Ah Fable, what a game. Many hours could easily be spent roaming the woods in Albion, journeying from place to place, battling monsters along the way. The game had a strong sense of underlying lore and mythology, the story well written. (Talk about some real-world and mythic connections) and was one of the best games at the time in the high-fantasy/medieval genre. Alas, the game was not as perfect as gamers hoped and there was a large critical backlash. Not that it affected me; being at a young(ish) age when the first fable came out, and receiving ’The Lost Chapters’ in my mid-teens I never really cared. That said, I will delve into the background somewhat: Starting off as project ego Fable was developed by Lionhead/Big Blue Box(BBB was a satellite of Lionhead), under the Direction of Peter Molyneux.
Now you’re probably wondering, Who the hell is he, and why are you bringing him up?
Accomplishments: Peter Molyneux is known for: Having an OBE (look it up kids), making a bunch of acclaimed games (Black and White being just one example) and over-hyping. *Now this over-hyping was really bad for Fable. Some of the features touted would have been great: a co-op/multi-player system, the ability to have kids, nigh unlimited freedom and a widely branching storyline/quest path, similar to games like Fallout and Knights of the old Republic, but on a much grander scale. Among other promised features was a dog (available in Fable 2 onwards), the Sandgoose (whatever the Sandgoose was, was never specified) and the ability to plant acorns and grow trees (the exclusion of this feature really irked some gamers, to say the least).Not that this mattered to me, but it offers some background on the development of the game and why it still felt under-polished. Peter Molyneux himself acknowledged the hype and publicly apologised saying: “If I have mentioned any feature in the past which, for whatever reason, didn't make it as I described into Fable, I apologise.”
Now this would be all well and good but in retrospect Peter Bashed this game!Bashed it onwards saying for people to skip Fable and just play Fable II. C’mon man, it wasn't that bad!
Now on to the plot: Fable is set in the fictional land of Albion. It’s no coincidence that they gave the land the oldest name of England, almost all the characters have English accents, and the game is in a medieval English high-fantasy setting. The player starts off in a small village controlling a young boy (nameless and nigh voiceless, of course), and gets to participate in some mundane if fun activity. Peace in a video game, never lasts, and the village is soon attacked by Bandits, the boy’s father killed, and his mother and sister gone missing. The boy himself is saved by a powerful wizard, Maze. Maze promptly takes the child off to the hero’s guild where he trains to be a great, well, hero. Upon completion of his training the boy, now a young man, leaves the guild to seek adventure and glory, and revenge for the death of his father. Overall the plot is serviceable with some well done moments but on the whole does not achieve the greatness that it otherwise could. That said the lore behind the game is great which both enriches the game and makes it more disappointing that it was not more properly implemented.
Fable features open world game-play which really extends the life of the game. From fishing in a river for…fish? To unlocking treasure chests with keys which can be earned by digging in certain places, at the end of missions (or….by fishing), to gambling in various bars in the land of Albion, in Fable, there’s always something to do. The combat system in Fable is quite robust, if simple in some areas. One gripe I had was the unbalanced feel of the weapons which didn't make any sense, and the complete lack of finesse in how the Hero used them. There’s Melee weapons, and ranged weapons. Melee weapons can be divided into two types: light, and heavy. Now the problem is while there are ten different sub types (eleven, if you count the stick), they largely boil down to four types: Light or heavy, able to stab a downed enemy/ light or heavy, unable to stab. Most players will want the ability to stab a downed enemy and since all the light and all the heavy weapons handle the same, the only weapons a player will want to use before they find a named (legendary) weapon will be either a Katana, or a Great-sword Aside from the weapon types, the weapons come in various grades: Iron, Steel, Obsidian, Master, and Legendary. Now almost all non-legendary weapons must be bought (few can be found or earned, and only the best can be bought), but this is greatly diminished by the fact that many of the ‘legendary’ weapons can be earned fairly quickly. This is both a plus and a minus as, having these weapons be easily obtainable does ruin the challenge… and yet this is a very fair feature in many ways since some of these weapons are weak as water before the halfway mark of the game. In any case this seems to be a common problem with the RPG genre, none the less I can’t entirely let it slide.
On the other hand while being good gives the player a much less dramatic physical change (Perhaps a remark on the intrinsic goodness in us all, rather than lazy programming?), actually being cheered on, welcomed and loved (as much as a soulless X-box can love anybody…….F*kng Microsoft), feels good. Really, really good. Not only that but it’s easy to be good as most of the enemies are either bandits or monsters, and killing them earns you good points. It is a wasted opportunity that the morality system of fable is so extreme; it would have been nice to get to play through various shades of good, evil, or flat out neutrality There’s also renown, (a fancy word for fame) which can only be built up, not lost. Do any actions considered notable by the game engine (completing missions, showing off a trophy, amongst others) and you get more renown. This has no effect on game-play other than allowing your character to perform certain expressions such as a manly fist pump or groin thrusting.
The morality system is as good, as it is bad. Sure you could go around stealing, maiming, pillaging all the like and become a fully fledged demonic overlord. Or you could just commit some good acts, eat some tofu,& viola, your Karma metre would be back to good and you could go around eating baby chickens with no consequences. The amounts of good or evil points you’d receive and the reasons for getting them, also made no sense. Get 60 evil points for killing your wife? Or 600 for divorcing her? Yeah, great Aesop there for the kiddies.
Hell, if you do the math, then eating X amounts of tofu is enough to cancel out killing an innocent. In what way is eating tofu a good thing at all? That said, morality tends to boil down either to Kill X and receive lots of rewards or don’t kill X and people love you. Given the amount of time I spent playing the game, either good or evil, the dynamic imposed upon me often made me find the good path more satisfying. Kill and slaughter a village Look like a badass demon but everyone fears/hates you, as opposed to having everyone like you. Believe me, whimpers of terror and hisses of hate get boring, fast, real fast. More importantly, it’s easier being evil, what with most of the enemies giving you positive karma when you kill them anyway!!!
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Friends? I don’t need friends; I'VE GOT HORNS! |
All in all, Fable isn't a perfect game, far from it; but it is a very worthy entrant in anyone’s collection. It’s a large game, and there’s a lot that I didn't cover, but it is very very fun, even if at times I'm not sure why. Still worth a shot?
Definitely.
Originally written for and posted on Comikkazee.
Posted on the 3rd of May, 2012
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