a few thoughts on Fable

Not being the owner of an Xbox, I can't say I was especially excited about the release of Fable and its promise of an RPG redefined. Like Halo before it, Fable is the latest big name genre title meant to convince people why they got an XBox in the first place. Not to say the the 'cube is any better; both platforms seem to get the short end of the third-party stick when it comes to RPGs. So when I was invited to a gathering to play Fable, I took it as an opportunity to see what all the Xbox-humping was about.

Because Chris was too damn impatient to wait, he had already purchased his copy and played for a short time before the "Fable Summit", firing off an unexpected three word review of "holy fucking shit". Naturally I became excited at this point and was ready to see what Mr. Molyneux had for us after his critically lauded Black and White. Since Chris already had a go at it, and Tony preferred to uh...watch, I was left holding the controller and taking my first steps to becoming a renowned hero in the land of Albion.

Knowing the morality play that's behind Fable, I began my character as a chicken-kicking machine, conjuring up my fondest memories of A Link to the Past. Thinking that livestock abuse would definitely score me some baddie points, I was only actually reprimanded for punching an innnocent woman in the back. I then proceeded to loot an Old Man's barn, disappointing my father once again. It became unclear how I was supposed to earn gold and still remain evil, so I decided to be more heroic and do what the game told me. After the requisite Bandit Invasion, my town burned to the ground and revenge branded on my soul, the Mysterious Old Man begins to train me as a hero.

The tutorial at Hero School was set up to be like something out of Harry Potter, yet no real explanation was given to why I could suddenly shoot lighting from my fingers at straw dummies. When the game begins with an overbearing backstory on why you're going to be a hero at all, just something, a scrap of information even would have been nice. It's not like the "boy that grows up to save the world" approach hasn't been used before.

I had read that the loading screens were unbearably long, but I just found them to be too numerous. Going to a new town? Here's a loading screen to pass the time. Taking a quest? Have a loading screen! Getting older? Load screens never go out of style, do they? For a game that begs you to put yourself in the boots of your character, there is far too much time spent outside of the game. Furthermore, I found quests to be packaged, even prescribed - there was really no wandering to be had. There was a clear goal or "boss" for each quest, complete with a nice garden path to lead you. And from what I've read, there is a point in Fable where you are on a collision course with the end of the game, whether you want to be or not.

Probably the most infuriating decision was to include experience orbs. When you kill a monster, a glowing ball flies out which you must collect to get experience. For a game that apparently tries to pride itself in getting away from the traditional stat-mill that are RPGs, having "experience points" at all is a questionable design decision. Why not just get experience in your skills from using them like in Dungeon Siege? How is it that I can level up my strength attributes when I go into the Levelling Machine, when all my experience orbs were collected using Lightning and Fireball? It just didn't make sense. Strangely enough, another game shares this unnerving method of experience collecting: Guardian Heroes Advance. Every monster on screen will drop a jewel when they are slain, and worst of all they will disappear after a few seconds if you don't collect them. At least Fable lets you use the right trigger button to vacuum up any stray orbs.

Stealing from shopkeepers or starting shit with guards seemed to evaporate when I left town and came back. I had stolen something from a shop, and then picked a fight with a guard on my way out alerting the entire town and giving me instant Bandit status. Considering that my reputation as a goody two-shoes travels the land in seconds, giving me a crowd of peons to applaud me, the fact that I can enter the same town and the guards not know that I can be troublesome seems a bit inconsistent.

Where Fable truly shines though are the environments and character interaction. Instead of the inane NPC conversations all too familiar to players of conventional RPGs, you could theoretically run through town only talking to people glowing green, which are the ones holding the quests. However what makes this game fun is your ability to interact deeper than simple dialogue trees with each NPC. Flirt with the ladies or intimidate the guards - it's your choice. You get a selection of "emotes" at your disposal for this purpose, from belching to an evil sneer. Furthermore, based on injuries you sustain, you will start to show scars or appear more weathered. You will also age, but from what I've read this happens far too fast. Depending on what attributes you choose to upgrade, your character's stature will also change slightly. Although a bit cliche, evil characters will grow horns or mysteriously develop tattoos - but this completely eliminates potential for playing a scheming, clandestine evildoer, as Tony points out.

Fable's visuals also possess a legitimate storybook quality, giving the buildings and characters a playful charm, which the voice acting serves well. The low poly graphics and washed out textures made the game look older than it was, but I was content to accept Chris' excuse of it being on his gigantic TV.

Before the knee-jerking begins, an important thing to note is that most of these observations were made after playing for only a few hours, and the only reason I decided to post anything at all was for the purposes of discussion. Both Chris and Tony have reviews posted, and although I understand where they saw the game's merits I think my jaded gamer instincts kicked in while playing. Not seeing my character bulk up or change significantly, with only a small scar below the left eye to show for my exploits, you could easily argue that I hadn't yet experienced the game's full potential. This is probably true, but there was a definite point after completing my first quests where I had to ask, "Is this it?", which is never a good sign. It just felt like the game had been pared down from its initial design in order to meet a deadline, or perhaps to avoid the daunting task of creating something as massive as Morrowind, and focused instead on the action with some clever character development thrown in to seem unique. Indeed, the social interaction and reputation building is a nice touch, but it didn't seem developed enough to be useful. Sure, NPCs will react differently to each of your emotes - but does this affect entire towns, or farther down the road, what quests become available to you? I found it interesting that in one of the early quests you could either thwart the bandits, or be the bandits. Once you start down the dark path, though, will it dominate your destiny, or is there always a chance for redemption by choosing more good quests? Apparently there are two opposing shrines in the game that will negate any good or evil deeds you have committed, for a fee. To me the inclusion of such a thing undermines the entire purpose of the game, and ultimately makes Fable more black and white than a character study.

so poorly cast as a malcontent