Fable

"Fable is a great idea gone bad with numerous flaws."

This game is like Lamar Odom. It has great potential and all the tools to accomplish greatness, but it just doesn't reach its potential. It's got the shot, got the rebound, and got the quickness. But at the end of the game, it loses because it misses so many things that are important to making a quality game. Three years of development lead to a game that has some brilliant ideas, but that ultimately feels rushed. Why do I say this? Because all though the game is not very linear and there are many things to do in the huge world of Fable, it still doesn't feel good enough. This game sacrificed a good story and character development for gameplay options and innovative ideas. This isn't a bad thing, if you can make the player's choices feel significant. But this game really doesn't convince me that I make the choices in the game. If you are going to give me the freedom to be who I want to be, then why do I have to be a white Caucasian Hero every game. I, as a gamer, want the option of choosing to be male or female. I, as a gamer, want the option of choosing to be black, white, yellow, green, Hispanic, whatever. You may think that this game lets you choose your own path and it does. But it still feels limited. You can change your hairstyle, tattoos, clothing, and you can even grow to be fat or look like an Ethipian if you choose. Overall, this game it actually too limited, has a terrible storyline and is way too short. But the innovative ideas and immersive worlds make it worth a play through. Just please, don't call this game an RPG.

Graphics- 8/10 – The backgrounds look really great. The world is large and it looks very nice. The character models look pretty good as well. The problems with the graphics are that every NPC looks similar. Every guard looks similar. Every bandit looks similar. There are very few different models. Also, when you see cutscenes, the people who are talking don't even close their mouths when they stop talking. They keep there mouths open through the whole dialogue. Also, while playing the game it did get a little laggy. I'm not sure if it happened to anyone else, but it gave me a headache.

Sound- 6/10- Voice acting is horrible. NPCs are really annoying and they just repeat what they say over and over and over again. One time, I talked to a priest in the Temple of Avo, and the first time I talked to him his voice was different than when I talked to him a second time! And the difference wasn't a slight one either; it was obvious! The music is alright but nothing spectacular. The one thing that I was really pissed about was that when you kill a wasp, it sounds like you killed a horse. The battle noises are pretty good, such as when you block a sword attack, the metal on metal sounds great. But every one sound the same. I think the developers just recycled three voice actors for all the NPCs. Almost all women sound the same, all bandits sound the same, and all traders sound the same. They also could have done a better job with the sex noises. They don't sound authentic at all. All though I have to admit, it's funny as hell when you hear your wife say, “OHHH, you're so norty.”

Gameplay- 7/10 – There are really some great ideas here. You can get married, have sex, own your own home, choose to be bad or good, and many other things. But all of it feels forced and insignificant. Getting married doesn't bread many rewards other than a dowry. The sex in the game is pointless. It's funny the first time, but after that, it just gets stupid. You can not reap any benefits from it and it's too hard to get your wife to go to bed with you. Furthermore, you can't have kids. This is an example of how this game fools you. It says you have the opportunity to make any choices you want in this game. You can have a wife and even bone her, but you can't have kids? It makes me feel limited as a gamer.
Also, choosing to be good or bad is a great idea, but it also falls short of changing the game based on what you choose. I played the game through with two different types of characters and choosing to be good or evil doesn't change the story or how the game feels.

With that said, I actually liked how the battle system is. It's simplistic but it never gets old. Since there are three ways that you can attack, and fighting actually makes you a better fighter, there is a purpose. The three different types of attacks are melee, bow, and magic. Using a melee weapon will earn you strength experience points, using your bow will earn you skill points, and using magic will earn you Will points. In turn, you can use these points to level up your stats and learn new attacks. It's simple, yet addictive. I also like that the blocking in this game actually works. In a lot of games, blocking is meaningless. But in Fable, every player should know how to block and use it effectively. I think the battle system is the only flawless feature in this game.

Story – 5/10 – The story is horrendous. It's not worthy of being called an RPG. The very few twists are predictable and the lack of character development makes you apathetic to the what happens in to the characters. For instance, Whisper is an annoying young girl that you meet at the start of the game. But there is absolutely no character development and what happens to her is really irrelevant. You start out in the game as an unnamed Hero. As a boy you are asked to get a gift for your sister. What happens next is so cliché and basically the rest of the game is too. Another thing I happen to have a big issue with is the pacing of the storyline. Some days I would go three, four, or even five hours without furthering the story. I was usually doing things like going to different shops, doing side quests and doing other menial tasks. All of this sounds fine and dandy, but they got in the way of the story. This is not an RPG. I repeat…this is not an RPG. It is an action game and maybe an action/RPG. RPGS have there main focus on the story and character development. They have a central conflict, a small group of characters with a story behind each one, and a good balance of gameplay and story. Let's take Final Fantasy VII for example (a game many consider the greatest RPG of all time). It had seven main characters each with their own deep story. It had a first the central theme that Shinra was destroying the planet, but later it turned into something more extraordinary when it was about saving the planet and confronting Sephiroth. And it had it's fair share of gameplay but it slowed things down for some good storytelling at just the right times. Comparing Fable to Final Fantasy VII is just plain idiotic, but I was just giving you aq good example of an RPG. Fable, on the other hand, puts emphasis on gameplay and new features and seems to leave the story for last.

Replayability- 5/10- This game takes from 10 hours to 15 hours to beat the first time through. It really depends on all the extra stuff you do. After you beat the game, you can continue but there really isn't a point. To reiterate, playing through with a different alignment (to good or evil) doesn't really change the experience of the game. This is the main reason why it got points taken off here. It just doesn't feel like I control the destiny of my Hero. Playing good or bad only changes a few things that are mostly insignificant. If you play and be evil, people will not like you. They'll run away and start screaming and treat you like crap. But you can still marry (a man or a woman) and the game feels the same as if you were playing with a good Hero. One thing that helps the replayability is the good stat keeping. This is one thing I loved about this game. Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, is kept in the statistics. You can see your favorite weapons, number of decapitations, your weight, sexuality, your number of houses, the quests you've taken, the money, you've made, your good or bad alignment, and even the farthest chicken kick you have achieved. But all in all, most of the “extra things to do” in this game feel pointless.

Final Recommendation- 6/10- I think this is one of those games that people will like, but not love. You know that saying “You'll either hate it or love it.” It doesn't apply to this. My consensus is that most gamers will like this game for it's cool features new in the world of gaming, but will ultimately shun away from it because of lack of quality story and gameplay. It's addictive and actually offers some very innovative features. But in a medieval setting, where are the horses? I didn't see one the entire game! Where are the cool features of managing a house and your kids? I believe the developers promised that you could have kids. As a result of the limitations in gameplay this game is actually more linear than many may think. Customization is pretty good. You can change the clothes your Hero wears, his weapons, his tattoos and even give him a nickname. But you can't choose the gender of your Hero, you can't choose the race, and you can't choose a class. There is so many flaws in this game that make it fall short of greatness. This is a great idea gone bad. A lack of character development, storytelling, and voice acting leaves me a little empty too. In the end, it feels like I wasted my time with this game, though it did bring me a few thrills. I can't wait to see what they do with Fable 2 on the Xbox 360. There was a lot of hype with the release of this game, because honestly, the commercial sounds really good. But Fable does not live up to its hype. Hopefully, they fix the flaws that kept this title from a Championship Belt.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/19/05