Fable: The Lost Chapters

"Fable: The Lost Chapters is simply one of the best playing role-playing games you can find on the PC."

The Good: Solid gameplay; excellent controls; gorgeous graphics; great soundtrack; quite a few extra quests; freedom to develop your character however you wish; adult-themed fairy tale story is enjoyable; added content adds much more value and makes the game feel more complete; a lot of the new content is just plain awesome; way faster loading times than the Xbox version; the PC version looks better than the Xbox version.

The Bad: Controls can take a while to get used to if you played it on the Xbox first; most of the added content is all after the original game's ending, so you have to play through all over again to see most of it.

Fable: The Lost Chapters is an interesting kind of game. There are times when you will get a new iteration of the same game, but it usually doesn't have too much in way of new content to warrant anyone to buy it again, unless they never purchased the original. Fable: The Lost Chapters is one of those few games where it completely outshines in the original game in almost every possible way. There isn't exactly tons and tons of new things thrown in Fable: The Lost Chapters, but what is here is absolutely wonderful to have included, and pretty much makes it so you would never want to play the original release of Fable ever again.

Fortunately for PC gamers, this time Fable has also been released on the PC, as well as the Xbox. However, the PC version is undeniably superior, as it is capable of displaying the game at much higher resolutions, and it has much superior graphics overall. That is if you have a decent gaming rig of course. Otherwise, you would be more suited towards the Xbox version rather than the PC version. Other goodies about the PC version is that it loads new areas almost instantly, which makes a huge difference.

Fable: The Lost Chapters is still the same game if you've already played it before. The main difference between The Lost Chapters and the original, is that Lionhead Studios has expanded the storyline beyond the original games ending. They've also added in a lot of stuff that they have claimed to have been forced to remove from the original game due to lack of time to properly implement them.

You still begin the game as a young farm boy trying to collect gold to buy your sister a birthday present. You accomplish this goal by performing good deeds to receive money from your father. Alternatively you can also do bad deeds as well. This is where Fable introduces the concept of good and evil which plays a large role in the way that your character develops throughout the game. Be good, and your character will gain a halo with butterflies surrounding him while people praise you, be evil, and people will cower in fear as you roam by with your disgusting horns protruding from your head with a swarm of flies flying around your character. Being good or evil doesn't only alter the way that your character looks and how people react to him, it can also alter some events in the story. During the game you will be confronted with choices that you can make, there is a good choice, and an evil choice. Naturally, even if you were bad to the bone, you could still ultimately choose the good option, but it kind of defeats the purpose of making a bad character to begin with, and vice versa.

The combat system in Fable: The Lost Chapters, as is the character development. However there have been some slight changes and new things added. Some of the new spells are really cool, you've got this new spell that is an area of effect spell, where a large white circle will form around your character and huge white beams of energy will fall from the sky and impale your foes blasting them with holy energy for an extended period of time. There is also an evil version of this spell where fire beams from the netherworld come up from the ground to blast your foes. Surprisingly however, neither of these spells cost more or less experience to learn depending on whether you are good or evil like many of the spells in the original Fable did.

The combat system works surprisingly well with the mouse and keyboard. You naturally use the WASD keys to move your character around, and the mouse moves the camera around. You can also hold down the right mouse button to run. For combat you use the left mouse button to swing your sword or to shoot your bow, and while using the sword, the right mouse button performs critical blows. Holding down shift will allow you access to your magical spells, both of which will be mapped to the left and right mouse buttons for quick access. You can scroll the mouse wheel up and down to scroll through your list of available spells, and you can customize how your spells appear in this menu to make battles a lot easier. You can also map anything including expressions, food, potions and magic spells to the numbers 1 through 9 on the keyboard. Although this seemed to be better suited for potions, food and expressions, while the shift menu served well enough for the magic spells. Certain expressions and other things like your fishing rod of shovel will appear on the F1, F2, and F3 keys as they are needed, and the actions available here will always change depending on your situation. Overall the controls work incredibly well for a game that was originally developed for a console with somewhat complex controls.

You still level up your character using the experience you gain through combat, you have general experience, strength experience, skill experience and will experience. Each of these different groups of experience can be used to level up different aspects of your character. General experience can naturally be used to increase the attribute of anything. Strength experience is used to level up things such as physique, health and toughness. All of these attributes are essential to melee combat, as well as the general strength of your character. Skill experience can be used to level up accuracy, speed and guile. Accuracy is essential for using your bow, speed increases your agility in combat, and guile allows you to become sneaky, as well as learning how to steal items from people's shops like a pro. Finally you have will experience, this experience is used to learn and level up many of the spells in the game ranging from offensive spells, defensive spells and many others. You've got a wide range of spells to learn in Fable: The Lost Chapters, so you can pretty much make any type of character you want to. You can learn spells such as multi-strike, multi-arrow, berserk and magic shield to make your life easier in combat, or you can learn spells like lightning, fireball and force push to attack enemies with magical abilities while keeping yourself far away from their attacks. Fable actually works best when you combine skills together, such as making a warrior, but using spells such as slow time, multi-strike and lightning in combination to deliver some serious damage to enemies.

Early on in The Lost Chapters, you will notice that there are several new quests early on, these provide a good change for veterans who have come back for a second playthrough, but also make the beginning of the game more interesting for new comers, giving them more options in the quests they pursue at the beginning of the game, rather than just taking on the main quests and storyline right away. During the middle game, there was a distinct lack of new quests, however at the end of part which was the ending of the original game, there is a lot of extra stuff added on, including a main storyline quest, which pretty much finishes things up from the original game, and also explains the story much better. You'll also notice some new characters early on, as well as at the end of the game. There is even a whole new town to explore, as well as many new areas.

Other changes in The Lost Chapters include the changing of how demon doors appear on the minimap. In the original Fable they were colored red, which is also how enemies appear, which could do a good job of confusing the player. In The Lost Chapters they are purple, so identifying demon doors is much easier. Jack of Blades, who is the main enemy of the game has also been changed, he now has a much deeper and scarier sounding voice than he did in the original game, and it seems much more suiting for him. There is also a new final boss fight which is just plain cool.

One thing that was quite apparent in the original Fable, was that there seemed to be a small lack of weapons and armor. It wasn't a huge deal, but it seemed like you got the best stuff too early on and there wasn't really anything left to collect. There was also a distinct lack of helmets in the original Fable. Thankfully The Lost Chapters has rectified this, as there are two new helms which match the bright and dark platemail armors suits, as well as a completely new shiny suit of armor which also comes with a helm, that is the best armor in the game. This suit of armor is just plain badass and looks incredibly cool. Needless to say, it was a much needed addition. There are also a lot of new goodies, many new minigames such as "chicken kickin'" that you can play in towns, and you can earn some funny prizes such as the chicken hat, which basically makes your character have a giant chicken head if he wears it. There are also quite a few new weapons which is a welcome addition, as well as a new good version of the ultimate weapon in the game. In the original Fable there was only an evil version of the ultimate weapon, and if you destroyed it to be good, you weren't really rewarded with anything other than the satisfaction of being good and making the right decision. Thankfully for good players, this time around there is a new quest that will occur if you destroy the evil sword, where you can gain a holy version of the sword which is equally as powerful. There are also new silver keys that you can find, as well as new silver chests to unlock to obtain some nice new goodies.

The level design in the original Fable was quite spectacular, and all of the areas were distinctively unique. Thankfully Fable: The Lost Chapters is no different, and everything still looks like you remember it, and the new areas look just as good as they did in the first game, but on the PC they all look even better. Fable didn't really have any snowy areas, except a very small one at the very end of the game. This time around, there is a whole new island to explore that you reach through the original Fable's snowy town. The town in this area, as well as all of the new locations you can go to all look great and fit in with the game remarkably well. The snowing effects look remarkable, and the game does a great job of making you feel like you are really far up north in the mountains stuck in a blizzard or something.

The sound aspect of Fable: The Lost Chapters is pretty much the same as the first game, with the exception of a lot of new voice acting. Thankfully all of the old voice actors have returned to reprise their roles, and their lines are delivered just as good as they were the first time around, and the new characters fit there roles quite well. Still a great sounding game here.

With the added content in Fable: The Lost Chapters, it is longer than the original Fable by a few hours. The extra stuff doesn't add hours and hours of new stuff, but it still adds quite a bit after the ending of the original game, as well as a better conclusion. The original Fable almost felt like it was rushed a little bit at the end, fortunately the ending of The Lost Chapters is much more satisfying. Some of the extra stuff is just plain funny at times as well. On top of the new gameplay additions and the new areas, you've also got a bunch of new funny expressions, and some crazy new areas. You've got a bunch of new dances including but not limited to a disco dance, and a Russian cossack dance, and you've also got some other new funny expressions such as being able to rock out playing air guitar. As for locations you can actually become the manager of a whore house, and you can even earn a pimp hat through one of the new demon doors. There is also the aspect of the character customization, granted it isn't fully fleshed out like in some games, but its still fun giving your character wacky hairstyles and a bunch of different beards, and you can even deck your character out with some fancy tattoos as well. The hairstyles, beards and tattoos are all mostly the same as they were in the original Fable, however there are quite a few new tattoos you can get in the new town in The Lost Chapters. Needless to say, The Lost Chapters simply just adds a lot more fun into the overall package.

Ultimately when it comes down to it, Fable: The Lost Chapters is simply a highly enjoyable role-playing game. It doesn't really do anything to revolutionize action role-playing games, but it offers you an interesting dynamic with the morality system of good versus evil, and it's just plain fun to play. The storyline is enjoyable, and the way that your character changes and grows old over the course of the game adds a lot of the experience. Even if you've already played the original Fable, The Lost Chapters is highly recommended, simply due to the fact that it just feels like a much better game overall, and much more complete. If you haven't played Fable yet, well here is your chance, because it is a great medieval fantasy role-playing game that has a lot of fun to offer people who know what to expect. If you go into Fable expecting some open ended Elder Scrolls-type game, you will sorely disappointed, if you go into Fable expecting a great quest-based linear role-playing game, with an interesting fairy tale type story geared more towards adults, then you'll have an absolute blast.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/07

Game Release: Fable: The Lost Chapters (US, 09/20/05)