Xbox Review
Fable

Fable. For several years, it’s very release-date was more of a fairy-tale than the game promised to be. But on E3 2004, the release was concretely announced and set for September 14th of the same year. Fans eagerly awaited the release, speculating what this supposed “greatest RPG of all time” would be like. Peter Molyneux, the lead of Big Blue Box and the creator of other very note-worthy games (Magic Carpet, Black & White) had promised a lot, but could he possibly pull it all off?

The answer is a short and simple no. But what the game does offer, it offers well. Fable, although short, is brimming with inspiration and beauty, and offers up an excellent, albeit rather short, experience that many will enjoy; and that many will not. Continue below for my impressions on one of the most ambitious and eagerly anticipated games of 2004, Fable.

Story: The story in Fable is short but sweet. The typical revenge plot, but it sets the stage perfectly for the unfurling drama. You’re a young, average boy, living an average life in the village of Oakvale, a peaceful village, “untouched by the sword.” It’s your sister’s birthday today, and your father pulls you from one of your adventurous daydreams and tells you that you haven’t yet found your sister a present yet. As you go off in search of one, however, your village is raided by a group of merciless bandits. They slaughter in cold blood every person living in Oakvale, kill your father, and kidnap your sister and mother. A mage by the name of Maze arrives at the city in the middle of the crisis and snatches you away from danger. He offers you a chance at revenge, a chance to become perhaps the best hero to ever wonder the world of Albion. Alone now, without a family or even a village, you live in the Guild of Heroes and are trained for years upon years. From here, your adventure begins.

Gameplay: The gameplay in Fable is very interesting. In the game, your character is presented with choices at every turn, good or evil. What you choose will shape who you are. When you start out, your character will be in a default model, looking exactly the same each game. But depending on the decisions you make, your character will change completely. If you choose the path of evil, striking down innocent villagers, attacking guards, killing travelers, you’ll soon begin grow horns and draw flies. If you choose benevolence, being nothing but kind and offering assistance at every turn, you’ll be garnered with a translucent halo and draw butterflies when you stand still. Being neutral also offers different looks, but not quite as obvious as the halo or horns. It all depends on who you want to be.

Combat is great in this game. It combines the use of magic and hack-and-slash elements in a unique way. Using your weapon, you can strike blows to enemies. You kill enemies, the release Experience Orbs. You collect the orbs, you gain Experience, and use that Experience to level up. Typical RPG fashion. But Fable mixes it up a bit. With each blow you deal to your enemy, with magic, bow or sword, the Combat Multiplier appears in the top-right corner of your display. It starts at 1, apparently, and grows to 2, 3, 4, and continues to grow depending on how well you perform. Stringing together a series of blows will continue to advance your Multiplier. But if you’re hit, your Multiplier will decrease to the closest multiple of 5, then 10, and soon enough, disappear altogether. The point of this Multiplier is to amplify the amount of experience you get. While one enemy may drop 5 Experience Orbs, with your Multiplier up to 5, you’ll be getting 25 experience points instead of just 5. So in order to keep the Multiplier high, you need to be quick and make use of your dodge and block mechanics. There’s also something called Flourish, which is important combat mechanic. After a series of blows, blocked or not, your weapon will begin to glow with energy. You can use this to unleash Flourish, a more powerful strike which will inflict greater damage and knock down foes, going right through a blocking opponent. Your Flourish will remain until you miss your enemies too many times in a row, or if you’re hit.

So, you’ve got Experience, and you go to level up. This part of the game is also interesting, as you can choose what you’d like to level up. Nothing that hasn’t been done before, but it further goes toward the customization element of Fable. You can choose to level up Strength, Skill (bow/stealth) or Will (magic). Choosing any one of these categories opens up sub-categories. Choosing which to level up will increase your total amount of health, the damage you can inflict with your weapons, the speed you can swing your melee weapons at and draw back your bow, the power of your magical attacks, an extension of your Will meter, and so on. Not only that, but leveling up is also amplified by not only the Combat Multiplier, but the fact that using your weapon will earn you specific points to Strength, using your bow will earn you specific points to Skill, and using your magic will earn you specific points to Will. Enemies drop General Experience, using your specific categories garner you with Experience that can only be spent in a certain category. So say you use your sword a lot. You’ll gain a lot of Strength Points, which can only be used in the Strength category, and you’ll also gain the Experience Orbs dropped by enemies; level up using the Strength Points and your General Experience, and you can add both of those up for more points in the Strength category. Simple, but it also goes to show that you’ll be most proficient in what you use most.

You’re not limited to any certain category by any means, however; not at all. While you can choose to be a warrior and use nothing but your sword, a ranger and use nothing but your bow, or a mage and use nothing but your magic (this is difficult, but possible), chances are you’ll be mixing them all up. The only constraints you come across when using different abilities are constraints that you provide; you can make your character into any kind you want.

People will react different to your character depending on just how good or evil you are. If you’re good, people will celebrate your presence and sing your praises. If you’re truly evil, people will still celebrate your presence, but only in an attempt to suck up to you and possibly avoid their inevitable doom at your hands. It’s interesting to see the different reactions you can get out of people, when playing through the game as good or evil. Of course, you’ll get reactions if you’re neutral too, so don’t hesitate to try out that path as well.

You can also get different reactions by using the emotions your character has. At the start of the game, you can fart, belch, giggle, and ask people to follow you around. As your game progresses, you’ll gain other ones, as well, such as a manly arm pump, an insult, flipping people off, and several others. Using these, you can also woo women (and even men) to fall in love with you, and eventually get married and even have censored sex.

Graphics: The graphics in Fable are incredible. Absolutely gorgeous. These are some of the best I’ve ever seen on any platform. Water sports reflections; ripples, grass, bushes, tree branches, your hair and your outfit all sway in the gentle breeze; lighting effects are rife and very well-done; everything is well-animated, and the world is absolutely beautiful. The only drawback to these graphics are that some of the textures and be muddy close-up, and that many of the NPC faces are exactly the same, even in similar clothing. That can be overlooked. The framerate also has a tendency to drop at times, but it doesn’t sustain a lowered pace for long.

Character appearances, as I’ve said, can and will change. Depending on what you use most, Strength, Skill or Will, your appearance will change. Spend points on Strength and use your sword a lot, and your character will grow taller and become buff. Spend more points on Will and use your magic a lot, and your character will age faster. Couple that with your good/evil choices, the ability to get several different haircuts, mustaches, and beards, and you’ve got a lot of options for customizing your character.

Sound: Sound is great as well. Sound effects are excellent, voices are well-done (for the most part), and the music is very beautiful. While I don’t know who Danny Elfman is, I give him props for the music in Fable. The graphics in conjunction with the beautifully-orchestrated music really help this game become a living, breathing fairy-tale, and it’s excellent that way.

Replay Value: The replay in Fable can be either extremely limited or extremely abundant depending on how you look at it. On one hand, you can also fish, dig up treasure, eat foods to get fat or stronger, get drunk and play drinking games, and other things to change your appearance, making a different character every time you play. But wrapped up in all of this goodness is the grim truth that the game is rather short. Sticking to the core quests, I’d imagine that one could beat the game’s main quest in less than 5 hours. If you want to get the most out of Fable, be sure to take the sidequests, explore the world, and spend some time sculpting your character into what you want him to be. The world is also surprisingly small and very limited; you’ll find very few branching paths, and the world is walled-in. I’m unsure why. There is still a sense of freedom, however, in that you can access most of the world right from the get-go, and that you’re not forced to undertake any quest at any time. My first play through I spent at least 15 hours in the game, working on my character, trying to find hidden things, buying and selling houses and getting married. My first play through I was a valiant knight; now on my second, I’m an evil mage. My second character looks vastly different from my first, and I’m still having a great time with the game.

So it all depends. While there are a lot of secrets to uncover, 25 Silver Keys to find, legendary weapons to find and use, Demon Doors to open (Demon Doors are possessed stone doors that require you to do certain things to open them for rare prizes), and different ways to play the game, there’s not much unlockable content (I’m not even sure if there’s any at all). I myself love the game and its replay value, but I’m not sure if you’ll feel the same.

Rent or Buy?: Fable is a short game, make no mistake. While you can lengthen it by spending a good amount of time leveling up and changing your character, undertaking sidequests, and sniffing out the Silver Keys, the game’s quest will end. You can still explore and play about even when the main quest is done, but there’s not much else to do, unless you’ve got some sidequests you haven’t yet completed. So if you’re unsure, give this game a definite rent. I’d recommend an absolute rent to anyone with an Xbox. I love this game, but you might not, so don’t buy until you rent or have had a chance to give it an hour or two or play time at a friend’s house, as Fable is a mix of a lot of “good” with a whole lot of “short”.

There it is. Fable, the definite Xbox RPG of 2004. Best game of all time? No. Best RPG of all time? No. Does it live up to its hype? No. But if you can look past what the game was supposed to be and look at what it now is, it’s a great game, and I’m very much looking forward to Fable 2.

Overall: 9/10

By: Cory McGray