Fable
Score: 88% ESRB: Mature Publisher: Microsoft Games Developer: Big Blue Box Studios Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 Genre: RPG/ Action
Graphics & Sound: Since it began nearly five years ago as Project Ego, the hype following Fable has been strong. Vaunted as the pinnacle of open-end gaming experiences, hopes were high that Fable would be the game to end all games. But, as many other companies will attest, hype can be a harsh mistress that few games can ever live up to. On the upside, Fable provides a quality gaming experience, but it also fails to deliver much of what was promised. Fable looks fantastic, but feels very confined. The level of detail found in every area is amazing, right down to butterflies fluttering around and leaves falling from trees. All of the villages feel like their own places instead of the same generic village with a few buildings moved around. However, there's really no room to explore in these areas as they are confined to beaten paths and maybe an odd underbrush that can be hacked away (which leads to another beaten path). This comes as a disappointment since I was hoping for something more like Morrowind where you can get lost for hours in one area of the map. Characters look just as good as their environments. I really liked the game's art style, which is sort of a cartoony, yet real, look. Characters are very expressive and show off some neat reactions to the main character and the particular path he's on. The main character is customizable, but like the levels, it feels a little too contained. You begin the game with a generic looking character and, as the game progresses, he'll evolve depending on how you choose to play him. If you go for more of a hulking brute character and spend all your skill points in strength, he'll become a brutish muscle man. If you go for more of a sly thief, he will develop as more of a slinky, agile character. You can also buy tattoo and hairstyle cards to further develop your character's look. There's a wide variety of choices, but the system is too dependant on players having to find the cards -- meaning you can go through the entire game and never see some hairstyles or tattoos. Thankfully, a bulk of these can be purchased, but others require you embark on certain quests. Sound is all about polish and detail. Voice acting is very well done and helps to create an immersive atmosphere. The voice work is wonderful and characters are quite talkative. As you grow in fame, villagers will call out your title and either clap, laugh or shriek in fear. There are even times when you can walk in on some character's conversations and listen in. The score, featuring Danny Elfman (Spider-Man, Good Will Hunting), fits into the game perfectly.
Gameplay: Fable begins with your character as a small boy and allows you to follow his life until old age. After your parents are killed in a bandit raid and your sister is kidnapped, a mysterious wizard whisks you away to the Albion Heroes Guild where he tells you that you have a great destiny ahead of you. What that destiny is depends on what type of life you choose to live. You can choose a path of vengeance and become evil, forge yourself as a force for good and become the world's savior or find some gray area in between. The concept behind Fable is very simple on the surface; you take missions from the Hero’s Guild and complete them for money. Below this is a game that is a little more complicated. As you accomplish missions, you’ll gain renown points which will translate into how people in the world see you. How much of a reputation you get depends on a variety of things. After taking a mission you can boast to villagers about how you’ll do the mission. For example, you can say that you’ll accomplish the mission without killing people or barehanded. The bigger the boasts, the bigger the rewards and reputation. The catch is that you must live up to the boasts, otherwise you’ll lose standing with people. Morality will also play into your reputation. Some missions will have two choices. One mission may charge you with protecting a caravan from bandits while another has you joining in on the attack on the caravan. Depending on your character’s moral rating, he’ll either become feared by the populace or become a hero. Character traits will also change depending on how good or bad a character is, which will also translate into how people see you. One of the touted aspects of missions that never made it was the idea of other heroes competing with you to finish quests first. The idea was that if you enter the castle to rescue the maiden, you might see another hero running off with the princess in tow. This concept has been distilled into one rival who will dog you on certain missions. The competition makes some missions fun, but holds very little bearing within the game. If your rival beats you, the mission isn’t lost (as it should be), instead you get a chance to redo it until you defeat the rival during the mission. This really ruined the game for me and took much of the challenge out of things. There’s no real pride found in accomplishing missions and it takes some of the passion out of defeating the rival. A lot could have been done with this concept since it’s a novel idea – its just too bad there was no follow through on the concept. Between missions there are a few side-missions you can accomplish, but what’s here doesn’t even begin to deliver on what was promised. Side missions add very little to the game other than getting more money (or losing it in some cases). You can protect trading routes from bandits or escort some travelers. You can also fish, and try to find the silver keys that are scattered throughout Albion which unlock silver chests. One of the more touted aspects of the game was the ability to court and eventually get married. This aspect adds little to the game and is more of a “just to do it” side mission than anything else. Courting women involves wooing women by using certain emotes and giving gifts. After finding true love (and buying a house), you can offer her a ring and get married. After marriage you again need to woo the woman until you can get her into bed. If you desire you can have multiple wives in various cities, along with houses and children. You can also get in trouble for not spending enough time at home.
Difficulty: The hardest part of Fable are the decisions you have to make. Do I want the goatee or handlebar mustache? Do I want to marry this girl, that one or both? The point I’m trying to get at is that Fable isn’t very hard. In fact, the game is a breeze for the most part. Sure I failed a mission or two, but that was about it. The AI is aggressive but not that smart and tends to rely more on swarming you with high numbers rather than keen tactics. Boss battles, the last boss in particular, are a joke and come down to simple, old school pattern recognition. Some puzzles add a bit of a challenge. The greatest of these are the Demon Doors, which will pose a riddle that must be solved in order to figure it out. Sometimes you’ll have to work through the riddle to find what the door is asking for while other times the riddle is figuring out how to do what it asks. Opening these doors is not necessary to complete the game, but will provide you with some of the more high-end equipment. Showing off trophies can also be a pain. The gist behind this system is that you need to find all of the people in a given area and show off one of the trophies you’ve collected during your quests. The trick is that this is all done on a timer – so you have to do it in a set amount of time. The time increases with every person that sees it, but you have to time it just right in order to do it right.
Game Mechanics: Combat and controls are very easy to get into. Every button on the controller is used for something and is placed in an easy to use position. The controller begins in a default position that includes your basic combat systems. These include tasks like attacking and blocking. Holding the R-Trigger switches the system to Magic Mode, switching all the attack buttons to spells. Traveling around Albion is a pain. Every area you enter comes with a long sizeable load time, making traveling from one area to another a pain. Instant transportation is offered via your Guild Seal, allowing you to instantly travel to portals found throughout the world (provided you find and activate them). Morality doesn’t play as big a role in the game as one would think – at least it’s not really noticeable. The game seems to try and push you towards being a good guy, or at least leaning towards that path. As a hero you’ll have an easier time getting though cities and accomplishing goals. Choosing to become an evil person doesn’t really seem to add much to the game other than a few special emotes (which are your way of communicating with people and actions you can perform) and the ability to get attacked by guards in every town. Its still dark fun to purge entire cities of people, but it doesn’t come with the same feel that it does in Knights of the Old Republic. The experience point system used in Fable is unique and provides a happy medium between systems that let you build your character and those that do it for you. As you play through the game, the combat choices you make will go into set XP pools. If you depend more on combat, a physical pool will fill that allows you to purchase upgrades like strength, toughness and melee skills. Using magic will give mind XP that can be used to purchase increased mana and new spells. What you do in combat will influence your character’s appearance. If you depend mostly on melee combat, your character will develop as more of a hardened warrior (complete with battle scars). Using magic will cause you character to age rapidly and quickly become a feeble man who is adept at spellcasting. Both systems work well, although the aging systems seem a little out of whack. Every time you level, your character will age roughly seven years. Using magic speeds up this process. The problem is that you can level up just about every level, meaning you can be an old man really quickly. My character was already going gray by the time he completed the sixth or seventh mission. It’s a minor complaint, and one not many will have a problem with, but it just feels awkward. Despite the slew of missing features, lack of a real challenge and tunneled “open-ended” gameplay, Fable is still a fun game. There’s still a lot to do in the game and it should keep players busy for awhile, especially RPG starved Xbox owners who are growing tired of playing through Knights of the Old Republic yet again. Overall Fable is a good game that is a victim of its own hype. The promise doesn’t come through, but once you can accept this and overlook it, the game is still a quality product.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
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