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Review:

24th October 2004:
Fable
For every choice, a consequence. Imagine a world where every action determines what you become. Imagine no longer, Fable is finally here.
Posted by John Grothier - Xbox - UK and Europe

For as long as I've owned an Xbox I've been waiting for Fable. Peter Molyneux and his team at Lionhead have changed the name of this epic role-playing title several times before resting on Fable. Now Xbox owners will get the chance to live a life in the world of Albion, to become good or evil - or even a mixture of the both, marry, grow old, burp, fart - even have edited sex - the world of Albion is yours for the taking.

The first thing you will notice is the glorious opening sequence, which thanks to Danny Elfmans fantastic score, sets the mood of the game perfectly. The story begins as your character, a young boy, must do enough good deeds around town to earn enough money to buy his sister a birthday present. This is a great way of learning how to interact with the games characters. NPC's with a green tint around them have something to say to your character, but you can interact with any character in the game with a selection of gestures, which grows with your character. Gestures will often affect how people react to you, and also what they call out to you. They will even run from you in terror if you have been a little too evil. Renown is also an important part of Fable, battle a boss and show your trophy around town, and people will cheer and clap and generally say nice things about you. While some of Peter Molyneux's ideas did not make the final game, never before has a game felt like a living world - thanks, in no small part, to some fantastic, and often very funning voice acting.

Fable has a main story path once your character has been adopted by the Guild. Here you can use the map table to access all available quests for your character, some are part of the main story, shown in gold, or some are optional - but completing them will earn you more money, experience and importantly renown. In the guild you can also train in hand-to hand combat and weaponry skills. The Guild also has an archery range and an area where you can practice magic - or will as it's called in Fable. Once you learn how to fight and block and use a basic lightning attack, your first quest will be to take on some rather large wasps in the picnic area, and it's here you will encounter your first boss - the wasp queen. Enemies and bosses in Fable are varied and will often challenge even the most experienced player, from common bandits to werewolf's and the undead, you will quickly have to discover their weaknesses. Fighting in Fable is pure action, and a combination of might and magic is often best in defeating enemies. Once an enemy is beaten it will leave experience orbs, which when collected you can 'spend' on levelling up your character and learning new spells or improving the ones you have already learnt. You will have to work very hard if you want to max out all your characters attributes, and after a short time the level of experience needed rises steeply.

The world of Fable is full of many different types of weapons, armour, potions, produce and gifts to buy or sell. Indeed, a tidy profit can been made buying and selling from town to town. Items and rare gems are often left when you defeat your foes, and also there are some legendary weapons and valuable items hidden around the world in silver chests - once you have found enough silver keys, also secreted around Albion, they are yours for the taking. Finding silver keys is made much easier if you possess a fishing rod and a spade...

The magic, or will, system in Fable is superbly implemented, with many different types of spells to learn - each with some dazzling effects to go with them. Some of the spells will also effect your alignment between good and evil - but you will have fun many an hour just trying out some of the more destructive spells on your hapless victims. As your character becomes more experienced - you can become a powerful magic user casting multiple spells with some devastating results. If you choose you can summon ghostly swords or creatures to fight by your side - whichever way you choose to fight, you will still earn that valuable experience. Using your will more than the sword will give you many more experience points to spend on upgrading your magic arsenal.

This is another choice you will have to make in the world of Albion - you can specialise in the sword, bow or will - or a combination of all three. Your appearance in the game will change depending on your weapon of choice - take a bow and arrow and use a more stealthy approach to fighting and you will become more lithe and nimble. Fight hand-to-hand combat and your character will soon become broad shouldered with a more muscular physique. Use magic too much and your character will become bald, and as you fight, your character will also pick up scars from your scrapping. You can even change your hairstyle at one of the many barbers around the land, and the consequences of your good or bad deeds will eventually change your appearance - a bright halo for being good, while horns will take route if your actions are evil. Growing old is also part of the story, but we found that in only a few short 'game days' our character was already in his fifties. It seems odd that your characters aging process is so fast, as other characters in the game do not age - even your wife, if you get married. Nice idea though.

The graphics in Fable use the much talked about bloom lighting technique, which is absolutely stunning, and it gives the game a fairy-tail look, but without being overly cute. On the downside the graphics engine running the game does run into problems - usually when your character is in a town and there are large amounts of NPC's running around, but even the odd drop in framerate cannot spoil the beauty of Fable. Each area of the world of Albion has its own distinct look - but long loading times between the many different sections of the world break the game up too much, and the game world often feels disjointed. One thing that's nice to see is a game released in this country with the correct spelling for armour, honour etc.

The sound in Fable is absolutely the best I've encountered in a computer game. From the dynamic score from Danny Elfman to the superbly witty voice talent, the sound in Fable is a true work of genius. As you journey around the game world you will encounter various NPC's that are brought to life with various accents from around Britain. This gives the whole game a more humorous, and also a more believable take on the role-playing genre - and at times you will laugh out loud at the incredible amounts of sharp dialogue in the game. The music, as I've mentioned, is beautifully scored - and it gives the game the epic feel that it truly deserves.

Overall Fable is a very special game indeed, and I hope that many of the features that Peter Molyneux has implemented become standard in the role-playing genre. While slightly ambitious in parts, the overall game is nothing short of a masterpiece.

John Grothier

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Review Summary:

The action role-playing game of the year. Become good of evil in a believable world full of interesting characters and challenging quests. Will you fight for honour and justice or betray the people? Beautiful graphics and a perfect soundtrack make this the game that was worth waiting for. Become who you want to be - the world of Albion is yours for the taking.

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