Fate

Take what is basically a Diablo 2 clone, strip out the outfits, classes, and runes, toss in a few innovations, and wrap the whole thing in a sort-of cute aesthetic. The end result is Fate, a game by WildTangent games.

Fate places you in control of a young and unknown adventurer, newly arrived at a village which has sprung up around the gate to a near-infinite dungeon*. You're given a randomized main quest (Slay something or other 45-55 levels below the surface), an axe, and a cat or dog, and set loose upon the denizens of the deep.

Despite initially feeling like a simplified Diablo 2, Fate has a lot going for it:

Pets
As well as helping you in combat, your pet can run back to town to sell items for you, meaning you don't neessarily have to teleport back to town every few minutes to sell things. In addition, you can feed fish to your pet (gained either through fishing, or bought from NPCs that can on occasion be found in the dungeon) to change it to one of 20 differant forms, which range from large predatory cats to wyverns and unicorns.

Fame
In addition to the standard experience levels, your adventurer earns fame for completing sub-quests and slaying named monsters. Upon reaching certain totals your title is upgraded, and you are given a few skill points to spend. Aside from the skill points, some upper-eschalon items require certain levels of fame to be reached before your adventurer can equip them. A bard in town can, for a price, raise you to the next level of fame.

Bloodlines
Once your adventurer's quest is completed, you can choose to retire her, and pass the mantle of heroism on to the next generation. Your hero's offspring starts his adventuring life with two advantages: a little extra fame, and a family heirloom, which is selected from your hero's inventory when you choose to retire them. That heirloom grows in power when it is passed down, and a hierloom that has been passed down for several generations could easily become absurdly powerful.


Of course, all that said, there are a few downsides. First off, the camera control is a bit abysmal. you can rotate the camera 45 degrees counter-clockwise or clockwise, but as soon as you let go of the key, it snaps back to where it started. This often leaves you fighting with a wall between yourself and the camera With nothing but little circular markers to tell you where you, your pet, and the monsters you're fighting are.

Secondly, sub-quests, which are your main source of fame, have only three real themes. You'll be killing a monster, picking up an item off the dungeon floor, or killing a monster and then picking up an item off the dungeon floor. And you'll be doing that over and over. There's no real story. Just a kid walking into a dungeon to kill a big monster fifty or so levels down.

As much as I like the heirlooming and pet mechanics, and as much as I like the idea of ner-infinite* gameplay, I don't think Hasty III is going to be taking his ancestral ring to kill the Legendary Green Dragon named Kazzak'thul on level 48 of the dungeon any time soon. Still, I can see picking it up for a few hours here and there.

*there is a limit to everything in Fate. Specifically, this limit is 2,147,483,647. You can't have more HP than that, nor can you delve deeper than that in the dungeon. Other values rising above this threshhold will display oddly, but will otherwise perform normally.