Mazes of Fate is very interesting even before you start playing - it's a solid independent release that takes you back to the old days of classic computer RPGs, when names like Garriot and Bradley ruled the world. Mazes of Fate is a re-imagination of the classic role playing genre, as represented by games from the Wizardry and Ultima series, taking you through a sprawling story that is told through a long series of towns and dungeons. If you are of a certain age and get misty-eyed thinking of the Kingdom of Llylgamyn, then just buy Mazes of Fate without reading any further, because it's truly cut from the same cloth as those classics, and while not quite up to the standard of a game like Wizardry VIII, it is great for some reasonably deep dungeon action on the go.

The graphical style of Mazes of Fate is instantly familiar; it looks like a game that you played on your PC a dozen years ago. Which one? Well, according to interviews with the developers, it cuts across a wide swathe of influences, something that shows throughout the game. There are obvious classic dungeon crawl influences, as well dialog and branching influences taken from more recent games such as Knights of the Old Republic and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. But in terms of the visuals, if you are a fan of the classic Wizardry games then you will find that Mazes of Fate looks better than Wiz VII but not as good as Wiz VIII, for a point of reference. There's a fairly typical symphonic soundtrack that sounds pretty nice through the GBA speaker and it's a pleasant companion while you traverse the many massive dungeons.

Just in case you were wondering, since this is a classic role-playing game, you get to select from three pre-made characters or 'roll' your own. The standard characters are a Warrior, a Rogue and a Mage, each with their own back-story. Rolling your own character means selecting one of the three portraits (two male and one female) and allocating your stat points. There are four main attributes - Strength, Endurance, Dexterity and Wisdom. Each acts as expected - strength impacts attack damage, dexterity improves ranged attacks and defense, endurance helps with health points and wisdom determines magical power. There are also four sets of skills - Combat, Physical, Magical and Rogue. The classes come pre-configured with one hundred points spread across the range of appropriate attributes. If you choose to create your own character then eighty of the points are distributed for you evenly, leaving twenty points to specialize. I found the preset distribution to be about what I wanted, so I chose Naveral the Mage from the three pre-made characters and began my journey.

Over the course of the game your characters naturally gain levels, obtain gold and items, and visit shops. In this regard, Mazes of Fate plays much like most RPGs - levels give you points to allocate where you choose (though the usual min/max rules apply), items given as quest rewards are useful and valuable, and there is plenty of good stuff to be purchased from shops. Your character can have up to nine pieces of equipment, including weapon and shield - you can equip rings, amulets, headgear, armor and footwear. Weapons have attack attributes for damage and speed, and there are single-handed and two-handed weapons, as well as bows for ranged attacks. Each of these has a corresponding skill - so choose wisely and focus on one or the other.

There are three main view modes - town, overworld and dungeon. Guess where you spend most of your time? So let's hold off talking about the massive dungeons for a minute. You start out in the city of Sumur, which consists of about a dozen buildings with various inhabitants to talk to and quests to pick up. Moving from place to place in the city puts you on a 3D style map where your hero moves quickly from place to place. Movement speed is way too fast, but since your only goal is getting from one location to the next, you won't care. Houses you can (attempt to) enter are clearly identified as you approach, so you will quickly get a feel for the layout of the city.

This pseudo-3D walking mode switches to static 2D when entering taverns, merchants and houses. Nothing moves in the buildings and you cursor from person to person to engage in dialog, trade and seek quests or rumors. As you select a person (or a notice or other item), you get a close-up view, similar to an adventure game. The artwork is all nicely drawn 2D, with plenty of character and detail - when you are in a tavern, it feels appropriate, as does the thieves' lair and so on. None of the dialog is voiced, but the written lines are well scripted and appropriate for the characters. The dialog trees give you the usual choices, in a branching system that lets you be kind or harsh or greedy - for seasoned PC gamers it will seem familiar, but it is a style that is under-represented on handhelds. Most discussions end up with you getting information, trading, getting send on a wild goose chase, or being given a quest, most of which involve entering and clearing a dungeon.

As most of your time in this game is spent in dungeons, it's fortunate that this is where is gets really interesting - not that the interaction and dialog aren't great, but tying it together with combat and exploration makes the whole game really come together. Oh yeah baby, these are big, maze-like, exhausting dungeons! You explore dungeons in a first person view similar to classic party-based first person games, with the (up to ) three party members shown along the bottom of the screen with bars for health and mana and a turn timer, while dungeon view occupies most of the screen. You see straight ahead, with a limited field of view of a few 'blocks'. The walls, floors and ceilings are all visible and nicely detailed, while the designs and layouts vary widely from area to area. Movement in dungeons is accomplished using a variation of the classic rogue-like style - everything is based on blocks and clocks, but the turns happen in real time so that if you sit still for a while you will see enemies approach you or just walk back and forth if you are out of their field of view. When you are moving, you can tell that each player gets an action per turn, so the faster you are moving, the faster your enemies move. Character models for the enemy monsters are very nicely done, with some really huge beasts you encounter and think "Oh no, I bet that thing hits hard!" - and find out that they do.

The story is also pretty classic stuff - humans have advanced their skills in magic to the point where they are approaching the gods in terms of their power, so the gods battle among themselves and eventually decide that the humans must die. They come up with a replacement race that will submit to their wishes and curse humankind. The great King Harlac communicated with the gods and arranged a way for humankind to fix things and start anew, but was betrayed by a servant. Thus hope is gone from the land, as the followers of the servant are rebelling against the king and members of the new race of goatmen are settling into the area. The land needs hope ... and a hero. You. Are. That. HERO! (Sorry for the LarryBoy reference but I just couldn't stop myself no matter how hard I tried!)

The quest structure has a number of interesting facets - the quest log is detailed and remains updated until you clear the quest, you can obtain help with your tasks even mid-quest by talking to patrons at local taverns and the quests aren't static. What I mean by that is if you loot a personal chest while clearing rats from a basement (yes that quest is there, fully tongue-in-cheek), the way that others who find out about it deal with you will change forever. The same is true for how you handle quest rewards - there is a real sense of your choices and decisions having consequences throughout the game.

Pretty much every quest involves you going into a dungeon - sure there are exceptions, but for the dozens of hours I played I can recall only a handful of non-dungeon quests. I have read reviews that said "you can only trek through so many dungeons, collecting keys, flipping levers and stepping on plates before you wish there was more to do." To that I say BAH! Every dungeon is full of enemies, puzzles and traps - and they are all huge! But don't let that fool you. Sure, you'll spend tons of time in dungeons, but this is not a simple dungeon crawl; it is a full-featured story-based game with loads of quests and the systems in place to make them all work.

I like to play a mage so I can lob balls of fire at monsters. There - I admitted it. I also like to bash things with swords. Fortunately there is no lack of combat in Mazes of Fate. The combat system is simple to learn but offers a decent amount of depth and challenge as you continue to play. Fortunately this is not like an RPG where you and your enemies are teleported to some mystical battle area to resolve the fight. It all happens where you stand. Enemies pursue you once spotted and you can launch a ranged attack if you spot them first. Once you close to melee range, things get real. The little green ball in between your health and mana indicators is the 'recover orb', which indicates your state of readiness. You cannot choose a combat action until your recovery orb is full - movement take a small amount from the orb, while an attack, spell or item all completely drain the orb. Certain actions take longer to refill than others - for example, sword attacks with a short sword will be ready again more quickly than a large two-handed sword.

The fact that combat takes place in the open has consequences of course - other creatures in the dungeon are awake and moving - and quite often hunting you down. You will often find yourself moving from battle to battle - and occasionally other foes will come from behind and join up with the other enemies against you! You have the option to 'camp' just about anywhere, but since that just passes time and heals you up, enemies can interrupt your sweet dreams and rain down blows on your unsuspecting bodies! What do you expect the passing undead to do? Fluff your pillows?!

The magic system is a labor of love that starts out difficult but ends up rewarding. For every two skill points you allocate to a school of magic, you get a new spell. Since your mana depends on Wisdom, this means maxing out for Wisdom and choosing magic schools carefully. The spell schools consist of offensive, defensive and buffing spells. Offensive spells are largely the usual fireball and lightning stuff, buffing spells either heighten your stats or reduce those your enemies and defensive healing spells keep your party alive. Since there are no clerics, your mage needs to serve more than one role.

One of the greatest frustrations in a exploration-based dungeon crawler is collecting clues that lead you to a place where some really cool secret shop is supposed to be - only to find out that it is broken and the trigger doesn't work. There are only a couple of serious flaws like this, but after having something as juicy as this hinted at the entire time you're in a dungeon, having it end up broken is quite frustrating and disappointing. There are a few other issues, like some broken dialog and quests that you seem to be able to get multiple times, but while there is a certain lack of polish in certain areas, at no point do you feel that the game itself is broken. The level of bugs is less than most current PC releases and the quality of the experience more than makes up for the flaws. One thing that PC gamers won't like is that there are only two save slots - and saving takes about thirty seconds, but at least loading a game is nearly instantaneous.

When I saw screens and read the description of Mazes of Fate, I was hooked and ordered it as soon as I could - and I haven't regretted it for a moment. It's a huge game that really brings you back to the old classics while also feeling modern is some respects. It has a solid story, interesting characters and well-written dialog, a robust quest system, challenging combat and no game-ending bugs. There are certain flaws, including an optional area that looked to be delicious but wasn't fully implemented, but that shouldn't stand in your way of enjoying the dozens of hours of game time and cool quests. It really is like taking a step back in time and discovering a classic game that you never played, yet has been updated graphically and influenced by more recent games. You can only get it through eBay or Amazon.com (on eBay the publishers have a mini-store), but it is definitely worth seeking out. Indeed, even if you aren't normally a handheld gamer, you can get a GBA pretty cheap now and enjoy Mazes of Fate - all for less than the price of two games.

Reviewed by Michael Anderson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).