Fable review

Dear Diary: Spent this morning fishing quiet estuary in Greatwood. Managed to catch a 30g fish, a personnel best.

This afternoon went to visit one of my wives in Oakvale (this polygamy thing is hard work), then took a slow stroll round the shops, looking for bargains. Had a pie for lunch.

This evening I popped into a village, where I executed a giant werewolf creature and then proceeded to run round the town centre with its severed head held aloft, to the sound of exultant town people. Got an early night.

A typical day in the life of a Fable hero reads a lot different to your standard heroic character. One of the core appeals of RPGs is the chance to become fantastical figures of power and prestige with the ability to save innocents from almost certain doom. Some let you dabble in your dark side and act out you immoral desires. Fable allows you to do all this, but it is possibly the only game I know that gives you the opportunity become known as arseface, get blind drunk, and kick chickens across the floor.

I need a Hero

What makes Fable unique is not how you change the world but how you change yourself. Fable allows you to create an utterly unique character every time you play, depending on how you play.

Every decision has a consequence; the ability to define your character physically, visually and morally is unparalleled. How you dress, how you fight, and, most importantly, the moral decision you make all affect both how you look and how others react towards you.

Your hero will become the visual embodiment of your in game experience. Will you be a powerful warrior or a beardy wizard? An assassin clad in black or a gallant, suited knight? The choices you make determine whether you will be feared or loved; respected or laughed at. Many of Fable's quests also allow you to pick which side you want to fight for. For example do you help defend a farm against bandit attack or join in with the raid?

However despite this freedom of character expression and development, the structure of Fable’s central adventure is linear rather than freeform. Almost all the areas you visit in the game are linked, allowing you to walk from one end of the map to other, but the main quest your hero undertakes is both remarkably linear and very combat-oriented, requiring you to fight through a multitude of foes to reach your objectives.

Fighting Fantasy

Luckily the combat system is solid and satisfying. It comprises of three disciplines; melee, ranged weapons and magic. What mix of disciplines you choose is down to personal preference, and you can use your experience points to further improve your skills in each area, adding a further layer of customisation to your character

Melee combat will be a lot of players' preferred fighting style as it allows you to attack, block and dodge multiple assailants. Ranged combat is the easiest to use thanks to the lock on function that does the hard work for you, but it leaves you vulnerable to charging enemies.

Meanwhile magic can be used as either a supporting aid (for example using it to heal your hero or slow down time) or as an aggressive force in its own right. High-end magic users can frazzle multiple enemies with lighting fired from their finger-tips, or summon creatures to do their bidding.

Although the controls are relatively simple, taking on multiple opponents (as is often the case) requires a degree of dexterity from the player, especially when switching between the different styles. On the downside the lock-on will fail you on occasions, and it would have been nice to have had a few combos and special moves at your disposal. However, although it’s not the most graceful of systems it retains enough flexibility and challenge to keep it from becoming overly repetitive.

Distractions

Unfortunately the central storyline itself is somewhat short in both scope and size. The core quests could easily be completed in less than ten hours, whilst the plot feels a little rushed, especially in the later stages of the game. This will no doubt come as a disappointment to hardened RPG veterans who demand marathon running times from their games.

Yet if you stick to the main quest you’ll be missing out on half the experience. The adventurous will find plenty to explore thanks to optional side quests and a multitude of other entertaining diversions. Trade between shops to make a profit, get married (to either sex), buy a home, dig for treasure, take part in a midnight fight club, gamble, get drunk, boast about you deeds, grow a beard, steal from peoples' homes at night. There’s plenty to do should you want to do it, reinforcing the notion that this is a game that is as much about the development of your hero as it is about completing his quests.

Visual fairytale

Graphically Fable is strikingly beautiful and fantastically detailed; taking some of the best element from folk, fairy-tale and fantasy to make a visually absorbing whole. All the locations you explore are truly mesmerising and full of superb touches.

The roofs of the swaying forests are pierced by rays of sunlight. Huge statues tower into the skyline. The attention lavished on everything from the smallest bush to the tallest building is breathtaking, imbuing the world with a real sense of awe.

Naturally some of the finer graphical details are reserved for your hero. Fighters pick up scars in hard fought battles. Magic users begin to bald through premature ageing. The hardened veteran at end the game is a very different person to the boy you started off with.

The moral path you take through the game also heavily effects your character appearance. Be a merciful, kind-hearted goodie-goodie and watch your character develop a heroic sheen, complemented by a glowing halo and trailing butterflies. Be a greedy, cruel, unjust evil-doer and your character will sprout horns and be trailed by a dark miasma. The chance to play through the game again from a different moral perspective is very tempting indeed.

Fablephonics

Fable also scores extremely high on the audio front. The score is suitably epic, enchanting or foreboding when it needs to be. It’s not surprising to find that the main theme was supplied by regular Tim Burton composer Danny Elfman - on home territory here.

Likewise the voice acting is top-notch, employing a range of regional English accents to great effect. Although some of samples loop too much, the dialogue will often surprise you by making reference to your actions or looks. All this helps further the superb sense of immersion than runs through the game.

With Fable, Blue Box Software has managed to create a beautiful realised world where the consequences of your every action are plain to see. Both an exciting action RPG and an involving social simulation, Fable is a luscious folk-fantasy adventure teeming with clever details, hidden secrets, and moral possibilities. It may be too short but boy is it sweet.