Fable: The Journey

Overview

Ignoring all empirical evidence pointing to the game being an on-rails shooter, Peter Molyneux insists that Fable: The Journey is an NOT on rails shooter developed by Lionhead Studios. It's set in the Fable universe, after "the time of heroes". Albion is under attack, this time by some kind of evil presence, and no heroes are to be found. A lone carriage rider is recruited to be Albion's savior by Theresa, whom he must carry across Albion to save the kingdom.

The game is entirely played via Kinect. Players use their hands to create spells that are cast towards enemies. The spells vary depending on the player's hand movements. Players also use their hands to control a carriage and punch enemies. The game is open world in the sense that players can control their carriage down different branching paths.

The game was first revealed at E3 2011.

Peter Molyneux's Aversion to Rails

Despite the fact that the game takes the player's control over movement during combat, only requesting them to aim and shoot at everything on screen, Molyneux vehemently insisted that the game was not on rails. During E3 2011, while presenting the game to journalists, he wrote on a white board in big capital letters that the game was not on rails. He then had every journalist attending the event sign their name under the statement. He then told Official Xbox Magazine:

"I'll just state on record now that Fable: The Journey is definitely not on rails."

Whether or not Molyneux was telling the truth is up to interpretation since the game does feature a horse riding mechanic where players can take a horse down branching paths. Each combat level also has branching paths that players can take. However, players do not fully control their character's movements and, when in combat, can only move along once all enemies have been cleared from the screen, which matches the traditional definition of "on rails" as pertaining to video games.