Malik
(9/23/04)
Fable (XBox)
Lionhead
Studios/Big Blue Box
So this game has
been out for a bit over a week as I begin this thing. It was in the
works for something like 4 years, so a couple of weeks for me to get
around to it is definitely not too much to ask for. For those who
didn't follow the creation and development of this game, one of
Peter Molyneaux's best ideas (and that's saying a lot for the man
who brought us Black and White and Populous), it was a long and
interesting ride. The game received a huge amount of hype about a
year ago, when developmental screen shots and concept art first
began to hit the major outlets. The basic idea was to create the
most involved, interactive, and enjoyable game experiences of all
time. So, did Mr. Molyneaux succeed? Read on...
Plot
When you first
start playing, you are a mere child of a peasant in a small village.
It is your sister's birthday, and you have, once again, forgotten to
get her a gift. So, your father makes a deal with you; if you
perform good deeds, he will give you 1 GP per good deed. So, you set
out to find some money for the gift and to find a suitable gift to
give. There are a few different people who need some assistance, in
the form of anything from a poor child being bullied, to his sister
that lost her teddy-bear, to a woman wanting proof that her husband
is cheating on her. However, you don't have to go with just the
obvious solutions, like telling the woman about how her husband is
currently with his mistress...no...you could cover up for the
husband and accept his nice bribe of a GP (which makes it all
balanced in the end, in terms of earning some cash).
Once you finally
give your sister her gift, you village is suddenly assaulted by a
band of bandits. As you hide, your home is completely destroyed and
countless villagers are slain...seemingly in search of you. When the
smoke clears, and you emerge from hiding, then you encounter Maze,
the head of the heroes guild. He, without much explanation,
teleports you to the guild and leaves you in the care of the guild master.
From this point on, you are a student in the art of being a hero (or
villain...your call on that one, hehe).
With time, you are
taught the arts of melee combat, archery, and spell casting
(complete with starting with a nice lightning spell straight out of
the Emperor's arsenal in Star Wars). Then you are tested,
constantly, on your various talents and given the details of what
the hero guild exists for...solving missions presented by those who
are willing to cough up the gold. At the same time, you will be
earning prestige or fame for your deeds, and this will allow you to
accomplish even more missions and gain the respect of the world...or
the fear of the world, hehe.
Game Play
The basics of this
game can be found in the mechanisms of several important gaming
milestones. The most obvious, and the one that bears the most direct
influence on this title is that of the 3D era Zelda games. That is
where the basic control scheme comes from. The camera, the action
mechanics, and movement of the character, and the feel of the towns
and the main world all come from a Zelda game.
Primarily, the
controls are quite Zelda-esque. You are given the control options of
talking (both in and out of towns), swinging a sword (or other melee
weapon...frying pan anyone? Yup, there's one of those), target lock
(hold the R button and you will continue to target a specific
individual, be if friendly or enemy), the use of a bow (which can be
done in either first person aiming, in target-lock mode, or
free-form), the ability to block attacks with the holding of a
button, the ability to dodge and roll (using the same block button
with the left analogue stick), the use of special items (controlled
from the direction pad), and the use of magic (by holding L and
using one of the four face buttons). Also, like with Zelda, you will
face large monsters as bosses and common enemies that range from
insects to bandits to hobbes (think goblins) like Link would face.
Plus, like a Zelda title; as you travel around, each area is
separated from the next by a border area that, when you cross, will
load a new area and remove the old area from interaction (like going
from one area of Zelda:OoT to the next area). However, missing from
Zelda are the puzzle filled and gigantic dungeons...instead of
dungeons, you have a few small caves, an arena, and a large world
that allows many of the quests to take place in normal towns and
forests, etc.
As for another
influence, there is the mechanism of interacting with people (and
even falling in love) that is quite similar to The Sims. This makes
up a large part of the towns and villages. For example, when you
enter a town, or any area with friendly individuals, you are given
the option to talk with them, or to use one of the many gestures and
actions you learn as you progress in popularity (once you have a
little fame, you can use it to flirt with people, or boast about
your abilities, or laugh) or in alignment (when you are evil enough,
you will learn how to properly use your middle finger, if you catch
my meaning...or if you go good, you can learn to say thank you or to
apologize). You can also use gifts to make up for any social
short-comings you may have from a lack of popularity.
Also, while in
town, you can express your alignment in various ways. If you want
to, you can go ahead and steal, fight, massacre, play pub games for
money (like blackjack or a concentration/memory card game), buy new
gear, wear some new clothes (which can be either awe-inspiring, like
the robes of a good will-user...which is like a mage...or fear
invoking, like a suit of black plate armor) or just frightening),
get a hair cut, grow a beard/mustache/side burns, get a tattoo or
two (or five), or take on an odd job or two to earn some respect and
money. If you want, you can also hire a mercenary (which will drain
your cash supply), or even attract a group of followers (free) and
lead them around to help in your battles. You just have to remember
that everything you do will affect not only your alignment, but also
how people react to you. You could even inspire the populous, while
gaining fame, by showing off your war trophies (like the head of a
giant wasp you slayed while protecting some innocent
villagers)...and if people don't show you respect, you can show them
you sword or your middle finger.
So, if you see a
beautiful woman, and you feel like putting on some moves, then you
can talk, flirt, give gifts (like roses, chocolates, gems, perfume,
etc), or even get them drunk with some good old beer. Also, by using
a larger gesture, like laughing, you can influence more than one
person at a time as they all hear or see you. By flirting and giving
enough gifts, you might be able to convince a woman (or man, if
that's your cup of tea) to fall in love...then all you need is to
give her a ring, find a house to live in, and then you can be
married. From there, you can expect gifts from your spouse, and even
an occasional romp in bed (the game is rated M)...which consists of
some amusing sounds and no visuals, but will increase the affection
of your spouse. However, if you treat your spouse poorly, you can
expect a divorce...which the single most evil thing you can do in
the game, and will drastically shift your alignment towards evil
(far more than stealing or killing of innocents ever could).
Plus, while you're
in town, like I mentioned, you can go into real estate. Each major
town has one house you could purchase from the start. This can
either be your residence, or you could rent it out to other
villagers for a profit...of course, if you want to get married, you
will need a home for you and the spouse. You could even display some
of your trophies on the walls to show off to your friends. Also, you
could fix up a house and then sell it for a profit. Lastly, you
could decide that one house is too little...or maybe you want a
shop. In which case, the simple (and evil solution) will be to kill
the current owners and then buy it.
Beyond town
related stuff, you have your basics of adventuring...which all begin
with how you build your character. All Fable heroes start the
same...but few end up similar after the first couple of hours.
When the
introduction is over and the game really begins, you start with
minor physical ability (you can't even wield a larger weapon than a
katana), poor agility related skills (you speed, accuracy with a
bow, and your stealth are all crap), and the bare minimum of will
(what they call magic) abilities (including a small amount of will
points, and access to only a spell of lightning). However, as you
gain experience, you can upgrade any chosen area, including learning
and upgrading and of a couple dozen spells, you HP or WP, your
physical abilities, your agility...you name it, and you can boost it
to make the fighter, mage (they say "Will User"), or
thief/archer, or a mix however you want. The only downside is that
with each boosted stat or learned ability, you will age a little
under a year (there is an age cap of 65, and age doesn't hurt you,
but it will make you look a little less than heroic).
As for experience,
you are given 4 different types depending on your actions. If you do
something physical, you will get red physical experience. If you do
something involving stealth or archery, you will earn yellow agility
experience. Last of all, if you use a lot of will, you will get blue
will experience. Also, there are rare potions that can boost one of
these three specific pools. On top of these three pools that can
only be used to upgrade the skills involved in the specific pool,
you can get general experience, which can be used towards any skill.
This generic green experience comes from the actual slaying of
enemies. To help you gain experience, there is the "combat
multiplier" (CM). What this is, is a small meter that will
begin to fill as you attack enemies. Each time it fills, your
experience is multiplied some as you gain new experience. However,
if you fail to hit an enemy for a few seconds, the bar will go down.
Also, if you take HP damage, you will lose some from your CM. So,
the basic plan is to dodge attacks or defend against them (or, there
is the shield spell that will allow your WP to take the damage
instead of your HP, and thus you will keep your CM until your shield
is canceled or you run out of WP and take HP damage). So, as you
learn to dodge, or void damage with a shield spell, and continue to
beat down enemies, your CM will only grow (however, if you leave a
current area, it will drop about 5-10 multipliers) and your
experience gain will shoot through the roof. On top of that, if you
use a potion to boost your experience when your CM is high, you will
get even more of a reward from it.
So, with that
said, there's also your armor and weapons to think of. You can
handle all small weapons, initially, with ease. This includes your
bow, crossbow, sword, katana (two types of swords are in Fable),
cleaver, mace, axe, etc. However, if you want the large weapons
(like a great sword...that would be a third types of sword) you will
need to gain some levels in your physique (which is equal to your
strength). On top of these many weapon styles, there are your armor
choices. You can go around wearing big armor (like plate) that will
boost your defense and how much you scare people, light armor (lower
defense and lower scary level), clothes (almost no defense, but
people will be more receptive to you), or you could go for something
stealthy and remain out of vision (like an assassin suit). All of
these will effect not only your combat abilities, but also how you
interact with people an there are even story related costumes (how
to sneak into a bandit camp? Maybe by wearing a bandit
costume).
On top of those
features, your good or evil alignment will affect how people react.
If you're evil enough, you will grow horns and start to look demonic
(don't expect people to be brave around you, even if you're wearing
the nicest looking clothes known to Albion). However, if you're good
enough, you will gain some butterfly friends (they hover around
you), a halo, and more...including the love and adoration of the
peasants. To determine which way you go in this department, you
simply have to act out accordingly. If you want to be evil, slay
townspeople, steal, commit vandalism, trespass, and treat your
spouse like shit. To become good...well, just do the opposite. Of
course, if you want a really big boost, you can hit the two
churches. The good aligned Church of Avo will give you some good
points in return for some gold points. On the other hand, if you
bring people with you to the Temple of Skorm (evil church) and
sacrifice them, you can expect some nice evil points in return. On
top of the alignment shift, you might unlock some nifty bonuses with
the two churches...you may get some special holy/unholy weapons,
lose some of your age (get youthed), or even pick up a new title
(you can have titles in Fable and this is what people will shout at
you...the default one if "Chicken Chaser"...which grows
old quick).
So, in a nutshell,
you can do whatever you want in Fable. On top of that, you can
become whatever you want...if you want to become a trader and just
earn money, you can create your own trading business of running
products from one merchant to another. There is even a drinking
rating in the game with stats of how often you've thrown up from too
much beer and a rank of your drinking status. Plus, with smooth and
simple controls, it all quite simple and easy to get into. Also, for
those who've heard of how short this game is...I'm still trying to
finish it after 25 hours because there is so much more to do than
just the shorter main quest...so much more...
Visuals
Some people have
complained about the frame-rate, or the visual quality, or the lack
of character models...these people are the same ones who want
Morrowind to forever be considered king of action-RPGs on the XBox
and need to shut the hell up. The frame rate may drop to 30 FPS, but
I'll let you all in on a secret...it is nearly impossible for a
human eye to detect this "flaw"...I mean if we could make
out the true quality of 60 FPS, then we would be able to see our
lights or TVs flicker on and off 60 times a second (to be
scientific...hell, it is my day job...electricity cycles about 60
times a second in the US and thus our lights flicker at a comparable
rate to seeing the frames of a 60 FPS game). So, as I was saying,
these trolls who bitch and moan about something as ground breaking
as this game need to just shut the hell up and move on to whatever
is their cup of tea.
Ok, that went a
bit off topic, but I'm back. The visuals are simply amazing. You can
see every detail of your character, from wrinkles with age, to the
nubs of horns just beginning to grow as you turn evil, to
differences in one type of great axe from another. The worlds are
finely detailed, your spells look amazing in action, the trees have
individual leaves...let's just say this is about the most gorgeous
game I've seen on the XBox...about?...no, it is the best looking
XBox game out there (for now, at least...Halo 2 is breathing down
out necks). There is so much detail that you could just stare at the
game in awe, yet without the horrible realistic visual issues of a
Square RPG (Square usually leaves out vibrant colors and opts for so
much realism that the visuals tend to inspire less and make you
simple thing that you could see all of the same things if you look
out your window). The colors are bright and the character models are
clearly detailed to some rather fine details. Best of all, unlike
some games that try to make too much detail into the visuals, and
thus make it hard to actually distinguish one object from another
(Star Ocean 3 comes to mind), Fable uses a healthy touch of fantasy
in the graphics to make it all clear and beautiful.
Also, the camera
in the game is rather brilliant. There are some minor flaws at
times, but this is the best 3rd person camera I've seen in a console
title. The camera responds quickly, is always at a nice level above
your head so you can see in front of you at all times, and can be
manipulated to whatever desire you have. Plus, when you want a
little more challenge, you can even do archery third person with
some breath-taking results.
Audio
To start with, the
sound effects are great. I can't go into sound effects with much
detail since they are something to be experienced and not just
described...so, I'll just say that everything sounds as it should in
full, sharp, clear Dolby 5.1.
Also, at the same
time, the music is well crafted. The music always, and I mean
always, fits the mood of the current situation. If you are about to
face some danger, some quiet battle music will initiate...if that
danger then moves to you and you are in a battle type situation,
then the music will grow louder and more intense. When you're in a
friendly area, one of many different fantasy inspired orchestral songs
will begin to play gently in the background. The music, luckily, is
never loud enough to drown any other sounds out, but is not so quiet
that you wouldn't hear it. Brilliant work was put into this
department.
Last of all is the
voice acting...as it always comes down to in modern console titles.
Every character has voice acting to represent it. There are also
dozens of lines said by each character; I mean any non-story
townsperson needs lines that show that they fear you, love you,
don't care about you, calling you by any of the 20 or so titles you
can get, cheering for you, booing when you back down from a
challenge, flirting with you, failing to flirt with you, insulted by
you, marrying you, having sex with you, love from a spouse, jealousy
from a spouse, adoration from other people who wish to be your
spouse...it goes on and on. Plus, each person has at least a few
lines to fit each of those situations ("Look, it's the Chicken
Chaser!", "Why do they call him Chicken Chaser?",
"Hey, Chicken Chaser!", etc). So, there are enough lines
to break up any monotony of walking though town, and if there isn't
enough for you, you can get a new title and bring about some new
lines.
So, with so much
voice acting, is it good? It's actually not too bad. Unlike some
very confused games (like Sudeki), all of the voices have the same
accent (British) and thus they fit in the world of Albion. The voice
acting usually ranges from decent to great (I personally like the narrator's
voice work...it's really well acted) and is always clear and understandable
(with the exception of one or two words from the guild master and a
line or two from the women peasants). So, in the end, for once, I
would actually have to say that I like the voice acting of a
game...I should mention, however, that your character never speaks
(beyond a growl, a laugh, a cheer, etc), so you don't have to worry
about your voice not fitting how you designed your character.
Conclusion
While some people
have bitched and moaned about the shortness of this game, or the
imagined visual shortcomings, I will simply say how it is. Fable is
great. The plot is deep enough to always want you to learn more
(even though it looks devoid of plot for the first hour or so...it picks
up at a rate that makes you understand why it started slow...very
methodical), the visuals are stunning and some of the best visual
work I've seen in a game, ever. The audio is not only great, but the
voice acting is actually quite good and fitting. Most important,
however, is the wonderful game play mechanics. The controls are
quick, responsive (the target lock will give you one or two problems
through the game...but not often enough to disappoint), easy to
learn, and give you far more control than you'd think would be
possible from a game pad. While I didn't mention it earlier, there
is an exploit or two that can ruin the game if they are abused, but
it's an M rated game so we should all have some self control by now
(shouldn't we?). There is also a bug or two (nothing major, but my
game did crash once...so, save every once in a while...maybe once
every 30-45 minutes...and you'll be fine), but nothing bad enough to
ruin the game. So, with the exploits and the bugs in mind,
I still can't do any worse than to give Fable a 9.75/10
(DAMNED GOOD GAME!!!). However, it seems to be a game that really
turns off certain people, so if you're looking for a long game
without deviating from the main plot, or if you looked forward to
all of the possibilities that Mr. Molyneaux stated years ago, then
you should rent it first. It you like 3D Zelda games, simulators
dealing with people (The Sims, etc), or a chance to exercise your
evil thoughts (like one could do in GTA), then look no further than
Fable.
Malik
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