Fable: The Lost Chapters

"Like Chinese food - good, but it stays with you for an hour"

I am not an X-box owner, but Fable got me to perk up. I heard about Fable shortly after I got my hands on Morrowind, a game that I will profess to having sucked up as much of my life as any MMO short of the original Everquest. Hearing about Fable's supposedly completely non-linear story line, beautiful graphics, and extremely deep gameplay, I was tempted to buy an X-box for the game alone. When I heard there was going to be a PC version, I held out and waited for it. Finally, having finished everything being done with the game, I was left with just a touch of disappointment. Here's how it breaks down.

Graphics: Frankly, they amazed me. I played the game on an AMD 64 2800, with 3gb DDR, and a GForce FX 6800 256mb PCI-E video card, meaning I could crank literally every setting to maximum with no slow-down at all. There really isn't anything to say here – the game is gorgeous, if not a little bit on the cartoon side. The graphics reminded me of an extremely detailed World of Warcraft – which isn't my favorite in terms of art style, but Fable pulled it off.

The environmental graphics were just drop dead gorgeous. The only fun I really had was running around looking at things. The art direction in that aspect, as well as the aspect of armor and weapon detail, won me over.

The lack of character customization really irked me. You're stick with the same character look no matter how many times you play. Changing hairstyles is done in-game, with no attempt at giving the Hero a name, and personalized appearance. While I can understand why – the cut scenes are told in a beautiful stained glass window manner, it was a bit disappointing.

Overall: 9/10
+ Everything is pretty! PRETTY!
+ Extreme amounts of detail
- Characters look too cartoon-ish for my tastes

Story: Here is where my resentment starts to leak through. The story is a jumbled mass of clichés from the start, and it doesn't get any better to the end. There are no side quests, no branches, no twists, and no turns. The closest thing to side quests are the Guild missions, with are pathetically easy and have no bearing on the overall outcome of the game. While some games pull this approach off, Fable's lack of originality makes it more of a chore than anything else. I felt no desire to continue the story, as the lack of the Hero's input makes it feel cold and distant. He has no motivation – the entire story is him running around because people tell him to.

Overall: 2/10
+ The cut-scenes are pretty
- Poor design, poor execution
- No motivation from the main character

Gameplay: The combat system and the experience system in this game just clicks into place, but it loses out in a number of other things it attempts.

Combat is simple, and makes no attempts to be complex. While this is a breath of fresh air – sometimes games try and get too original and complicated with their battle systems – it also makes combat repetitive. Line up against your target and hit the attack button. That's it. You have hotkeys that can be keyed to spells or special attacks, and those sometimes become useful in combat, but I found that a mix of sword and archery did more damage and with less downtime than any spells could.

Archery is done very well – the longer you hold back the string, the more damage you deal. Also, you can snipe with it. There is an attempt at physics – arrows do drop from gravity, but crossbows seem to completely negate this.

Another problem is armor. Apparently the designs didn't realize that it's harder to run in full plate. There is no hindrance to wearing heavy armor at all, and the supposed speed difference in weapons is completely negligible. There literally is no point in using one handed weapons, since two handed weapons hit harder and swing almost as fast. The lack of shields helps to drive this disparity home.

The experience system is one that I liked: Do a certain kind of action, get EXP for that kind. Example: Fighting in melee gives combat exp, using a bow or sneaking around gives guile, while casting gives mental. It works, and coupled with the general exp, means your character develops his skills naturally.

However, a downside to leveling up is aging. Yes, your character ages. While this is a cool concept, it is NOT linked to the time spent in game, but how much EXP you spent. Wait, what? Okay, it's a nifty idea, but they don't pull it off. First of all, aging has NO side effects what-so-ever, except that you can die from it. Also, no one else ages with you.

True story: My character got married, which took all of 1 hour to get her to agree to marry me, and then went off to spent a stupidly large amount of exp. I came back in my mid-60s, while she still looked twenty. Also, you can go meet your long lost sister at the age of 20, and she looks 30. You can meet her at 60, and she looks 30.

Also, the social aspect of the game takes a part of it. You have emotes, similar to MMO emotes, that have positive and negative reactions to those around you. In the end, though, they are pointless. A huge majority of the NPCs are there to make the world feel populated, which they do, but they don't make it feel like a living, breathing world like the game claims to.

The alignment system is a joke as well. At the end, you basically choose the good guy ending or the bad guy ending, and aside from townsfolk running away from you, there is literally no good or bad implications for your alignment. Merchants will still sell goods to you at no mark up or mark down, you can still get married, do quests, and everything else.

Over all: 3/10
+ Simple, enjoyable combat scheme
+ Extremely well developed EXP system
- Aging, though cool in concept, is badly executed
- Magic is useless except for healing
- Armor is laughably unrealistic
- Too many weapons are useless

Over All: This game makes an attempt at being something wonderful, especially with its false sense of freedom. I think the developers had a good idea in mind, but they executed it poorly. The end result was one of the shortest and most unfulfilling games I have ever played, with so many good concepts that never played out.

Final Score (Not an average): 2/10
+ Good to look at
+ Fun for about an hour
- No depth at all
- Gets repetitive quickly
- Badly executed ideas
- Too many pointless
- Linear without a good story

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/05