Now unlike most franchises that I have reviewed on this blog, I'm not really a big fan of the Fable series. While I've only played 2 games in the series, I am aware of the other games and like with my series review of the Soul Calibur series, my opinions will be based on what I have read and seen. Fable is in some way a retelling of British history with a few fantasy elements put in. Of course it has it's own story but thats how I see it and with that, here's my opinion on the games:
I should point out that I'm only reviewing the story based games, not the spin-off games (except for The Journey which plays a role in the main story).
I
Released on Xbox (the original), PC and MAC (and later on, Xbox 360) in Spring 2008, the first of the games tells the story of a young hero who as a child, witnessed his village called Oakvale been raided and destroyed by badits on his sister's birthday and finds out that his whole family died in the process. He then meets an old hero named Maze, who rescues him and convinces him to join The Heroes Guild so that he can be trained to become a Champion. The hero then sets of on a quest to find out why his village and family were destroyed and to also achieve his destiny. The game has a system that is very similar to that of inFAMOUS and Mass Effect, in that it shows what could happen when you do good or bad things to people in the game. The majority of the game, has the hero complete various missions in order to move forward in the game with some side missions as well. All the quests are in my opinion, creative and imaginative which is the strong point of the game (even though I haven't played it myself). When fighting foes, the hero can use magic, melee weapons and long range weapons when fighting and it works well in some sense. Along with the usual RPG elements that you see in the game, it's a very good game the starts the franchise well (even though I haven't played it). 9/10
II
Being released on Xbox 360 (the first game in the series on the console) in Autumn 2008 and taking place 500 years later after the first game, Fable 2 sees a young child known as Sparrow who lives in poverty with his/her older sister Rose and has dreams of living in Castle Fairfax, the home of Lord Lucien. They meet a man called Mystical Murgo who is selling magic and while Rose doesn't believe it's magic, a woman called Theresa says otherwise. They then do jobs for this man and this man then grants them a wish which they choose to live in Castle Fairfax as the wish. They dream eventually comes true when a guard escorts them to the castle where they meet Lucien who decides to keep Rose and throw out Sparrow. Theresa finds Sparrow and tells him that he is Albion's next hero and must form an alliance with other heroes to take down Lucien and his forces. Like with the first game, there are many quests that you can do and in addition to that, the hero is customizable in that the player can choose the gender and sexuality of the character so that he/she can persue a hetrosexual or same sex relationship with characters and to my surprise, there isn't that much controversy of this than when Mass Effect was released which is quite surprising, even though I haven't played this game. The hero also gets a companion which is a dog that will follow you everywhere and can be customizable in its breed as well as being trained through the power of tricks and care for the creature. This is an improvement from the last game in that you can do more things this time around, which is great. There is however a question that I have which is, What happened in those 500 years? Well I guess we'll never know (although I could be wrong). 9/10
III
Released for Xbox 360 and PC in the last quarter of 2010 (360) and first quarter in 2011 (PC) as well as the first game of the series that I've played and also taking place 50 years after the last game, The hero of the last game has died and has given the kingdom of Albion to his/her son Logan, the player's older brother. After 4 years of ruling the land, Logan executes a citizen and when questioned about it, gives the player the first of many important chocies for the game, which then forces him/her to leave the castle with his/her butler Jasper and his/her mentor, Sir Walter Beck and then start an alliance to take down Logan in order to rule the land and free everyone from the things that Logan has put in the kingdom. But as the game progresses, we find out that Logan's rein is only half of what's yet to come for Albion. There isn't really much to say about this one because there's alot of gameplay elements that came from the last game and while there are some great areas to explore and a lot of playability to be had, it can be extremly annoying when it comes to constant loading screens, fustrating battles and the games length. The only good thing about it, is the choices that you can make which uses a similar formula that was seen in Mass Effect and inFAMOUS. Not the best game, but defiently worth trying out. 7/10
The Journey
Released on Xbox 360 early this month and the first to use Kinect, taking place 50 years after Fable 3 (and if you have a save file of the last game on your console, the world will change accordingly we follow a man called Gabriel who is a Dweller that at some point gets separated from his tribe and comes across a woman called Theresa who tells him that he must take her to the Tattered Spire so that she can restore her power and stop the darkness known as The Corruption. A lot of the time, you'll be using the Kinect to guide your horse and carriage through Albion and then control Gabriel on foot who can use magical powers to his advantage. Like with most Kinect games, a lot of you may get frustrated and annoyed by many of the things that are in the game. I appreciate the amount of work that was put into it, but the Kinect bit of it is by far the weakest side of the game, making it the weakest entry in the series. 7/10
Overall, the series is great in that it explains British history in a fantasy like style and is one of the most beautifully presented games visually. Just a shame that the gameplay of some of the games suck a lot. 7/10
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