The action takes place in the town of Grove; or, rather, in the dungeon directly to the East. Unlike Diablo, this dungeon seems infinitely deep, with tougher monsters, more powerful items, and greater experience available with each lower level. Gameplay consists of taking quests from NPCs, which requires you to penetrate deeper and deeper into the dungeon and return to Grove to complete quests, sell picked-up items, and buy new things.

One of the major elements that sets Fate apart from its spiritual progenitor is its classless character system. Rather than asking you to choose an archetype at game start -- warrior, archer, mage, etc. -- you are given a pool of proficiencies into which you allocate points derived from leveling up. There are two sections to character advancement: base stats and the aforementioned proficiencies. The base stats are the standard strength, dexterity, health, etc. The proficiencies include elements like chance for critical hits, specific weapon strengths, etc. By managing your points, you determine what class your character plays as, though it's never stated explicitly.

The obvious benefit to this system is that it allows you to determine strategies on the fly, as it were, once you've developed a taste for how the game challenges you. The drawback, of course, is that it may be too late to change gears once you've determined how you'd like to play. Like many other games of this style, the best strategy is to think about what sort of character you'd like to play beforehand, and allocate points to suit.

You receive allocation points by two means: standard leveling up through experience gained, and by garnering positive reputation by completing NPC-offered quests. The latter offers more points than the standard leveling does, making it worthwhile to visit each NPC in the town of Grove. The full expected complement of NPC jobs is in force: you'll meet a blacksmith, a magical item vendor, a gambler, a healer, etc. Each one is displayed in the mini-map as a green diamond. Yellow diamonds are NPCs with quests to offer. Red diamonds are NPCs awaiting the completion of their particular quest. The town of Grove itself is fairly small; a player could run from one end of it to the other in under a minute's time.

Graphically, Fate holds a somewhat cartoony aesthetic, more in line with Mythos than Diablo. The environment is lush and colorful in Grove, and more muted in the dungeon. The standard destructible barrels and boxes are available, containing either gold, items, or nothing. Descent to the next lower level is offered by a staircase situated somewhere in the game's randomly-created floors.