Fable (Xbox)

...things, but the boasts of Fable are especially notable. "For every choice, a consequence", reads the tagline; this is a game about freedom. At its most essential level, the decision is one between good and evil - but there is so much more than that going on as you forge your destiny in Albion. If you choose to follow the dark side, will you become a feared warrior, crushing all in his path? Or a legendary Sorceror, dark magic crackling ...
...to the kinds of choices Fable will offer you - it's your sister's birthday, and you've forgotten to get her a present. No fear - your father has a proposal; perform a number of good deeds, and he'll give you the money to buy one.

Amongst the deeds on offer is that of finding a girl's lost teddy (Yup, this is the big time ...). You'll discover it in the possession of a small boy on the other side of town, who is being tormented by ... more

~ Many Paths, One Traveller ... ~

Many games promise many things, but the boasts of Fable are especially notable. "For every choice, a consequence", reads the tagline; this is a game about freedom. At its most essential level, the decision is one between good and evil - but there is so much more than that going on as you forge your destiny in Albion. If you choose to follow the dark side, will you become a feared warrior, crushing all in his path? Or a legendary Sorceror, dark magic crackling at your fingertips? Or even a wretched thief, sneaking, stealing and killing your way to a twisted version of glory? Then again, if you elect to fight the good fight and combat such evils, will you be the kind of hero who lives a quiet, dignified life, or will you turn every entrance into a town into a street parade?

However, we're getting ahead of ourselves ... we meet our hero before he is any of these things; nothing more, indeed, than another child in the quiet seaside village of Oakvale. Right from the off, we are introduced to the kinds of choices Fable will offer you - it's your sister's birthday, and you've forgotten to get her a present. No fear - your father has a proposal; perform a number of good deeds, and he'll give you the money to buy one.

Amongst the deeds on offer is that of finding a girl's lost teddy (Yup, this is the big time ...). You'll discover it in the possession of a small boy on the other side of town, who is being tormented by a bully. So ... you want the bear, what do you do? Join in with the bully, beat up the kid, steal the bear back? Or do the "right" thing, see off the bully, and receive the bear as a mark of gratitude? Similar dillemmas dot the opening of the game, and begin to shape your destiny. Your actions at this stage aren't about to cast you in the good or bad pot permanently, but you will start to see the effects of your behaviour in the reactions of the villagers - gossip travels quickly in a small place like Oakvale, and you'll hear the whispers as you make your way around.

Sadly, such a care-free, simple existence is not going to last. It wouldn't make much of a game if it did, really. Bandits attack Oakvale, the village is torched, and those living there are killed or abducted, all in the apparent name of a search for one boy ... although why they're so interested in this child is at this stage unclear. Saved from this by a mysterious stranger, our hero is whisked away to a place known as the Heroes' Guild, a kind of training camp and base for those with exceptional power. Though he is tormented by visions of the fate that befell his family, and none the wiser as to the reasons for the tragedy, he is not allowed to dwell on this. Instead, years of growth and learning lie ahead, preparing him for the day he will leave these walls and go out to mould his destiny.

~ A World of Choice ~

From here on in, the game fundamentally sees you adopting a series of quests of varying importance to the story, a certain number of these being vital to its progression. Others are optional, but bring benefits such as money, experience (used to level up your various powers) and renown within Albion. Of course, these quests can be conducted in varying manners depending on your moral leaning - even within the mandatory ones, certain key decisions presented to you reflect this split.

In terms of gameplay, the most obvious comparison (to me, at least, although I'm no hardened RPG-er) has to be the Zelda games on the N64, especially Ocarina of Time. Some elements, such as the targeting system used in combat, are lifted almost directly from the game, but in a more general sense, the influences can be seen everywhere. However, there are numerous ways in which Fable goes beyond OOT; aside from the main "choice/destiny" gimmick, your hero's inventory is much more substantial. A great variety of spells and upgrades are available to your character, from physical improvements, allowing you to handle more hefty weapons, to wonderful magic attacks, amongst them the summoning of spirits to fight alongside you and dark life-draining spells.

Add to this a similarly extensive range of clothes, tattoos, haircuts and the like, and one gets an impression of the extent to which the player really can mould their own hero. This creates a powerful sense of attachment to one's character, pulling you into the game and making every choice that much more important. It certainly gives you a certain amount of satisfaction to see a hero that is very much your creation effortlessly frying the worst the dark hordes can throw at him. I was even beginning to think my fella (a "Willmaster", no less ...) looked a bit like me, which would have been rather unfortunate for him.

~ A Fearsome Competitor ~

In all of the hype generated by Fable's "total freedom" vision, it's easy to overlook the basics of the game - and while playing it, it's equally easy to get so immersed in the game that you take them for granted. Initially, however, the graphics, at least, seem a fraction underwhelming - they're nice enough, but nothing too stunning to look at, and were a little on the cartoony side for my tastes. However, this sense of slight disappointment fades as your character grows up and becomes less clumsy-looking, and the scenery becomes all the more impressive. It's not so much vast, beautiful vistas that make this game so visually striking; rather, it's the small details that make the greatest impression. For some reason, the autumnal leaves of the forest struck me the most - nothing stunning in themselves, but part of a wonderfully rich playing area. Lighting effects are also especially notable, and are often seen as the game moves from day to night, and through numerous weather conditions.

The characters used in the game are of an equally high standard - the design, animation and imagination seen in the various inhabitants of Albion is exceptional, and really brings the game to life. Once again, it's the details that make it here - especially with your hero, who changes as he ages, growing old, fat, becoming increasingly scarred, gaunt, etc. depending on your actions.

Control-system wise, this is not so much striking as functional - which is all that's required, really. The simple, easily usable interfaces and in-game controls bring out the best aspects of the game, rather than interfering with them. Perhaps the physical combat system is a little monotonous, but it does its job perfectly well, and I always preferred magic anyway ...

As for the story; this is fairly basic, predictable stuff, and there isn't too much that'll take you by suprise, but this isn't too the game's detriment. It's all jolly old-fashioned good vs. evil stuff, but the involving nature of the game brings the strong, emotive aspects out of this nicely. Of course, you can also make it an evil vs. evil affair, which offers a different slant on things, although the game doesn't make quite as much of this as it could - even if you're a real rotter yourself, the core storyline of the game is pretty much the same; you're still out to save Albion from the despotic villain in question.

~ The Lost Chapters ~

On top of the original game itself, this version of Fable is expanded in a number of ways. Most significantly, the game continues after the final boss of the original, taking in a number of additional missions, some new areas and another climactic battle. The makers have done a good job here of making sure the extra content doesn't feel too "tacked on" - a couple of threads from the basic game are picked up on and expanded to form a storyline that sits comfortably with what has gone before.

Although this extension of the story is the major difference between The Lost Chapters and the original game, there are other features which weren't present before - one new spell, a couple of new side-quests, a handful of new characters. None of these are really important to the game, but add to the experience, and as a whole, TLC goes a small way to making up for the major weakness of the game ...

~ An Achilles Heel ~

As excellent as Fable, is there are failings; the most notable of which has to be the length of the game. My first play-through lasted around nineteen hours, which isn't too bad in itself, but this featured a great deal of wandering around aimlessly and pursuing non-essential quests. If you felt so inclined, one could quite comfortably get through the game in less than half that, which is a bit of a shame. Insomuch as much of the fun of Fable is to be found in such wanderings and exploration, shaping your character to suit your ambitions, it's pretty unlikely you'd want to skip right through it, but it's nonetheless a shame that you can.

So how could this have been avoided? Adding more quests seems the obvious way, but though this would have helped in part, I feel this could have made the game a tad repetitive; accepting quest, doing quest, accepting, doing ... there needed to be some other way of expanding the game. For me, the best way of doing this would have been to add more playing areas - more locations, especially those that wouldn't necessarily be the location of a quest. To go back to Ocarina of Time as the standard-bearer of the genre, there are numerous areas which have no real (or major) relevance to the story, but make for enormous potential for exploration.

It is also in comparison with OoT that the limitations of the playing area in Fable are most apparent - each location is a relatively small space, linked to its neighbours by a stone arch. Although it in no way impedes the actual gameplay, this segmented approach can make the game feel slightly claustrophobic - some more expansive areas, such as a coastline between Oakvale and Bowerstone-area would have allowed something nearer free-roaming, really lifting the feel of the game.

There are few other problems with the game for me - one of them is in fact related to one of the strengths I referred to earlier. Though it's fantastic to see your character aging and changing through the course of the game, it is a little disappointing to see all other characters retain exactly the same appearance. Whilst I can fully understand this in the case of the lesser characters (villagers, nameless enemies), it's a bit strange to see people you've met at 18 look exactly the same at 60-odd, especially when they're meant to be roughly your age.

Finally, the game is also a fraction too easy; although individual quests can be quite tricky, one never feels in too much danger ... when your hero is carrying a hundred or so health vials, a similar amount of energy-boosting meat and a full nine resurrection potions, there's just no sense of threat; once you're more than half-way or so into the game, no enemy poses a serious threat to you. Indeed, by the time you get to the Lost Chapters, you're virtually invincible with the level of magic and strength of weapons at your disposal. This is quite fun in its way, being the most powerful being in Albion, but when even your arch nemesis comes nowhere near your level, it kind of takes the challenge out of the game somewhat ... so much so that the climax feels less like an explosive battle than a case of tracking down the villain's hiding place and finishing him off. Cool enough, but somewhat of a let-down.

~ Just Hype? ~

Although Fable's creator, Peter Molyneux claimed it would be the greatest RPG ever, I can't say as I can agree. Great achievement though it is, and delightful as it may be to play, it just lacks the epic scale that Zelda had, and that it probably deserves. There are some wonderful ideas here, and I'd like to think a sequel might come closer to fully realising these. The "freedom" concept was always the main selling point of the game, and in all fairness, this is pulled off superbly - the idea of creating your own hero over time works almost perfectly, and it's a nice touch to be able to play on with him after completion of the main storyline, even if there is little to do.

Essentially, it's just the size of the game that holds it back - Fable comes so close to being truly great, but you always get a slightly unsatisfying feeling that it's failing to fulfil its potential. OoT, to re-use the same obvious example, has a much fuller, contented, complete air to it. However, this is no reason not to play Fable - far from it, I loved the game and would be quick to recommend it to anyone with the slightest interest in the genre. Although it ultimately falls short of the gaming pinnacle, it makes a pretty decent effort of trying to get there. 

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