrel-like charm, but dungeon music is repetitive, relying on an uninspired drumbeat that quickly becomes tiresome. The voice acting quality is poor, with speculation that AI was used for dubbing—though there’s no concrete evidence to confirm this.
Longevity
One of Fate’s selling points has always been its replayability. With procedurally generated dungeons and endless loot to collect, in theory, it should keep players engaged. However, in practice, the experience feels hollow. Quests are largely pointless since better rewards can be found by diving into the dungeon.
Later expansions like Undiscovered Realms and The Traitor Soul add new environments and enemies, but the core gameplay remains unchanged, leading to a repetitive and unengaging loop. You can also create a new character for each expansion or import your original.
Final Thoughts
While Fate Reawakened brings a beloved classic back for modern audiences, it fails to truly elevate the experience. The minimal graphical upgrades, the gameplay feels dated and unbalanced, and the lack of meaningful improvements make it hard to recommend over the originals.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
About Author
I agree that Fate Reawakened didn’t add much new, but some notes:
The Phoenix pet is from a later game, now available in all games because they’re tied together.
Difficulty starts in your favor, but gets steep quickly, requiring crazy enchantments on gear for your stats to stay on par.
Stamina has been in Fate, however the ability to toggle Sprint seems to be missing, forcing low level characters to run and get winded.
The big change of this installment after graphics is the hud/menus which have been restructured to support controller, unfortunately at the cost of bogging down menu interaction speed overall.
Stamina is not a new addition, it has been around since Adam & Eve