Fable

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.

The title says it all, so I can be brief. It's an RPG-lite and an epic with all the depth, and the charm, of a fairy-tale. Decent enough dialog, peppered with light humor, and voice acting that sounds professional but pretty much aimed at children. The gameplay value is stronger than the story, and its as engaging and fun as the story. Replay value is low; you could challenge yourself with various character development types, but that won't significantly change the plot.

IMDb wants no less than 10 lines for a review, but brevity is the soul of something they can't be bothered to look up anyway. Fable is worth owning and playing.

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!

Even after all these years this game is still a pleasure to play, Fable is one of my all time favourite games and was such a revolutionary game back in it's day.

The anniversary version is a great update with remastered visuals & addition items & quests adding in the Lost chapters which adds an extra 3/4 hours on to the end of the original game tying up loose ends and giving you a proper final bad guy battle

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.