Fable

So, Fable.

Fable is a surprisingly innovative game in a genre that many have long said lacks innovation. But at the same time, Fable just isn't what it claims to be.

Graphically, Fable is pretty impressive. Certainly not the most polished graphics ever, but still visually very pleasing. Audioly, the music, sound effects, and voices are pretty good. I would imagine some people (like me) would get tired of the pseudo-cockney accent that the world seems to have. Fable is a very beautiful game and, with the right sound system, very pleasing to the ear as well.

It's the rest of the game that falls apart.

Combat, the biggest part of the game (arguably), is little more than mash-the-buttons. One button attacks, and you'll be pushing it constantly. One button dodges and blocks, and you'll use it every so often. That's pretty much it. Sure, there's magic spells as well, but magic can only do so much to curb the monotony of the button mashing.

Although the game has a much touted "evolution" system, there's really not much to it. Either your character gets buff...or he doesn't. There's definitely in-betweens, but who cares? Are you going to go for the semi-buff guy? Not likely. You're going to stay scrawny or go with massive muscles.

As for the replayability of the game, yes, I will admit there's some replayability. However, there are only two endings to the game, good and evil, and once you see both of those, your reason to play the game over again will rapidly evaporate.

There are many quests for your character to accomplish in the game, but with few exceptions, all the quests consist of either beating something down, or, well, beating something down. After a while you don't even care why you're beating something down, you just are.

There's also a definite lack of free will in the game. In every area of the game (and there are many), you are restricted to certain paths. No wandering off the path, no searching for treasure. It's all on your map, and that's all you get. Also, there's no chance to be evil in the quests you take, unless the quest is evil to begin with. For example, in one mission, you have to rescue a boy from the caves and get him back to his grandmother. Killing the boy or letting him die results in mission failure and you have to start over again. Why can't you kill the boy and deliver his head to the grandmother? It would certainly be an interesting and thoroughly evil thing to do.

Fable is a good game, don't get me wrong. I played through it three times in less than a week. However, the game is, at best, incomplete, and lacks the features that would raise it to the level it aspires to. This is definitely a game you should try before you buy.

Final score 6/10

Fable is excellent.

The sheer number of choices in this game are incredible, hundreds of weapons, items of clothing and spells etc. not to mention Lionhead's much publicised 'morality' system. This morality system gives the gamer the choice to play out the game as a saint saving villages, giving beggars gold and generally being an all round good egg or being a downright scallywag! The game never runs out of nasty little sins you can commit, from beating up children and robbing shops, to kicking chickens all around the towns! This choices system, whilst a little black and white is fantastic, adding a real element of playagainability as you try and find out just a little more about Albion every time you play.

Albion itself is beautiful and while the graphics look a little outdated today, they still function well, with the design of the locations making up for their lack of detail.

However where this game really comes into it's own is in humour. There are hundreds of little easter eggs and fun things you can see and do around time. Sometimes you can just stand round the various settlements and await choice quotes from the townsfolk, I recommend youtube-ing fable one for some hilarious videos from the world of Albion.

So your asking yourself, why only 9 stars? Well, to be honest the story is a little generic and the fight scenes can become a little monotonous, but all in all Fable is, along with KOTOR and Halo, one of the flagships of the Xbox and should be settling in a place within everyones collection. Including yours!

Fable is one of the better RPG games out there (from someone who's been playing RPGs for 20 years). The storyline, though basic, does allow for a lot of wandering and exploring, as well as side adventures not related to the main quest though entertaining and worth taking. This is one of the first games I have seen that has the amount of interaction between the PC and NPCs. The creatures do become progressively more difficult, and you have to always be ready to try something new to defeat them, but learning and mastering the basic skills are what will keep you alive. If you are looking for a game that has a solid storyline, but gives you relative freedom to explore the world, this is a fun, enjoyable, entertaining game.

Do not take this the wrong way. I'm not really disappointed at the game. I believe it performs well as evidenced by the excellent graphics, the musical score, the voice-overs and yes, story (short and childish as it may be.)What did you expect? Its called Fable.

The advantages overcome the cons only by a hair. However, the game fails to deliver when it comes to fulfilling its tag line

"For every choice a consequence."

yeah, Right. To say that this game gives you freedom is an exaggeration. I've seen better freedom in games like Fallouts 1&2 and Morrowind. There is rarely a chance to do great evil in the game (like chopping off the head of someone you were supposed to rescue and showing it to the person whos looking for them, now thats evil.) Instead evil is gained by randomly killing innocents which is kinda boring. And i got the feeling that it doesn't really reward evil that much. I'm sorry but Fable is just too short and limiting when it comes to quests and side-quests.

However, this game almost seems like a breath of fresh air from other RPGs out there today and it deserves a pat in the back.

this game gets 8 outta 10 quest cards for me.

The story of this game is pretty famous but for those who are unaware: studio lead and director Peter Molyneux was an interesting guy. Like a lot of the 90s era gaming visionaries, he saw through the limitations of hardware and finance and wanted to pursue products of his totally realized vision. And like so many creators before and after him, he fell in love with his ideas--when sharing them with the world he talked about what he wanted the game to be, he talked about a total open world filled with choices and consequences where one could truly determine their nature in the world. Problem is, a lot of what he talked about just couldn't be done to the extent of his vision.

Fable is not what he promised, and that made a lot of people mad enough to fully disregard the series. However, what it is is still rather deep, very fun, filled with small choices and small consequences, and still tries to demonstrate the players actions shaping the world.

Combat is simple but thanks to unrestricted use of melee, ranged, and magic attacks, the combat always tends to feel fresh and varied.

The story is actually quite good, introducing us to the rather believable and lived-in world of Albion, a few nicely colorful characters and some genuinely twisty twists. The tone precariously balances on Monty Python humor and mid-fantasy seriousness but rarely stumbles and screws up. The result is a game where you can fart at somebody on command AND witness familial death and not have the two mess with each other.

Almost every character in this world is also importantly a character. This is not a game where most NPCs are called trader, vagrant, merchant, etc. A lot of them have names and routines (store owners go home at night, etc) and most can be befriended through interactions and gifts. Most of the opposite gender can be romanced and married, and if you also own a house (can be bought), you can sleep with your partners.

The main failing is the concept of being good or bad: there is no nuance--you will always be given a choice of helping or hurting someone, and general actions also tend to fall into moral good or bad. Breaking into a house is always bad, stealing is always bad, etc.