Fable

The game itself...
Being one of the most highly awaited games of the Xbox’s life span, Fable was finally released to the Fable-thirsty public in late 2004. Ever since the Xbox launch, the title had seen its fair share of hype and excitement from gamers all around the world... well, maybe not so much . Mainly due to Japan's ever-sinking enthusiasm for Microsoft's big black box rather than being uninterested in the actual game itself. However, there was quite a stir going around for the game. A lot of fans were quite keen on seeing what else Black & White designer Peter Molyneux could deliver in terms of a new console title, in the form of a RPG... for the quite RPG-lacking machine that was the Xbox. Another reason the game was highly awaited? More than likely, yes.
As such with Molyneux's last creation, Fable allows you the always attractive feature of choosing between doing good or evil. As the game progresses, your character (with no name or voice as it happens) changes form in both appearance and stature. People in the streets and towns fear you if you like to kill chickens for a living... likewise, they tend to love you if you protect their chickens. Chickens aside however, almost everything you do in the branches out to some sort of progression either in the will of good or the will of evil. Best of all, it's not complicated at all and to be honest, doesn't really change a thing in retrospect of the actual difficulty of the game. To summarize, being good won't give you advantage over choosing to be evil. It all amounts to the games core battle system, and how well you adapt to it. Although almost insignificant to the final outcome of the game, the good/evil feature still proves to be highly entertaining to play about with and certainly gives you a reason to take your time and do everything at least once.

What it's all about...
You are introduced to your main character, of which you will be playing the role of; A fairly young boy, of an undisclosed name & age. You begin the game by going around your hometown trying to raise money for your sisters birthday present that you desperately need to buy. To do this, your father offers to give you gold in return for every good deed you do around town that he hears of. Basically, this is the introduction to the games great good/evil feature as you can also make gold not from your father, but by doing evil deeds of which earn you dirty gold. I remember playing this for the first time and being very impressed by the variety of freedom that seems to bestow you right at the very beginning of the game. After the completion of your task, the game changes pace rather dramatically and switches everything around. You are taken to the 'Hero's Guild', a development center if you will for all warriors and will-casters of various types and forms. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that the rest of the game's plot is both fantastic and yet traditional to the RPG genre.

Graphics...
Although a little blocky & off-putting at the beginning of the game, upon closer inspection and development into the game and seeing how it works, I became curiously fond of the games graphic style. One of Fable's greatest achievements in terms of graphical representation is the Magic casts. The effects are all you could expect from a top of the line RPG, yet they seem to hold their own sense to originality. The backgrounds, environment, characters, weapons, equipment, cut-scenes & action-packed battle elements all come together brilliantly to make Fable a pretty decent - yet not exactly pretty - game to gaze at.

Sound...
Another excellent element of Fable is its ability to create an environment through sound alone. From simply running from town to town through the bristling of the forest trees & leaves, to the atmospheric and chilling sense of death presented when venturing through cemeteries and swamps. All the character voice overs are fantastically delivered to a point of old-English realism, the howls of wolves and exactly how they should be and the groans of the undead fail to bring any of the other sound factors down.

Gameplay and Control...
At the near-beginning of the game, your character is put through simple introduction lessons and tests on 3 of the games main battle elements; Mêlée, Ranged & Will (Magic). All 3 are simple and easy to adapt to and should only take 10 or so minutes to fully get the hang of things. This of course, is a great element to any game. Although a very useful and simple base to work through the game with, it doesn't offer that much versatility to make it a key factor of the game, and it's a shame. I found myself rarely using the ranged weapons and mostly sticking to what I knew best, which was Will & Mêlée. I simply didn't have time to pull back, take aim and fire to kill some 10 undead creatures approaching me. A lightning attack was much more effective. Don't get wrong though, there was certain times when the game offered areas where you really benefited from using a specific attack. However, this wasn't that often and led me getting a little frustrated with simply just using the same weapon over & over until I could afford or found a better one to use over & over. Bosses offered a little more diversity and challenge than most of the enemies you meet along the way, but not by much. I didn't find myself re-fighting a boss more than once. This is okay if you’re into an easy game to fill up time. If you're like me however, that's just not enough... I want to be challenged and get mad at the game so I can rejoice when I finally beat the boss after 4 hours of shouting at the TV. Overall, the gameplay isn't bad at all, it's actually very nicely done, just not enough there to keep me entertained throughout.

Final Word...
When I first started playing Fable, my hopes were high that its hype was to be fulfilled. Unfortunately, not all of them were. By the end of my quest I was left feeling, satisfied yet glad it was done. Yes, satisfied that I had finished it because I had no will to play it again. A year on however, and well... I wouldn't mind checking out the new updated version which is basically the same game with a few added features. Overall the game can appear to be a gem to the Xbox, and well, it is in many ways. What isn't though is something that can be enjoyed constantly beginning to end. It's would be wise to mix it up with another game to give you a bit of variety, as it can get a little tedious at times. I would recommend this as a Rent-Only title, mainly because while Fable is a clever and original game of its time, it just doesn't have enough on the menu to keep you at the table.

Overview
Graphics: A-
Sound: A-
Gameplay: B
Control: B+
Enjoyment: B

Final Grade: B+ (7.0/10)