I just love it!!!
Yes, the first minutes of the game could suggest to any veteran player in the whole world the wrong conclusion that Fate is just more of the same: you start your quest in a town, where you may cure yourself, buy and sell equipment of all kinds, gather clues, accept quests, and claim rewards. And you got the usual set of dungeons, going deeper and deeper, harder and harder. Like Diablo, like the first edition of Dungeons and Dragons, like many others.
But it's in the minor details of things where lies innovation. For example, the pet feature, though a very mock-able thing at first, turned out to be a very great idea. It doesn't only attack your enemies when they are near you, it also saves you the time and the burden of one of the most annoying problems every RPG player always faces: returning to town only because you captured a bunch of artifacts from the dungeon and your inventory got full. Instead of wasting a town portal spell in doing so, you may send your pet; and it will accomplish the job of selling you newly earned stuff and bringing you the resulting money. Also, you may want to transform your dog or cat into another creature (spiders, tundra wolves, even dragons) just by feeding it with fish. Those special fishes could be bought in the town... or could be fished in the very dungeons, in case you have bought in the town a fishing pole!!! This transformation could be temporary or permanent, depending on your cash availability or your luck in fishing.
But the innovations could be found even in the game system and rules. For example, the level promotion of your character is DOUBLE. On one side, you got the classical system of promotion by experience. On the other, you got another system (I never heard anything like that) based on FAME POINTS. Every time you perform an heroic deed, such as accomplishing a quest or killing a boss creature, you earn experience AND fame points. These only tell how famous your character is, but in advanced dungeons that become really important, since some really powerful objects may only be used if you got a matching level on Fame. If you are a little low of fame, you may visit a bard in town, who will sing songs about your deeds and take you to the next fame level --for a fee. And the best of it: both promotion systems give you points to improve your skills and attributes!
I could go on, and go on, and go on. I got bunch of things to tell you about how great this game is. But I prefer that you discover them for yourself by playing Fate --this game is REALLY worth it. Its length (nobody knows how many levels it has in total, but you must hack at least 40+ dungeons to consider the job done) and replayability (it's powered by an engine that creates dungeons, artifacts and quests by random everytime you begin a new game, like Diablo) will keep you hooked to your PC for days and months --like it's happening to me right now!