Finally, “Fable” has hit the shelves and XBOX owners may rejoice. This super-ambitious RPG/Adventure game has been years in the making (and in the delaying). Its developer, Peter Molyneux down at Big Blue Box Studios, has claimed that “Fable” is “the best RPG of all time.” He certainly had enough time to work on it, though the game is years late and under a different title (it was originally called “Project Ego”). Regardless, I foamed at the mouth waiting for a chance to play, and now the verdict is in.
Fable is set apart from the rest because of its open-endedness. You start as a boy whose life is altered when bandits kill your father and kidnap your mom and sister.
After that it’s up to you what to do next. You can be evil and murder countless innocents or you can be a “goody two shoes” and settle down with a wife and buy a house. Your alignment is all based on your actions in the game. Your appearance is also based on your actions. If you do a lot of evil you’ll sprout horns and flies will buzz around your head. On the flip side, if you are pious you’ll get a halo and butterflies will follow you. You can also choose what kind of hero your character will be. If you use a lot of heavy melee weapons you’ll grow muscles a la Conan. If you use a lot of magic spells you’ll stay thin, growing older faster from the use of magic. There is a main story, though, and if you want to advance plot you can take “main” quests, which you can choose to do at anytime.
The gameplay is like a cross between the “Legend of Zelda” series and “Morrowind.” The camera is movable (which is necessary at times) but defaults behind your hero. Battles are a bit awkward. There’s a targeting system similar to “Zelda’s” Z-Targeting but more crude. Half the time when I tried saving someone from baddies I ended up targeting the innocent and filling them with arrows… not a good thing.
Also the “hot keys” that you can assign to the controller are awkward to access. This can be very aggravating when you want to give someone the finger quickly or just want some health potions.
The graphics are great; pretty much what you’d expect on an XBOX game. The changing of time (day to night) as well as different weather patterns add a lot of believability to the world around you.
The magic spells explode with color; nothing beats the purple glow around you as you cast lightning at night. The character modeling is detailed: every tattoo or scar you get shows up nicely on your hero. Repetition of various NPC models in the game is my only complaint, and that’s not too serious.
The music is pretty engaging. It gets creepy when things in the game get dark and foreboding, and turns happy when the world is sunny and bright. Other than that, it’s not very memorable, which could be seen as a good thing.
Overall it’s not the best RPG of all time, though it is a start. “Fable” is over-hyped, but still a solid game. As games evolve over the years, “Fable” will definitely be looked on as one of the major steps in the RPG/adventure genre.
