Fable (X-Box)
Developed by: Lionhead Studios
Published by: Microsoft

Fable has been a long time in the making, and with renowned designer Peter Molyneux (Populous, Black & White, Theme Park) at the helm, expectations were high. Fable is not your typical Molyneux strategy/sim game either. Touted as an open-ended action/adventure RPG where your character grows up over time and your decisions shape his appearance and abilities (along with the others’ perceptions of your character), Fable has been an ambitious project right from the start. Maybe a little too ambitious.

It seems that the development team at Lionhead was forced to gradually scale back a lot of the innovative features that were originally promised. What we are left with upon its release is an adventure game comparable to a graphically superior Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, using a Grand Theft Auto style mission-based quest system and a Knights Of The Old Republic morality scale to develop your character. In addition, however, there are still a handful of cool concepts introduced that have never been done before in RPGs, and while the core of Fable may not be groundbreaking, it is still a very fun game.

The first thing you may notice about the game is the high production value. Parts of the story are told through medieval-style paintings and narration, giving it an epic and historic feel (although it takes place in a fantasy world named Albion, not on Earth during the Middle Ages). The music also significantly ups the ante, with a title theme composed by Danny Elfman and the rest of the game’s music penned by Lionhead Studios sound man Russell Shaw, it bares similarity to other great fantasy soundtracks like the Lord Of The Rings movies and Zelda games, with its own subtle sense of mystery and intrigue. The game’s sound effects also make the world spring to life around you — knocking on the door of a house at night may cause a dog to start barking in the background, for example — and the voice acting is some of the best I’ve heard in a game (it helps that Lionhead Studios is based in England because the British accents seem so much more proper). Graphically speaking, Fable does not disappoint, often making use of the popular new Bloom lighting technique to give the environments and characters a soft glow. The tone of the game is mostly light-hearted, which may turn off some of the X-Box fanbase. It’s cartoony but not in that family-friendly “primary colours” Nintendo way.

So what is this blasted game all about? You start off as a nameless young boy whose town is attacked and burned to the ground by bandits. Did I mention that your father is murdered and your mother and sister are kidnapped? Pretty generic stuff really. From this point you are rescued by a mysterious man who brings you to the Heroes’ Guild where you will be trained to become (what else?) a hero. Thus your teenage years are played out as you learn the various combat techniques in the game, after which you are set free to explore the world and take on various quests.

Combat and controls are for the most part similar to Zelda, complete with the patented “Z-targeting” feature (and both its benefits and annoyances). You have 3 main areas of expertise that are developed over time: melee attacks, ranged weapon attacks, and magic. The controls are all easy to learn but have enough flexibility that you can choose your favourite types of attacks to specialize in. This specialization can affect your character’s development over time, as a character that relies on his sword and brute force will develop a muscular physique, whereas a magic user will age faster and eventually lose his hair, for example. You can mix and match quite a bit though, spending various skill points to level up various areas of your choice.

The quest system attempts to be open-ended, but it’s not nearly as huge and explorative as, say, Morrowind. Most of the side quests are just small favours you can do for people. You can’t get too far off track since you will hear a voice reminding you of what major task should do next if you wander around for a bit, kind of like Navi in Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The thing is, it’s sometimes hard to navigate through the world as the map system isn’t very intuitive, and nothing in the world is clearly labelled. The instruction manual is of little help and many of the gameplay concepts are left open for you to experiment with on your own. But it is this experimentation with non-essential elements of the game that allow you to get the most out of Fable.

Where the game tries to set itself apart from other action RPGs is with character progression and NPC interaction. Throughout the game you have the opportunity to perform both good and evil deeds, and these will affect how others react to you. When you perform a good or evil task you will gain good or evil points (just like KOTOR) and eventually this will affect your player. If you continue to play the role of the kind-hearted knight in shining armour, you will eventually get a halo above your head and an angelic glow about you, attracting people to you. (You can actually get married in this game.) If you terrorize people and loot towns, you will eventually sprout horns and be followed around by a cloud of flies, causing people to cower from you or look away in disgust.

Unfortunately everything in the game is very black and white (ironic, I know). If you do something bad and get caught, you will immediately be reprimanded by city guards and forced to pay a fine (unless you want to fight them). There is not as much fun in playing a balanced character, as only the extreme cases receive a noticeable change in their character’s progression. In the end, playing the “evil” side isn’t as beneficial either since you still have to complete certain quests and become the “hero” you are destined to be. You can further customize your appearance with tattoos, hairstyles, and by earning (or buying) “titles” that people will come to know you by (”Chicken Chaser” and “Piemaster” being my favourites, thus far). Supposedly if you go on an eating binge you can cause your character to gain a lot of weight too… I’ll have to try that one out sometime.

Adding to your ability to interact with people are a list of emotes which grows over time, and can be used to elicit responses from NPCs. From giggling and flirting, to farting and belching (you KNOW certain people could spend endless hours amusing themselves with just those two emotes alone), sometimes these can accomplish something useful, but most of the time they just produce generic reactions. Even the generic reactions are fun for a while though. In the game you can build up “renown” by showing off, bragging or doing heroic things in front of as many witnesses as possible. With more renown comes greater rewards on quests.

While many of these interactions are cool on a surface level, they do not significantly change one’s experience of the game. The story does not take different paths based on your choices, and although there are reportedly a few slightly different endings, the story is quite linear. Thankfully, the majority of the linear game is fun, and fans of Zelda or Morrowind will definitely want to check out what is likely to become Microsoft’s own patented adventure franchise. The mixing of sim-game elements with an RPG has never really been done before and it still makes Fable one of the most interesting games to come out this year. The only problem is, all the hype had most people expecting the “wow factor” on this game to be just a little bit higher than it actually turned out to be. — Sean