Fable

"Fable: The Video Game or the Video Game Fable"

Introduction: This is my first review, so I'm just giving my opinions on this, and I think my opinions agree with many others. First time I got this, the store keeper told me that this game would give me hours upon hours of gameplay. I believed him and brought it home, hoping this would be one of the greatest games ever. Now I was right and wrong at the same time....

Story: 5/10

Okay, so you're a kid that lives in a town called Oakvale in a land called Albion. You need to get your sister a birthday present. Then events unfold in an upspeakable way and you end up in the Heroes' Guild. There you train, meet new people, and eventually pour out into the new world. Then your story just goes from doing simple quests, to having to save the world from a corrupted hero. Overall, it's kinda nice, but it's been done a lot of times. You think you have a purpose, only to have to overstep what you normally do to do something crazy like save the world or something. Nice story, nice plot twists, but overall, been there, done that.

Graphics: 10/10

The only good part of the game, the graphics are perfectly exquisite. The landscape is beautiful, the characters are well done, and nothing looks better than a good decapitation. The graphics really show out what the makers thing of them. You can see the emerald green eyes of the undead. You can almost feel the rocking waves when you fight the boss in the dungeon. You can just see the detail of the beer cups. You can see the distinction between an honest salesperson, to the chuckling tavenkeeper. You can see the detail of the haircuts and tattoos you can get. You can see the blood on the battle hardened blades of the bandit leader. You can see the difference from a clean house to a undead cemetery. You can see the difference between good and evil. Unless the devil looks compared to the angel face don't help you recognize good from evil, I recommend you visit the eye doctor. The graphics are lovely, the graphics are great, the graphics are the only thing that deserve a 10/10!

Gameplay: 5/10

Okay, you've probably either seen the trailers, heard the stories, or just heard about it. Many moral choices, making it so one game is never the same, EVER. Well, it's practically wrong. Unlike KOTOR II, which kinda puts in the "Never the Same Game" type of feel, Fable is practically a 2 way game. You have good, and you have evil. Not much. The only thing that keeps it from going down to below 5 is what you do imbetween the plays. You can destroy a town, buy property, marry, have ***, do many things. Morally, it does give a chance to show good and evil. Say you're not doing a quest, and you see traders being attacked by bandits. You can either help and heal the traders. Or slaughter everything in your path. Or you can just avoid combat altogether. Really, it does adapt the "The Choice is Yours" in free play, but quests are fixed, with little moral choices. Combat is pretty easy. Varying from bees to giant bandits, it really is easy. Just keep mashing X every time and you win. Sometimes you get a Florrish, which is a EXTREMELY power attack that is unblockable, which really does help, help you win a lot. Trust me, even if you don't buy in shops, you'll still have enough potions to let your bosses have 10 free hits at you and still live. Revival Phials, think of them as buyible lives, don't bother, you find them all over the place. You have 3 types of combat, melee, ranged, and magic. Melee is like I said before. Mash X and tap B and you won't really lose that much. Ranged is the most powerful type of combat. Just lock on your enemy, charge the bow to max and your enemy will be talking with the devil in no time. Magic is the weakest and the moderate at the same time. Some spells, like lightning, are completely useless. Other spells, like slow time and enflame, are spam spells. If you have those spells, it's almost impossible to lose, which it is. I can't tell you how many times I've died. Actually, I can, it's ZERO! If you want my opinion, the game is permanently put on easy. Another thing that is pretty interesting, but pretty annoying are pub games. In order to get 100% you need to get the high scores in all of the pub games to get dolls. Trust me, this is one of the reasons why 100% is not worth the effort. The games are dull, boring, and after a while, you just really can't win and you'll be throwing your controllers down in frustration.

Music: 3/10

This is my opinion, and frankly, my opinion really says IT SUCKS. The music's bland, kinda dull, and it replays a lot of times. I have to say, the town music is a little bit calming, but the battle music sucks so bad, I sometimes mute my TV. Really, I have never seen such pretty bad music ever since, scratch that, I HAVE NEVER HEARD SUCH BAD MUSIC! The soundtracks just keep repeating themselves, and they don't have much creativity. It's just the same thing over and over again. The town music is calming, but boring. The battle music, well just look above. The dungeon music is not even horror, it's HORROR-IBLE!!! I would rather listen to 6 year old screaming than it. The sound effect though, are really good. The sounds sound realistic. The swords sound like swords. The bowstrings sound like they're really creaking. If you shoot a tree, the tree sounds like it the arrow actually hit it. Lightning sound effects sound like real lightning. The fireballs sound like crackling fire. When you break down the doors, the doors sound like the actually broke. If you creep, you hear the difference than when you just walk or run. And of course, the begging of the villagers, to the battle cries of the bandits, they all sound realistic. All the more reason to laugh at the begging of the villagers. Trust me, if the begging doesn't make you evil inside, I recommend you instead lead bandits on a town raid. Trust me, it's fun, easy, and most of all, you get a lot of free property. But overall, music bad, sound effects good.

Replayiblity: 1/10

Really, it's very simple and very fixed. Play it again if you even buy the game, but really, good and evil really don't have much of a difference. Just your appearance, and the choice of killing innocents, or saving defenseless traders. Not much to do, and 100% completion is pretty useless, unless you want to scour the expansive land for simple keys and do requests for crazy doors just for obsolete equipment that quickly becomes useless. It's practically the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.... AND OVER!!! Really, I don't even see the point of replaying the game, that's why it's 1. Trust me, I don't even want to bother repeating myself, so I'll just leave the over and overs over.

Overall: 4/10

1 good, rest bad, it pretty much deserves its noob score. If I were you, I'd rent it and see if you like it, if you do, then you might want to buy it, but probably not, since both plays usually are the same thing that don't really take long. Really, it's your choice, but I recommend you either rent it, or take my advice, and probably ditch it altogether. Really, the only hours you'll have out of this are 8 hours of your life destroyed by a completely useless game. If it weren't for the graphics, you don't want to know how bad the score could've been. Trust me, if it weren't for the graphics, this game probably wouldn't even exist.

PROs:

1. "The Choice is Yours" free gameplay
2. A lot of things to do
3. Graphics of the Gods
4. Sound effects are realistic

CONs:

1. Fixed quests
2. Not much difference between good and evil
3. Quick and easy
4. 100% leaves you wanting more
5. Replayibilty 95% useless
6. Music is bad, real bad, the preciously bad music

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/30/07