Rating of
2.5/5
Molyneux Remastered
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/03/16
“Fable,” a new IP from the 6th Generation, originally appeared as an exclusive title on the original Xbox, developed by Big Blue Box and published by Microsoft itself. Big Blue Box was originally assembled from members of former Western PC developer, Bullfrog, which was eventually gobbled up by EA, leaving a number of its employees free to reconvene elsewhere. Big Blue Box didn’t last long, however, as “Fable” was its only published game prior to complete absorbtion by parent company Lionhead Studios, which itself was later absorbed (and recently shuttered) by Microsoft. Throughout all of phases of existence, the one cornerstone of Bullfrog, Big Blue Box, and Lionhead was one Peter Molyneux, a British game designer with a massive tendency to overestimate the quality and depth of the games his team produces. “Fable” is no different.
“Fable Anniversary,” the version I actually played, is actually a remaster of “Fable: The Lost Chapters,” which was an enhanced port/game of the year edition of the original game, including an expansion pack and some bug fixes. With “Fable Anniversary’s” release on the Xbox 360 and PC, it has the dubious privilege of being one of the first (perhaps the first) remaster of a game released in the immediately preceding generation.
Presentation
“Fable” is a cartoony-looking game that still aims for realism. It is a 100% modern game in the sense that it uses the Unreal Engine to power its polygonal visuals, while still suffering from the hindrances that using that particular engine brings. Character models tend to be bland and samey, with the exception of a few key NPCs, who look rather cheesy instead. Part of the ‘big appeal’ of “Fable” is the ability to shape the main character’s appearance via in-game actions. However, I feel like there are only two significant extremes – a Good hero with a halo and an Evil hero with horns – and that everything else, ranging from battle scars, wrinkles, and body fat ending up largely identical for everyone. The player has some actual agency in their Hero’s looks in that they can change hairstyles, facial hair, and tattoos, but when most of the character’s body is covered in armor, these minor customization options are all but invisible.
Character animations are somewhat awkward and stiff in many cases. I think the only ‘good’ animation in the entire game is the facial features and lip-synching on the numerous Demon Doors that litter the game world, hiding special loot for those willing to jump through the doors’ hoops.
The audio in “Fable” is likewise mediocre. The title theme, composed by the legendary Danny Elfman, is reasonably good, but the remainder of the game’s music is fairly understated and forgettable. The voiceacting is solid, and the over-the-top low-class British accents match-up nicely with the game’s semi-stylized visuals. However, I noticed several instances where the recording quality was distinctly terrible: This isn’t a dig against any of the performances, which are fine, but against the sound set crew screwing up the actual recording.
“Fable” is fairly solid for a Western-developed game that pretends to be an open-world RPG (it’s not either of those things). I only had one crash do desktop, and never encountered any game-breaking glitches. However, some of the things the player can do in-game are handled poorly. For example, I had my Hero marry Scarlett, the barber in the town of Bowerstone. The barbershop immediately closed down and I was afraid I’d never be able to change my character’s hair again, as Scarlett moved into my house. Oddly enough, the barbershop went up for sale, so I bought it and rented it out, hoping a new barber would come into replace my Hero’s wife. Lo, and behold, a new barber did arrive the next day… but it was just a doppelganger of Scarlett! So now Bowerstone is home to two identical women named Scarlett the Barber, one of whom lives in my hero’s house and the other of whom lives in the rented barbershop. Someone wasn’t planning ahead…
Story
“Fable” tells the fairly stereotypical and trope-riddled tale of a young boy whose hometown of Oakvale is destroyed by raiders. As the boy prepares to join his parents and sister in death, he is magically whisked away to the Hero Guild by a wizard named Maze. Maze senses ‘something’ about our young protagonist, and enlists him with the Guildmaster on the path to becoming a Hero.
The Hero is never actually named by the player, nor is he fully customizable from the outset. He is always a generic human male with a generic look and the starting title ‘Chicken Chaser.’ Later on the player has the opportunity to buy titles other than Chicken Chaser at one of two title vendors, which change the way everyone in the game addresses the Hero (I went with ‘Ranger’).
The Hero’s childhood and teen years serve as a rather long and boring tutorial in gameplay mechanics and introduce a rivalry between the Hero and another student, a Black girl named Whisper (whose brother, Thunder, is an arena gladiator). Once this introductory slog is over, the player is free to venture out into the wider world of Albion in order to take quests and do deeds, as those are the only real duties of Hero Guild members.
The basis of the world around seeking aid from the Hero Guild feels incredibly hokey, and throughout the game, conflicting, optional quests become available at the guild, so apparently helping people in need can be set aside in favor of killing a few merchants or rescuing a criminal who is about to be executed. Of course, picking up quest cards at the Guild isn’t the only way to find side quests, as there are a number of people scattered around the game world who have problems but apparently can’t be bothered to submit a formal request to the Guild.
Ultimately, the Hero Guild serves as a push out the door and an excuse to start earning a reputation in the world. The main story suddenly comes out of nowhere, as the leader of the raiders who destroyed the Hero’s hometown is revealed as the owner of the arena and all-around monster, while the reason for his attack on the Hero’s family so long ago turns out to be a typical ‘chosen one with a special bloodline’ type of dreck.
“Fable: The Lost Chapters” adds onto the base story by giving the main villain a second shot at achieving his goals by allowing him to resurrect in a new body in a far-away land to the North. None of the new story elements are particularly surprising or interesting.
The biggest problem I have with “Fable’s” story is, perhaps surprisingly, not the cheesy, tropey, generic storytelling… it’s the fact that Peter Molyneux basically talked-up “Fable” as though it were the most open, sandboxy game since “Morrowwind.” Yet it is decidedly not. At best, the depth and scope of “Fable” and the world of Albion could make it functional as a ‘baby’s first ‘Elder Scroll’’ type of game, with a small number of sidequests and options that won’t overwhelm a young or inexperienced player. The entire game, including “The Lost Chapters” add-on, takes 30 hours or less, which is insane for a game that is supposed to be a sandbox. Personally, I’m glad “Fable” is relatively short, as I couldn’t take much more of it by the time I was finished.
Gameplay
What makes an open-world RPG? Well, first it needs an open world, where the player can go wherever they want right out of the gate. Second, it needs to be an RPG: A game with characters, stats, and – most importantly – abstracted combat. “Fable” has none of these things.
After the overly-long and boring tutorial, the player is free to take quests and venture out into the world. There are a number of roadblocks, locked gates, oceans, and other unnavigable obstacles that prevent the player from traveling to many locations until the relevant story quest becomes available, and these story quests always pop-up in a particular order.
The vast majority of gameplay in “Fable” is combat… and it’s not particularly good. The combat in “Fable” reminds me of a mix of early 3D ‘Zelda’ titles and From Software’s horrific ‘Souls’ franchise, as it is third-person, features a lock-on button, involves a lot of stupid dodge-rolling, and is rather clunky and un-fun. The Hero does have three combat options available at all times: melee, ranged, and magic. I found magic to be fairly useless outside of summons, which simply provide more targets for enemies to look at besides the Hero, as it does poor damage and eats-up mana at an alarming rate. Melee involves single-weapon combat only (there are no dual-wield or shield options), with fairly basic auto-combos that enemies tend to block with alarming regularity. After having a few melee attacks blocked consecutively, the Hero can do an unblockable ‘flourish’ attack that has a horrible tendency to knock enemies prone… during which time they can’t be damaged. Melee also has two weight classes, light and heavy. I found light weapons to be the only viable way of doing melee, as heavy weapons have such slow wind-up animations that the Hero will get knocked out of every swing by a quick enemy jab and never land a single heavy blow. The final combat option, ranged, is the one I ended up preferring, despite the fact that doing any significant damage requires a slow, time-consuming draw of the bowstring (or slow, time-consuming reload of a crossbow). Ultimately, every Hero will earn enough upgrade points to mix and match all three combat styles simultaneously.
The upgrade system in “Fable” is fairly straight-forward. Using each of the three combat styles grants experience in that style, while completing quests and killing enemies grants generic experience. The player can freely spend experience points to upgrade each combat style’s respective skill tree. The melee tree’s options include increased health, increased melee damage, and increased damage resistance. The ranged tree’s options include increased movement speed, increased ranged damage, and Guile (which mainly affects prices at shops and unlocks a couple of non-combat thievery options). The magic tree’s options include more mana and a butt-load of spells.
Outside of combat, there really isn’t a whole lot of interest in “Fable.” It really feels like a poorly-done 3D ‘Zelda’ clone with all of the dungeons and puzzles yanked out in favor of some social nonsense that doesn’t really amount to anything. The player can change townsfolk’s reaction to the Hero by changing his look, paying attention to the Attractiveness and Scariness stats on gear, hairstyles, and tattoos. The player can show off trophies from completed quests to gain more fame amongst the townfolk as well. These townsfolk will either stand and applaud when they see a Good Hero or flee in terror when they see an Evil one. I always like to be Good in games where I have an option (though I’m Good with chronic kleptomania), so within a few hours, I had townsfolk fawning all over my Hero, and all of the women (and gay men) in every town would instantly fall in love with him. These mechanics are moderately amusing, but never really provide anything more than a novelty.
Perhaps the largest oversight in the game is how weirdly balanced it is. Someone obviously didn’t think too hard about the merchant system, as I was able to exploit my Guile stat early on to make huge amounts of gold and buy the best gear available within a few hours of starting. You see, merchants have a maximum stock on every item they sell. If they are overstocked on an item, they sell it for pennies on the dollar (and the Guile stat further improves this discount). If they are sold out of an item, they will buy it for almost full price. Thus the best way to make money in Albion isn’t dangerous questing and heroics, it is being a filthy moneychanger. I was able to make hundreds of thousands of gold by buying all of a merchant’s stock in a valuable item, then selling it back to him at near full-price, then buying it back from him for next to nothing, then selling it back to him for near full-price, etc., etc. ad nauseam. With all of the best armor and weapons in-hand, the game’s enemies almost never felt threatening, despite how clunky the combat is, and I rarely used healing potions outside of a few gimmick battles in the arena and “The Lost Chapters.”
Overall
“Fable Anniversary,” as a remaster of “Fable: The Lost Chapters,” which is, itself, a Complete Edition port of the original “Fable,” isn’t particularly impressive. As an open-world sandbox game, it is restrictive and devoid of interesting things to do, while the story, setting, and characters are blandly stereotypical and – dare I say it – somewhat childish. As an introduction to the Action/Sandbox genre, “Fable” is merely ‘okay.’ Instead, it feels more like a half-hearted attempt at copying the 3D entries in ‘The Legend of Zelda’ franchise without any real understanding of what makes those games good – the puzzle-filled dungeons.
Presentation: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 2/5
Overall (not an average): 2.5/5
