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| Fable | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 28 2009, 09:35 PM (107 Views) | |
| LK | Feb 28 2009, 09:35 PM Post #1 |
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Fable Developer: Lionhead Studios Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Release Date: September 14th, 2004 Genre: RPG Platform:   Rating: M - Mature I have never owned an original Xbox in my entire life. Sure, I’ve played both Halo and Halo 2, but I never actually went out and bought an Xbox. Because of this, I have missed my fair share of games like Jade Empire, Chronicles of Riddick, Ninja Gaiden Black, and Fable. So when Microsoft released the “Xbox Originals” download service on the Xbox 360’s marketplace, I was psyched. Right away I went ahead and downloaded Fable, and I didn’t even care how much much space it took up on my hard drive, and how much it cost. After I played a little bit, I wasn’t a big fan. I picked it up because of the critical reception, and the fantasy setting, but it never had its hook that had me coming back to it. I have played quite a fair share of Fable since then, and I have come to appreciate the game a lot more than what I previously thought of the game. Fable was one of the most hyped games of all time because of the promises of major decisions throughout the story that will make you either good, or evil. These promises may not have actually come true to their fullest, but the game is still a great game overall, that any RPG, and action adventure fan should appreciate. Fable has a very deep story that will have you engaged throughout the entire game, and the game takes place in the mystical world called Albion. It starts out with you (the Hero) trying to earn enough money for buy your sister a present for her Birthday. Even in the beginning, you’re given some decisions that will change the reception of your character, like protecting a man’s farm from vandalism, or by smashing all his possessions. Your village of Oakvale is then invaded by Bandits, and the village is then torn apart. The Hero is left there to find his parents murdered, but thankfully is saved by a man named Maze, and he takes you to an area called the Hero’s Guild. Once you’re character has graduated from the Guild, it’s up to you to find out who planned the attack on your village. The best part of Fable’s story is the huge twists and turns it has. You will not see some of the stuff coming in the story, and some of the things that happen will make you sad, and even angry. There’s full voice acting, as well as a good narrator, but it’s disappointing, yet understandable that your character (the Hero) doesn’t ever say a word, except “Follow”, or “Wait”. To progress through Fable, all you have to do is obtain quest cards from the Hero’s guild. Once a quest is obtained, just following the flashing Guild Badge will also take you where you need to go next. The map of Albion will start out small, but it will eventually get bigger and bigger as you get further into the game, and it eventually gets really big, with lots of areas to explore. Every region, East West North and South, all have a major city that will be save places where you can warp to/from, and can save without needing to be in danger. Every area you traverse throughout Albion definitely differs from one to the other, and every area feels fresh and new. Fable looks like a normal action adventure game like a Zelda game, but it plays a lot differently. You still attack with a weapon, in real-time, but the way of strategizing for different techniques is where the RPG side of the game kicks in. The Black button is used for equipping your melee weapons (swords and other blunt weapons), and the White button is used for equipping your ranged weapons (like a bow or crossbow). The way this system is set up will confuse you a lot. Getting from one weapon, and quickly equipping another is a hassle, and you’ll likely get hit a bunch of times before you understand what buttons to press. But the actual combat, while sometimes confusing at times, is still very easy to get the hang of, and is very satisfying overall. Pressing the X button will use which ever weapon you have equipped. Holding the X button down while the ranged weapon is equipped will charge the shot up, and will inflict more damage depending on how long you hold it for. You can hold down the left trigger to lock on to an opponent, and if you let it go slightly, and then press it in again, you will switch your target. This system for combat works, but barely. It’s usually more of a nuisance than something that’s useful. The damage you inflict will be higher if your stats are better, and if your weapons are powerful since each of your weapons has a number that represents the damage the weapons will inflict. You can also inflict damage with Will energy by holding down the right trigger, and by pressing one of the face buttons depending on what spell you want to use. Some of the spells kill enemies like Fireballs and Electricity, but some will not even hurt enemies, while they slow down time, or increase your Hero’s defense. Using these spells will cause your MP to diminish, and when you use too much and your MP goes to zero, you’ll have to wait until it increases again to use it. When an enemy is killed, they leave experience which you can pick up by either running over top of them, or simple holding down the right trigger to make them float over to you. With this experience you can spend them on either Strength, Skill, or Will, each increased a bunch of different aspects of your Hero. In strength, you can increase your physique, in Skill you can increase your accuracy, and in Will you can increase your MP gauge, etc, etc. When you kill an enemy with a certain type of attack, you will gain that type of experience, as well as general experience to spend on anything. So if you want to make your character a strong sword wielding character, all you have to do is just attack with your melee weapon. Fable is ultimately fun, but it does have it’s large amount of annoyances. While I already mentioned that the aiming with the left trigger is absolutely terrible, the save system is also horrendous. Usually the game will auto-save after a major event in the story, but if you’re in the middle of a lengthy quest, you can’t save in the middle of it, and play it later. You can however, still save your Hero’s statistics, so you could have the same character, but way back at the beginning of the latest quest. You can save whenever you want when you’re not in a mission, but if you want to quite half-way through a long mission, you can’t, simple as that. The good/evil choices you make throughout the adventure also never really have an implication on anything you do other than making your good/evil meter go one way or the other. The game does have 2 different endings, depending if you want to be good, or evil, but other than that the decisions you make do absolutely nothing, which is a major disappointment. Fable is also a pretty short game, a game where you will probably could finish over a weekend. It took me about 8 hours to complete the main story, and around 3 more hours to complete the rest of side quests, and unlock the rest of the demon doors I wanted to open. If you like epic JRPG’s that weeks to finish, Fable is definitely not a game you should try, it is terribly short. But even though the game is short, there’s lots of things to keep you busy a while longer. Visually, while Fable looks great, it has a bunch of technical flaws that ends up hurting the overall experience. First, the game’s frame rate hitches way too much. It’s not noticeable when exploring areas without a lot of characters to interact with, but when you get to a city where there’s tons of people, and tons of things going on, the frame rate never holds up. Fable also has very lengthy load times, and is especially annoying when a major plot point is developing from a boss fight, or a cutscene. The very beginning load screen, when you first load up your save file, is the longest in the game, and it can take up to one minute in length. But other than the technical flaws, Fable looks awesome. The characters models are very well done with realistic facial expressions, and the environments simply look phenomenal. Fable has amazing sound however, and the quality of the audio is pretty flawless overall. The voice acting is awesome, simple as that, and the soundtrack suits the situation at every moment of the game. The orchestrated music is very fantasy oriented, and is epic throughout the entire adventure. The sound effects, like the sword clanks, and the grunts from the enemies are near-perfect, even if they sometimes seem muffled. The audio is easily the best part of Fable, I never once annoyed, and never had to cringe in annoyance like I have done to many games in the past. Overall, Fable is definitely a quality product that an RPG fan should play. It has it large amount of cons, like the horrid aiming system, as well as the almost-unbearable frame rate, but if you can look past the obvious flaws, you can see that Fable should be an Xbox game you should own. I absolutely loved the story, even if the decision making you do has no implications on anything major. The audio is top notch as well with a great soundtrack, awesome voice acting, and flawless sound effects. Fable may not have been the “greatest RPG of all time” like some may have said it was going to be, but Fable is definitely a game you will enjoy, from start to finish. 
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