These days, it's hard to know what a game is really all about till you sink your teeth into it. Hype has become a norm amongst promoters and game designers, and it rarely lives up completely to it's promise.

Fable is one of those games that, as much as you admire the polish and the richness of various aspects of the game, you can't help but feel boxed in by the short comings in development. None the less, Fable is a fun little game to romp through, providing more than a few solid hours of entertainment.

The Breakdown.

Graphics: 8.5

If it's one area Fable really shines, it's the artwork. The backgrounds and fore grounds are lovingly designed and full of color. The level of detail in some areas is just jaw dropping, forcing you to stop and take in all the graphic goodness. The colors and effects are bright and beautiful. Its not often I rave about graphics like this, but Fable truly had me impressed. While there is a touch of slowdown as your are attacked by multiple enemies, it's barely noticeable. The only reason I don't give it full marks is because in order to get all these beautiful textures in, smudging and blurring is used to it's extreme to make it all work. For me, it didn't ruin a thing. For some, it's caused nausea and headaches. Go figure eh?


Sound: 7.5

Another design aspect where Fable really put the shine on. The voice acting is rich and funny(if a wee bit corny). The musical scores are enchanting. The environmental and ambient sounds are right where they need to be. Combat sounds are about the only place where I think Fable didn't deliver in totality, something that I didn't miss much on top of all the rest of the great sound. That and the re-use of voices and scores does eventually cause it to lose appeal.

Theme: 6.5

What can you say about Fable? It's the quintessential hero story, broken down into it's little bits. Vengeance. Betrayal. Suffering. Glory. Heroics. The great part about Fable is that it makes it own mark with Albion, it's own story and theme without feeling too generic. Sadly, the story shuffles along a little hurriedly towards the middle of the game, where most stories usually get really meaty. But as far as the world of Albion is concerned, it's solid, believable, and enjoyable.

Gameplay: 5.0

Sometimes, I feel like a broken record when I review games these days. I rave about all these thematic and aesthetic qualities, and then I bitch about gameplay. I guess Fable is not different in that respect.

First of all, the hype: "Fable is all about consequences for your actions, truly making the hero you want to be. Every action and decision in the world has an impact, as you grow from boyhood to man hood. And Albion is a vast realm with tons of places to explore and hoards of treasure to unearth".

Now let's talk reality. The alignment system they created IS unique, and fun, but it's does not reflect your every action with any real integrity. Bandits make you good, townsfolk and merchants make you evil. Alignment in Fable is a neat little idea tacked on the more or less linear flow of the game, with some slight impact on the way things happen. Without just straight out spoiling it for anyone who hasn't played, let me suffice to say that whether you choose good or evil, it really makes no difference until you start slaughtering towns folks. Sure you look evil, sure people cringe or run at the sight of you, but real impact on the world? Nope. Additionally, the promise of watching your hero child grow into a man, and eventually get old, is crudely broken up over "chapters" of the game, and when you are kicked out of the tutorial as a 20 something year old, you look like you are 60 within a few hours of gameplay.

Which brings me to another gripe. The other half of this virtual sandbox(as people have dubbed it) that is Fable consists of social interaction with NPCs. Wooing women, getting married, buying and renting houses. Mounting your trophies in those houses, and on. But it's very underdeveloped, like a bad clone of the sims in micro. People will love you one minute, hate you after you beat the crap out of them, then love you again if you woo and present enough gifts. While it does somewhat fill out the world of Albion beyond the linear gameplay, it doesn't deliver the dynamic choices that the hype professed.

Fable does get a few marks from me for having "stuff" to do. Tournaments, puzzle doors guarding lame loot(oh lord how lame it is), mini games, crap to dig up out of the ground or fish out of the water, and sub quests. But like a lot of other things in Fable, they are half-assed in their implementation and scope.

Now(hehe, I've had lots of time to stew about my dislikes for Fable), the layout. The entire game is zoned based, with no z-axis interaction. Worse yet, while the boarders and backgrounds are deep and intriguing, they serve to deceive you. The zones are really very tiny, and there is nothing to do. Fences mark off the edges of the zone, or a line of trees, and thats it. And since they packed so many graphics into such small areas, you end up doing a lot of LOADING....run 15 seconds through zone......LOADING.....run 15 seconds through zone......

Finally, my last true gripe about Fable. It's a simple, simple game, that when you break it down, is much like 3-d zelda with alignment changes and wifery. Any veteran RPG gamer will be left starving for mechanics and equipment selection. When it comes to weapons and armor, all there is is a few different weapon types, like 8, and 4 grades of material. That's all she wrote. The character building system is a much simplified version of what most are used to in RGPs, where instead of leveling, you just acquire points to spend in the activity you engage in.


Overall: Rating: 7/10

Analysis:

This is a game that obviously suffered in development(about 4 years...for a freaking CONSOLE game). There are core parts of the game that are totally underdeveloped, while some other parts, like alignment and aging, have been overdeveloped. I wish this had been a PC venture with more funding, and less hype. The product could have been so much better.

As it is, Fable is fun, but in the mindless older RPG fashion, where you bullishy move through content looking for better stuff. Only in Fable, you really never get it. The story is soso moving, but not very creative. And for anyone that had read up on Fable before playing it, Alignment is far less interactive than it was billed, and it is clunky in it's implementation. The social interaction aspect also sounds better on the back of the box than it is in game.

This isn't to say I haven't been having fun. I have been, leading maidens through the woods to sacrifice them to the Dark God, thinking up acts of petty evil to commit, and stealing things. I didn't stop once playing Fable last night, so I must have been enjoying myself. But too many times I found myself missing stuff I considered a necessity in games, like lots of weapons and spells. The lack of equipment variety and scale makes this game feel like Devil May Cry, not an RPG.

I think Fable for the uninitiated gamer would is a great game....they will be really wowed. For RPG veterans though, Fable is sadly just another RPG title that can be played and dismissed...too many things not implemented enough, or just plain not at all, to truly satisfy.


Ragebringer: 3.5/5

Good marks for effort and fun factor, and because I think the graphics and sound really make this game. Dismiss those and you can knock those ratings down a few notches.

Bad marks for lack of ingenuity, depth, and too much stinking hype!
Rent don't buy!

-Justin "Nenjin" Wheeler
Safehouse Staff Writer


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