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This thread has been linked to the game 'Fable: The Lost Chapters'.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. Once upon a time, there was a man who liked to make computer games. He was quite good at making games, and so the games he made were a lot of fun. Until, one day, he got a little bit carried away. He told everyone he was going to make the best game ever, and how you could to do anything you wanted in the game. Everyone was very excited. But when the game came out, everyone saw that the game wasn't as good as the man had said it would be, and the whole kingdom was very disappointed.
Okay, that's quite enough of that. I don't think I can keep that 'storytime' style up for the rest of this review. But if you haven't guessed, the game in question was Peter Molyneaux's 'Fable', and
with the forthcoming release of Fable 2, now is as good a time as any to take a look back at that game's PC and Xbox based prequel. But rather than focus on how the game failed to deliver on its designers promises, let's see what Fable has to offer in its own right.
Fable is an action RPG that takes place in the land of Albion, a place where magic, monsters and dodgy British accents are commonplace. The game casts you as a fresh-faced young lad who, after seeing his village burnt to the ground by bandits, decides to train to become a hero. What
that really means is that you spend the first few minutes of the game playing through a glorified tutorial, which is a fairly standard practice these days. Although it is a bit annoying that you can't skip this tutorial section on subsequent playthroughs.
Once you've complete the tutorial section and earned your Honorary Hero Badge, you can go out into the world and become a famous hero. Or an infamous one, perhaps, because Fable lets you
choose whether you want to be a good guy or a bad guy. Which sounds awesome, but all it really affects is the way the people of Albion react to you. If you're a famous hero, they'll cheer you and can even be coerced into marrying you - which, in the context of the game, is a rather pointless affair. Or if you're a bad guy, they'll boo at you. Your character's appearance will also start looking angelic or demonic depending upon the choices you make, though that's an entirely cosmetic change.
Really, nothing you do has much of an impact on the game world. The game has a few minor sidequests, but these tend to be small stand alone missions. The main storyline deals with your quest for revenge against the person who destroyed your village, but it's all rather inflexible. Whether you're playing as a good or evil character, the main quest remains the same. So should you decide to play the game through again, very little will be different. Fable is quite a linear game. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing normally,but the game's direct competition at the time
was Morrowind, a game that let you explore a full 3D world. It certainly didn't do the game any favours. Though doesn't look half bad, certainly for a title that started its life on the XBox.
So what of the game's combat system? It's fairly intuitive, with spells, attacking and blocking all being assigned to a single button each. Naturally, you can buy your own weapons and so forth, and upgrade your skills to make you a better fighter. But oddly enough, the game ends up
penalizing you for trying to specialize. There are points in the game where being a badass fighter, an awesome wizard or a great archer means you're pretty much stuffed. Whereas being a jack of all trades means you can kick the backside of any monster that you come up against.
In fact, 'jack of all trades, master of none' as the expression goes, pretty much describes Fable. It's got a few interesting features - the villagers who cheer you on, the choice of being good or evil but it doesn't really do anything well. It's too linear to be particularly replayable, the plot is fairly clichéd, the spell system is very basic,and all in all it's a rather underwhelming experience. Now it's entirely possible that Fable 2 may be the game that Fable should have been, but unless you can borrow a copy of this off someone, there's no real reason to play its predecessor.
Okay, that's quite enough of that. I don't think I can keep that 'storytime' style up for the rest of this review. But if you haven't guessed, the game in question was Peter Molyneaux's 'Fable', and
with the forthcoming release of Fable 2, now is as good a time as any to take a look back at that game's PC and Xbox based prequel. But rather than focus on how the game failed to deliver on its designers promises, let's see what Fable has to offer in its own right.
Fable is an action RPG that takes place in the land of Albion, a place where magic, monsters and dodgy British accents are commonplace. The game casts you as a fresh-faced young lad who, after seeing his village burnt to the ground by bandits, decides to train to become a hero. What
that really means is that you spend the first few minutes of the game playing through a glorified tutorial, which is a fairly standard practice these days. Although it is a bit annoying that you can't skip this tutorial section on subsequent playthroughs.
Once you've complete the tutorial section and earned your Honorary Hero Badge, you can go out into the world and become a famous hero. Or an infamous one, perhaps, because Fable lets you
choose whether you want to be a good guy or a bad guy. Which sounds awesome, but all it really affects is the way the people of Albion react to you. If you're a famous hero, they'll cheer you and can even be coerced into marrying you - which, in the context of the game, is a rather pointless affair. Or if you're a bad guy, they'll boo at you. Your character's appearance will also start looking angelic or demonic depending upon the choices you make, though that's an entirely cosmetic change.
Really, nothing you do has much of an impact on the game world. The game has a few minor sidequests, but these tend to be small stand alone missions. The main storyline deals with your quest for revenge against the person who destroyed your village, but it's all rather inflexible. Whether you're playing as a good or evil character, the main quest remains the same. So should you decide to play the game through again, very little will be different. Fable is quite a linear game. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing normally,but the game's direct competition at the time
was Morrowind, a game that let you explore a full 3D world. It certainly didn't do the game any favours. Though doesn't look half bad, certainly for a title that started its life on the XBox.
So what of the game's combat system? It's fairly intuitive, with spells, attacking and blocking all being assigned to a single button each. Naturally, you can buy your own weapons and so forth, and upgrade your skills to make you a better fighter. But oddly enough, the game ends up
penalizing you for trying to specialize. There are points in the game where being a badass fighter, an awesome wizard or a great archer means you're pretty much stuffed. Whereas being a jack of all trades means you can kick the backside of any monster that you come up against.
In fact, 'jack of all trades, master of none' as the expression goes, pretty much describes Fable. It's got a few interesting features - the villagers who cheer you on, the choice of being good or evil but it doesn't really do anything well. It's too linear to be particularly replayable, the plot is fairly clichéd, the spell system is very basic,and all in all it's a rather underwhelming experience. Now it's entirely possible that Fable 2 may be the game that Fable should have been, but unless you can borrow a copy of this off someone, there's no real reason to play its predecessor.
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Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. Once upon a time, there was a man who liked to make computer games. He was quite good at making games, and so the games he made were a lot of fun. Until, one day, he got a little bit carried away. He told everyone he was going to make the best game ever, and how you could to do anything you wanted in the game. Everyone was very excited. But when the game came out, everyone saw that the game wasn't as good as the man had said it would be, and the whole kingdom was very disappointed.
Okay, that's quite enough of that. I don't think I can keep that 'storytime' style up for the rest of this review. But if you haven't guessed, the game in question was Peter Molyneaux's 'Fable', and
with the forthcoming release of Fable 2, now is as good a time as any to take a look back at that game's PC and Xbox based prequel. But rather than focus on how the game failed to deliver on its designers promises, let's see what Fable has to offer in its own right.
Fable is an action RPG that takes place in the land of Albion, a place where magic, monsters and dodgy British accents are commonplace. The game casts you as a fresh-faced young lad who, after seeing his village burnt to the ground by bandits, decides to train to become a hero. What
that really means is that you spend the first few minutes of the game playing through a glorified tutorial, which is a fairly standard practice these days. Although it is a bit annoying that you can't skip this tutorial section on subsequent playthroughs.
Once you've complete the tutorial section and earned your Honorary Hero Badge, you can go out into the world and become a famous hero. Or an infamous one, perhaps, because Fable lets you
choose whether you want to be a good guy or a bad guy. Which sounds awesome, but all it really affects is the way the people of Albion react to you. If you're a famous hero, they'll cheer you and can even be coerced into marrying you - which, in the context of the game, is a rather pointless affair. Or if you're a bad guy, they'll boo at you. Your character's appearance will also start looking angelic or demonic depending upon the choices you make, though that's an entirely cosmetic change.
Really, nothing you do has much of an impact on the game world. The game has a few minor sidequests, but these tend to be small stand alone missions. The main storyline deals with your quest for revenge against the person who destroyed your village, but it's all rather inflexible. Whether you're playing as a good or evil character, the main quest remains the same. So should you decide to play the game through again, very little will be different. Fable is quite a linear game. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing normally,but the game's direct competition at the time
was Morrowind, a game that let you explore a full 3D world. It certainly didn't do the game any favours. Though doesn't look half bad, certainly for a title that started its life on the XBox.
So what of the game's combat system? It's fairly intuitive, with spells, attacking and blocking all being assigned to a single button each. Naturally, you can buy your own weapons and so forth, and upgrade your skills to make you a better fighter. But oddly enough, the game ends up
penalizing you for trying to specialize. There are points in the game where being a badass fighter, an awesome wizard or a great archer means you're pretty much stuffed. Whereas being a jack of all trades means you can kick the backside of any monster that you come up against.
In fact, 'jack of all trades, master of none' as the expression goes, pretty much describes Fable. It's got a few interesting features - the villagers who cheer you on, the choice of being good or evil but it doesn't really do anything well. It's too linear to be particularly replayable, the plot is fairly clichéd, the spell system is very basic,and all in all it's a rather underwhelming experience. Now it's entirely possible that Fable 2 may be the game that Fable should have been, but unless you can borrow a copy of this off someone, there's no real reason to play its predecessor.
Okay, that's quite enough of that. I don't think I can keep that 'storytime' style up for the rest of this review. But if you haven't guessed, the game in question was Peter Molyneaux's 'Fable', and
with the forthcoming release of Fable 2, now is as good a time as any to take a look back at that game's PC and Xbox based prequel. But rather than focus on how the game failed to deliver on its designers promises, let's see what Fable has to offer in its own right.
Fable is an action RPG that takes place in the land of Albion, a place where magic, monsters and dodgy British accents are commonplace. The game casts you as a fresh-faced young lad who, after seeing his village burnt to the ground by bandits, decides to train to become a hero. What
that really means is that you spend the first few minutes of the game playing through a glorified tutorial, which is a fairly standard practice these days. Although it is a bit annoying that you can't skip this tutorial section on subsequent playthroughs.
Once you've complete the tutorial section and earned your Honorary Hero Badge, you can go out into the world and become a famous hero. Or an infamous one, perhaps, because Fable lets you
choose whether you want to be a good guy or a bad guy. Which sounds awesome, but all it really affects is the way the people of Albion react to you. If you're a famous hero, they'll cheer you and can even be coerced into marrying you - which, in the context of the game, is a rather pointless affair. Or if you're a bad guy, they'll boo at you. Your character's appearance will also start looking angelic or demonic depending upon the choices you make, though that's an entirely cosmetic change.
Really, nothing you do has much of an impact on the game world. The game has a few minor sidequests, but these tend to be small stand alone missions. The main storyline deals with your quest for revenge against the person who destroyed your village, but it's all rather inflexible. Whether you're playing as a good or evil character, the main quest remains the same. So should you decide to play the game through again, very little will be different. Fable is quite a linear game. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing normally,but the game's direct competition at the time
was Morrowind, a game that let you explore a full 3D world. It certainly didn't do the game any favours. Though doesn't look half bad, certainly for a title that started its life on the XBox.
So what of the game's combat system? It's fairly intuitive, with spells, attacking and blocking all being assigned to a single button each. Naturally, you can buy your own weapons and so forth, and upgrade your skills to make you a better fighter. But oddly enough, the game ends up
penalizing you for trying to specialize. There are points in the game where being a badass fighter, an awesome wizard or a great archer means you're pretty much stuffed. Whereas being a jack of all trades means you can kick the backside of any monster that you come up against.
In fact, 'jack of all trades, master of none' as the expression goes, pretty much describes Fable. It's got a few interesting features - the villagers who cheer you on, the choice of being good or evil but it doesn't really do anything well. It's too linear to be particularly replayable, the plot is fairly clichéd, the spell system is very basic,and all in all it's a rather underwhelming experience. Now it's entirely possible that Fable 2 may be the game that Fable should have been, but unless you can borrow a copy of this off someone, there's no real reason to play its predecessor.