Pros: Astounding, immersive world, personal customization and in-game freedom
Cons: Can be a bit easy for experienced gamers, not enough quests
The Bottom Line: Buy it, play it, love it, complain about it being short, play it again to find everything you know you missed (and some you didn't know!)
There's big buzz all around this game Fable. Most of it is good while some of it is not so good. After playing this game twice I feel that there is a little too much hype about it, but I also feel that Fable will become a basic staple of an X-Box game collection. Though it won't (and can't) be able to hold the same replay value as a game like Halo, it will definitely be popularly shelved quite close to it. Why? Because it's solid, creative, looks good, plays well, and is fun. The fun is the big part of it because if it's not fun, then what's the point?
There are a number of games that will play similarly to Fable (or it will play similarly to them) such as the Zelda series for N64 and NGC, Gauntlet Legends, D&D Heroes, Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance, and a few others. Now don't get me wrong, these other games are fun but (with the exception of the Zelda games which are a bit different from the others that I have listed) after awhile you're subject to repetition with different scenery. And that's it. What Fable has to offer is the breath of fresh air called variety with it's combination of role-playing story and action combat. Even though the core combat system of Fable is similar to others, there is a difference and customization about it that kept it fun to play without getting the feeling I've reached the extent of the character. The other games (like Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance II) quickly bored me since everything was rinse & repeat. So what is there to look forward to?
Gameplay
This is where the goods are! As it has been heard and mentioned, the game is all about choice. Most of the choices will be determined either good or evil and will be experienced through the game's major aspects: combat, questing, and adventuring. There's no real grey area for character decisions, but the character can definitely range anywhere from truly evil, indifferently neutral, perfectly good, and everywhere in between.
SKILLS & EXPERIENCE:
The combat is unique, fun, and as varied as you want it to be. The control and response is solid with a nicely-fleshed combat system. The three disciplines of combat are melee, ranged, and magic and can be dabbled in any amount as desired or needed. Though as with anything else done in life, the more you focus on a particular technique or skill, the better you get at it and the same applies to Fable. Players who live by the sword will find themselves with more points to spend toward more melee skills and therefore make themselves that much more effective for melee combat. The same applies to players choosing magic or archery skills as their main combat set. People using all three equally will find themselves a bit more rounded, though won't have as fast of allocation toward new skills. Fear not though for those who want to focus on a combat tree, but don't want to miss out on other cool abilities since they're not using those skills that much. General experience can be used toward any skills, either paid in full or to cover the difference needed. General experience is gained through combat (in addition to the combat experience) but also gained for completing quests. So by the end of the game, players can find that their mostly-mage character will still have some nice warrior beefiness or nimble archer fingers even if they rarely drew those types of weapons.
Now even though you're playing a warrior-type character, you'll still be gaining magic experience since you're using special melee combat techniques. Unless you're not. The melee and ranged trees are boosts to the actual combat but the actual combat skills are in the magic tree. By the end of the game, a rounded player can have his melee and ranged stats pretty much maxed, but there will still be a lot of magic skills untouched, especially if you focused on a couple of skills. Gaining new levels in skills isn't so easy, since the experience required to raise a skill level increases exponentially. Why would this be a good thing? Because it's through variety that you wouldn't naturally max out your character entirely. It adds some replay value so you can create an entirely different character with different skills the next time you play. There are a number of magic skills (aside from the combat strikes) available, from direct damage, to healing & support, and summoning & time alteration. A few of these spells and abilities can be used on conjunction with each other for devastating results! I'm not going to go into detail about the different spells since that will just spoil it for those who haven't had the joy of playing yet =). Where do you get your skills? At the Hero's Guild of course.
COMBAT & MULTIPLIERS:
The combat is easy to learn, but takes a little bit more skill and practice to master (at least in terms of quest-boasting, but I'll get to that). Switching between the different weapons/spells is easy since the weapons are assigned their own button to draw them out and spells have their own button assignment. There aren't any button "combos" for melee attacks, but continuing to mash on the attack button will keep your character attacking and racking up more hits. You can block, which is done pretty well since it only affects the attacks in front of you and none to the side or the rear (like in BG:DA2). Enemies that strike your weapon when you block will incur a delay from recoil where a well-timed attack would hit them before they get a chance to attack or block again. This also holds true for your character. While blocking you can roll forwards, backwards, or side to side to dodge an attack or to maneuver around an enemy in a defensive (blocking) stance. What has also been implemented in Fable is enemy targeting. Hold down the target trigger and your character will stay focused on that one particular enemy. You can target any NPC in such a fashion and it allows you to kill non-hostile NPCs since regular attacks won't strike them. This makes the block-rolling much more effective for those stronger enemies that hit hard and block often since you would roll around them to strike from the side, instead of just rolling away and dodging. While you're doing all this attacking, blocking, rolling and such during the combat, the camera view is set almost perfect and never becomes an issue to curse at.
Players choosing the role of an archer have a different type of combat. Damage dealt by swords are quick, but a bit weaker compared to the bows (and crossbows) which deal greater damage in slower shots. But it all depends. The damage dealt by bows is determined by the charge power before release. Mashing on the attack button will have a fast rate of fire for the bow, but quite low damage. But the longer you hold the attack button down, the more damage you will do when you release. The controller will rumble and give that feeling that you're drawing back a bowstring. You can also press the left analog stick down to go into the first-person sniping mode (and once more for even more zoom) and good players will be able to snipe enemies from afar without attracting undue attention. Headshots can be used on human enemies and a successful strike will decapitate for a one-hit kill. Just make sure that your dexterity is boosted, since higher dexterity will have less "shake" when charging your missile attack. The enemy targeting helps immensely when you're trying to land shots with the bows. Arrows are unlimited so you don't have to worry about running out of ammo.
Magic attacks are pretty easy. Some attacks affect an entire area around you to damage or knockback enemies, while others will target one enemy alone. The fireball spell can be charged up before being launched, and the lightning spell will hold multiple enemies in place while you fry them. The drawbacks with magic-users is the constant need for will potions, magic attacks are powerful when they're maxed out and not so much beforehand, and the physical aging that the character undergoes for constant arcane use. You get three buttons assigned to magical attacks, but you can set multiple rows of pre-assigned spells and can cycle through them as needed. So you might have a row for attacks, and another row for support or healing. It's pretty easy to cycle through and easy to assign and works pretty nice. With all the spells available I almost wish more buttons could be assigned to spells, but there's only so many buttons on the controller.
Flourish attacks: If you happen to land a number of physical attacks with no reply from the enemy, you character can unleash a flourish attack which is a devastating and unblockable attack. It's a great way to eliminate weaker enemies in one hit, or to knockdown a stronger enemy to give you a little bit of breathing room. If you're good, you can continue using a flourish attack until you miss or get blocked.
Decapitations: Yup! You can do those here too. Decapitations can be done by powerful headshots with a bow and by flourish attacks with a melee weapon. With the melee weapon, the enemy must be beat up to the point of being dazed but not dead. Target, flourish and voila! You can even kick the head around afterwards too.
Players who quickly grasp the idea about combat multipliers will advance faster in skills than those who do not. Each time an enemy is killed a little green globe is dropped, and once collected it earns the general experience. If you pick up these glowing orbs while your combat multiplier is high you will receive much more experience than if you do so when your combat multiplier is low. The same thing applies to your combat experience as with the general experience. A higher combat multiplier will net you more combat and general experience if you're good. So how do you maintain a high combat multiplier? Keep scoring hits on enemies without pausing (to where your multiplier drops to zero). The more damage you inflict adds more to your combat multiplier as well. So later in the game your attacks will allow you to achieve a combat multiplier in the 20's instead of in the teens like early on. You must also keep in mind that getting hit will reduce your combat multiplier in half, so effective attacks, blocks, dodges, and well-placed special hits will make sure you reap the best rewards. Fighting and not getting hit may seem easy, but keep in mind that the enemy doesn't have to be close, nor do they have to actually be attacking you to hit you. There are ranged attackers who can nick you from the corner of your field of view, and enemies getting up from being knocked down can have a part of their weapon tag your body if you're too close. Even though the AI isn't particularly difficult in the sense of being able to kill you, it does prove somewhat of a challenge to walk away unscathed. Now the AI may not be able to kill you easily, they will definitely do their best since they are adept at blocking, dodging, and flanking the unwary player.
ADVENTURING:
In between all the fighting and questing you get a little breather to run around and cause mischief (or good). I won't spoil everything with details of the things that you can do, but I'll list some:
Neutral:
- Buy and sell: weapons, clothing/armor, items
- Buy/upgrade homes/shops
- Get married (and do "marriage" things)
- Socialize with a selection of expressions (both naughty and nice) and gifts
- Get NPC characters drunk with you
- Kick chickens
- Show off battle trophies
- Gamble in games of skill or luck
- Pay to style your hair, facial hair, and body art
- Have a bard sing your triumphs (or failures!)
- Get fat
- Hire bodyguards
Bad:
- Break property that doesn't belong to you (if you can't sell it, you don't own it!)
- Assault innocents or town guards
- Steal property
- Eat "crunchy chicks"
- Be real bad for the devilish appearance of your own horns and some special "evil" gestures
- Scare people
- Kill the bard that sings of your failures
Good:
- Do nothing bad
- Eat "tofu"
- Be real good for the noble appearance of a halo and butterflies that follow you
There are many items that can be bought and found. The weapons have a nice array with choices for damage, speed, and type (swords, axes, hammers, bows, crossbows, etc) and can even be customized with permanent enhancements. Food and drink can be traded for profit and consumed (of course). Some food is just food, others provide a small benefit to bonus experience points, and there is the resurrection vial for those who may fall in combat and need an instant pick-me-up (aside from the use of health and will boosts during battle). All the items that are found enhance the richness of the game since each offers it's own description or history which adds detail to the playing experience. Books with tales of weapons, enemies, and heroes can be found throughout the world of Albion and even the tattoos have a description of it's reason or origin. There is so much depth of the game available only if you look for it!
Clothing and armor provide defenses to your character, but also a different look, or even something to collect (like collecting an entire suit). You can mix and match pieces of clothing to fit a look that you might want. When I played, I cared more about how cool my clothes were instead of actual defense bonuses and had to make sure I played better to compensate. The clothing that you wear will have modifiers to your attractiveness/scariness. This will affect some of how people perceive you when you walk by. Tattoos and hair customizations will affect the NPC perception in the same way. I managed to create a half-way evil character, but with max attractiveness people would still tolerate me, and even in some cases respond positively to my flirtatious advances. One would notice that their character's physique reflects their playstyle too. Melee heavy characters will be a bit meatier and have scars all over their body from when they were struck. Magic users will have skin that starts to pale, hair that turns white, and tattoos that start to fade. Scars are never the same either. You can play the game with three different characters and depending on the battles that they've had the scars will be entirely different.
REKNOWN
As you progress through the game you'll start to hear people talk about you as you pass by, either in fear or wonder (depending if you're good or bad). How is this accomplished? By reknown, of course! Completing quests will gain some reknown for your character and enough quests will make you known all throughout the land. If you want your character to be well-known a bit faster, you can always whip out your trophies in a public place and try to show as many people as you can. Success nets you a tidy chunk of fame, and it keeps score too so you can always try to beat your best show-off session. Considering that you acquire over a dozen trophies this can turn into a lot of reknown! There are multiple levels of reknown that you can earn, and as you progress through the game you hear the change as people start to talk about you and recognize you. The impressions upon the NPCs are nearly permanent too! One town I had all the women fall in love with me, and another town I got caught trying to steal something and decided to fight the guards instead of paying the fines (which just gets more fines and more guards). Even with a mostly-evil character, those women (and some men) still love me in that first town. Even when I shifted my character to be a bit more good, the town guards in that second town were still suspicious of me since they remembered my rampage. You can leave impressions on characters pretty much everywhere, since the entire game (even roads inbetween towns) are littered with NPCs and there is no emptiness left around in the game.
BOASTING
A good way to gain some extra cash is to succeed at a boast for a quest. Your character has the option to complete the quest by default, but you can also choose to complete the quest with boast(s) and pick a number of boasts to accomplish. If you finish the quest with boasts done, you'll be rewarded with more money and the satisfaction of completing the challenge (especially since your score is kept too). The boast is a wager, so if you fail to complete the boast, then you lose the money that is bet. Certain boasts will get you more money for success, notably the harder ones. Some quests will let you do more boasts than others but it's common to have about 5 boasts per quest. Some of the more challenging ones would be to complete the quest with no armor or without a scratch. A player can choose to do all the boasts they want, and the skilled players will be able to succeed and gain the monetary rewards.
Graphics
This is where I really enjoyed the game. The art is colorful, unique, well-rendered & animated, and very detailed. It's not the most complex-polygon filled game around, but it is seamless and impressive, even with the fast-paced action. There were no glitches or polygon collisions or anything else that really caught my eye (and I'm pretty critical when I catch it) though only a couple of times the framerate dropped when there was a lot of action on the screen. The world and colors are cartoony looking, but feel full of life (even though lots of the NPC models are similar to each other except for color palatte). Not kid-cartoon looking, but expressive-yet-mature-cartoon looking in the sense of balancing a realistic fantasy world with a cartoon. Coupled with the great sound the game really immerses you into it's world. The lighting is accurate so the environment reflects spells that were cast, and night appropriately turns into day.
Sound
This game is a must-play on a surround-sound system if possible. The background music (which sounds orchestrated) fades in and out appropriately and changes to match the mood (combat music when you're fighting, tranquil music when you're just wandering, etc). Ambient sounds are sprinkled everywhere as you go and will come from the originating direction if you have surround speakers. From the rustle of leaves, to the creaking of wood, to the chatter of patrons, all are done so well where you don't really think about it until you stop and actually pay attention. It's just that smooth and that's the type of immersion that gets you hooked into a game without really knowing it. The character voices and dialogue are done well for how they're spoken and what they say. In many cases the dialogue has a subtle humor too.
Story
The direction of the game points you toward a generally good type of character (but it doesn't take much to mess that up). The early part of the game is more of a tutorial while you play in the shoes of the young adventurer. You're locally contained while you get adjusted to the gameplay and follow the story of your origin. Once you've completed the tasks set and come to a turning point, you progress into the world where your choices and direction are yours. Tutorial time is over and the growth spurt from adolescance into maturity is explained by the narration of "the passage of time has happened" or something to that effect. So from there, then what?
Well you get to pick a quest and then complete it. Rinse and repeat. It's not quite that straightforward, since there will be quests that can't be completed quickly and there are those optional quests which can sidetrack you for awhile. The quests help drive the story and progress your character and are easy to acquire. Your character has the ability to teleport to a location with a teleport portal, and the Hero's Guild has such a teleport portal. That's where you get your quests and level up your character. If you forget where you're supposed to go for a quest, your HUD and your map will have markers to show you the proper directions. This makes it easier to play the game sporadically since you don't have to worry about remembering all the details of what you've been doing in the game. Regardless of the moral choices that you make with your character, you still get the same cutscenes and are treated the same way. Even if you're an evil character, you're still treated as a hero in terms of the storyline. It's somewhat peculiar.. but it's doable. Once again, I'm refraining from any story details as to not spoil the game for anyone. Though rest-assured that the quests are your familiar fantasy quests involving the defeat of enemies, rescue of peoples, and there is always treasure to be found along the way. You can be involved with more than one quest at a time, though once you've reached the quest destination and start the actual quest itself, you can't leave the area without forfeiting the quest. Quests must be accomplished too. There is no room for failure (oddly enough) and the game must be restarted from a save point if you fail to succeed at a quest.
Miscallenous
Just about everything that you do in the game is recorded for you to view. Things like the enemies defeated (and how many), your best chicken kick distance, how many drinks you've had, how much gold you've earned/spent, how many buildings you own, how many fines you've been charged with, how many people have fallen in love with you, successful quest boasts.. and the list goes on. Most games will tell you some basic things, but Fable will give you ALL the info on all the deeds that you've done, your alignment, and basically where you stand in the game. You can always check where you're at if you want to improve certain statistic, or possibly even beat an old record. The information isn't really necessary to the gameplay itself, but it's interesting and gives you that "in-touch" feeling with your character, which is a reflection of your deeds.
Summary
While Fable is a spectacular game, there are indeed some minor issues that won't go unnoticed: Loading times are longer than desired, sometimes NPC dialogue is repeated more than we'd like, there isn't as much character freedom as hoped for (regardless of choices, the end is pretty much the same), the NPCs may feel too easy for experienced players, no female character selection, and the game is short. Fable has a great story, but it's by no means epic. Some complain about it, but I kind of like the fact that Fable is short, even though I'd love to have more. The game is short and easy to play so casual gamers, or those new to the RPG type game, won't have a hard time. I would say that this is a must-play for those people who've never really played a serious RPG (like Knights of the Old Republic, Morrowind, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, etc) and wish to get their feet wet. Fable can appeal to both the casual gamers and the hardcore gamers. Think you're done with the game? Think again, since there's more easter eggs than you might expect, and you can still continue playing your character after you're defeated the last boss! The great things that separate Fable from every other type of RPG is that you are your character and the game gives more to you the more you interact with it and it's inhabitants. In other games your characters don't change, nor are their personalities customized by your choices and button presses. Granted that there are lots of "I wish this could have.." and "why didn't they do this.." type of thinking during the game, Fable still presents newfound freedom that doesn't require a monthly subscription, and a fresh angle to fun RPG gaming. These aspects makes the game hard to forget, and sculpts it as a definite must-have for any X-box collection. The bottom line is that Fable is fun and exciting. Take the time to play and explore the game and be enriched with the experience. But for those left wanting more, fear not, since Fable 2 is guaranteed.
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