[Mandrake]

So, I rented Fable from Blockbuster. So far, I've only played about 10 hours of it. Most of it was Saturday night were I stayed up all night just playing it. I'd have to say- I wasn't let down. And I'll explain why in a second. First, I knew that the hype wasn't possible. I just didn't buy the hype in the first place. I also had a feeling that the *morality* system would play out like it did. So I wasn't let down in that aspect as well. Most people were expecting an Ultima level morality and depth. I had a feeling that it would be more along the lines of kill people, become evil, be nice to people become good.

I personally love the game. The NPC textures could use some help, but the world graphics are fantastic. Just utterly gorgeous. It feels like an old English town. Wandering around in a fantasy world closer to Tolkien and Ultima, and further away from Slayers, Final Fantasy, Grandia et al Japanese RPG's. Not that I dislike J-RPG's, I just somehow miss the feeling of wandering through a true western fantasy setting, with a real western feel too it. And this had it in spades.

The trees, the light shining through the trees- it's attention to detail is brilliant. The music is done by Danny Elfman, and doesn't appear too much. It's much more like a movie soundtrack- background music you don't really notice. Which is ok by me.

Now- the game isn't perfect. But being a game designer I just took that with a grain of salt and instead saw the flaws made with this game as something to learn from for my own games. For example, the controls are nightmarish. It reminds me of the controls for the first Resident Evil or Alone in the Dark. But the game is great in spite of the controls.

Where Fable fails is in NPC interaction- it really is EXACTLY like the Sims. The NPC's barely talk. The mostly emote (either applaud when you are good, or run in fear if you are bad, and chatter about in some weird English accents), and you can flirt and marry, but it's (again) like the sims in that you barely get attached to the characters. The NPC's really don't have a personality. They just kind of exist. And the fact that there are so many of them, and without personality- it just doesn't make them even close to being interesting.

With that said, for some reason you do feel like they are real people- just not ones that are interesting. It's not like in Ultima where every townsperson is interesting and has a story, or as in J-RPG's where the NPC's are helpful and tell you about your quest and where to go. They are basically scenery. Cool scenery, realistic scenery, but just scenery none-the-less. Note: This is not a bad thing. It works well within this game. Just not something I would do for a game I was working on.

Anyway, back to the game. The enemy AI is fantastic. It's a load of fun- and can be really difficult to fight in some areas. I know some reviews gave it an *easy* level, but they probably don't play RPG's like I do. I play 'em on the edge. I rarely ever buy heal potions and I never purposefully level up. Dangerous? Yes. But I find the RPG experience much more enjoyable this way. And it made this game pretty challenging.

Which brings up another point about the controls- using items and magic can very hazardous in battle since it does not pause combat when cycling through items/spells. Again- a minor quibble and something I know to avoid whenever making an action RPG.

So, let's go onto the good points. This game is really repayable, IMHO. I have a feeling that after I buy it, it will be one of those games I go back to every now and again just to play it. Like Ultima 3 on the nes(yes, I still play it about once a season, I'm a sick little boy). It's fun trying out different archetypes, and really the plot is non-existent (you can completely skip it if you want. I spent three hours the other day just exploring and killing things for shits and giggles), I mean it's there and you can follow it (and it's pretty cool. Much more English Fantasy than J-Fantasy, which, as I said above, can be a good thing), but it's not necessity so you can play again from the start and just go and entirely different route.

Some people complain about it being too short- but I think that's a good thing with this much replayibility. It would suck to have to sit through 100 hours of gameplay just to see what it was like to do things differently. In my mind this can be a bonus. And also- it's been a long time since I've thought about a game when I wasn't playing it. Last one like that was Ultima 4 (mind you, that was 3 years ago when I had played U4 for the first time for the PC, the nes one, while graphically better, just isn't as enchanting). This game is seeping in. It's got me wondering about what I can do when I get home and can play it some more. This is a really good thing.

I've played some good games lately, but none that I actually thought about when I wasn't playing it. FF9 is good (just beat it), FF10 is ok. The sims came close, but I got bored of that after a day. Actually, the funny thing about the Sims isn't that I loved it for the gameplay, but for the programming ideas. The concepts as a game designer. Weird. Anyway, in my recent memory I have had some fun playing a lot of games in the last few years (Grandia, Grandia 2, Lunar, Lufia, Breath of Fire), but none have brought me in like this in awhile. Before U4, the only game I could think of like that was Chrono Trigger.

But I guess this happens when you take away the control of the game from the player and place the emphasis on story. You get a really great story, but the actual player doesn't get pulled in and feel like he is in control as much. There has to be a balance, somewhere with the best of both worlds.

Anyway, I started playing this game determined to make my character into a bad ass evil wizard. I'm slowly making my way there. I have a feeling at later levels I'll be able to raze an entire village to the ground by myself. I sure hop so. Although it is harder than I thought to be evil. I kind of feel bad murdering the people in the game. But, sometimes it is funny to hear them scream and run away from me and try to hide. The funniest part was were I was trying to get a trader who was scared of me to follow me. So I started punching him, he started screaming. I kept hitting him and saying "follow me". The bastard just wouldn't listen. So I killed him. Although I make sure anyone that applauds me, or worships me (yes, they bow and call me "your majesty") lives.

Also- another neat thing is you can buy titles for your character. The more well known you are, the more people call you by that title. This character is known as the Runemaster. So people cower and say "there goes the runemaster", and "show him respect...", and the obligatory "please don't kill me!".

So far, I'm greatly enjoying the game.
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"Well, last time I flicked on a lighter, I'm pretty sure I didn't create a black hole."-
Xmark

http://pauljessup.com

[Locrian]

Poo. I was lookin forward to playing this game way back when. But then they were all like "were a bunch of stupids and were only releasing it for xbox". blah. i wanted to be a big pale tatooed guy that runs around chopping peoples heads off with a bigass sword. :(

[Mandrake]

It's well worth renting an Xbox for a week and the game.
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"Well, last time I flicked on a lighter, I'm pretty sure I didn't create a black hole."-
Xmark

http://pauljessup.com

[Bjorn]

Yeah I remember when Lionhead came to have a talk at Trinity on how they did game development, about how most of their games followed from a large R&D department, and they talked about Black & White 2 and Fable, being especially about the latter very mysterious, which made me look forward to it only more. Later to find out it's been released, only for XBox, with graphics that never meet imagination or what parts they showed back then.

Forget it, I'm not touching XBox. It's huge.

[BadMrBox]

When I got my Xbox, Fable was one of those games I thought of. I got it, played it and really really came close to puke. Control is average until you have to do stuff quick, then it suck.
Graphics is allright. The Good/Evil and interaction part is pure evil in its most refined way. It's boring and the only way you can devorce is to kill your wife.
So here I am, stuck with an Xbox with only Halo1&2 to play. Well, at least I can watch american dvd's on it :).
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