With news of a possible fourth game on the horizon, it felt time to start talking about the Fable games. Now most of you know that despite its problems I really enjoyed
Fable III. It was my first exposure to the series and although it has some problems like the lack of warning for certain events, the loading screens and questionable moments like two men dancing, I still found some enjoyment with it. Having talked about that game already and reviewed it (in one of my ranking lists), we'll be looking at the two games that came before it plus at least one other game in the series as well. So let's journey to Albion and become the heroes or heroines we were always destined to be:
Fable (including The Lost Chapters and Anniversary)
So as mentioned in the title, there are three versions of this game that exist. The original that came out on the very first Xbox as well as PC and Mac. An extended version known as
The Lost Chapters which came out the following year on Xbox and PC. And last of all there is the
Anniversary version which is both the first and second versions jammed together in an HD remake that was released for Xbox 360 and PC. The game follows a young boy who witnesses the death of his family at the hands of bandits that raid his hometown. He then meets a so called hero named Maze who upon seeing great potential in the boy, starts to train him to become a Hero at the Hero's Guild. Many years pass and the boy sets out to free a blind seerees who is held captive at the bandit camp. He learns of the seerees and soon finds himself on a quest for revenge against those who killed his family while also gaining some recognition from the people of Albion. All the numbered games in the series are RPGs told from a third person perspective and the playable hero can interact with people and fight foes. Like all games like it,
Fable has players take on a series of quests that help push the story forward as well as side ones too that allow players to pursue actions that are not directly to do with completion of the game. It will be obvious to know which ones advance the story and which ones are side missions. Also depending on some circumstances, the rewards for each quest can be better or worst in such instances like you take no damage and/or complete the quest totally naked (like some players do). Morales become a big part depending on if you help good or bad characters that involved good or bad decisions. Moving on from quests, gamers get to use melee and ranged weapons as well as spells with each being able to level up over time along with you being able to upgrade some attributes to your character. There are places where you can buy various items and areas where you can marry people as well. It is quintessentially the best example of an action RPG game. Its got all the elements to make it one and manages to be its own thing without trying to be like any other. Its a lot of fun and a blast to play. The design may be a bit questionable at times, but the fact that its had three versions of it released means that its a game worth playing for sure. 9/10
II
I will admit that playing this game felt like playing
Fable III in a way as they share a lot of common gameplay elements. So the game is set five hundred years after the first one in which we play as Sparrow, a female (voiced by Salli Saffioti) or male (voiced by the legend that is Nolan North) child who is living in poverty with his/her sibling Rose (voiced by Gemma Boyle). Both have aspirations to one day live in Castle Fairfax and through some kind of magic box, they get their wish. But this is cut short when upon following the instructions of Lord Lucien (voiced by Oliver Cotton), they step onto a circle on the floor which emits blue light on them and red on Lucien. This causes him to shoot both of them down with Sparrow falling from one of the windows and surviving thanks to the blind seer and the dog that he/she befriended earlier on. Ten years pass and Sparrow learns of Lucien becoming more and more power hungry and goes on a quest along with his/her dog to recruit three heroes who with their and Sparrow's combined power can take down Lucien. The gameplay largely remains the same though some cutscenes are now interactive which adds for some humorous and annoying moments from us the players. We get a dog as a companion who can fight, find treasure and learn new tricks while bonding with the Hero. It can't be killed, but may become ineffective if given too much damage and must be healed by the player. The dog's appearance also changes depending on the moral standings of the player (i.e. dog will turn black if the player is evil or gold if good and grey if neutral). Relationships get a boost this time with the introduction of same sex marriages and children who can at any point leave you, divorce you or you may come across them on your travels. They can also die as well through various means and can improve their likeness towards you if things are done well (you can also have sex with them too and some items can be condoms in such situations). Character morphing is a thing now which changes your appearance depending on the choices you make and what kinds of food and drink you have. This can also affect attractiveness and when levelling up stats, this can make your character taller, muscular and so on. Gaining money this time around is done by doing various jobs such as being a Blacksmith, a Woodcutter, a Bartender and a Merchant just to name a few. Three of the jobs involve quick time events while the other three are combat based leaving Merchant as the odd one out as that's all about the economy and other things. Gameplay is also a bit linear which is known to be controversial among the gaming community and co-op is a thing here as well. As it should be with any sequel,
Fable II manages to be more expanded and have lots of things to do making it bigger and better than the first game. It does have a few bugs and may have more to do than we would like in it. But it is a fantastic game and probably the best one of the series so far. 9/10
The Journey
Being standalone to the rest of the series can sometimes be a good thing. So this time around the Hero is a Dweller named Gabriel (voiced by Geoffrey Breton) who becomes distant from his people in Bowerstone and wants to reunite with them. He stumbles across the blind seer we've come to know and love and although cowardly at first, allows her on board his cart when seeing her being injured while also coming across a thing known as The Curroption. He soon learns that his horse has been poisoned by the Curruption and goes on a quest to save his horse while learning the truth of his lineage and learns how to be Albion's next Hero. Because the game is a Kinect based game, much of the gameplay of previous games is removed in favour of a more story driven experience where the most we do is cast spells, tend and control our horse and do some things with
Fable: Heroes. I personally haven't had the best experience with the Kinect and with
Fable: The Journey, it was just too hard to figure out the controls and even more of a challenge to get it right. That being said though, I kind of knew that the developers had good intentions with this game and it is presented beautifully with the world being affected depending on how things played out on the save file for
Fable III. 7/10
Although the series started off strong, we all know that after a while, the later games would show signs of not being as great as before. But despite that the first two games are great,
Fable III as previously reviewed has its problems but is an enjoyable play nonetheless and
Fable: The Journey is fine as well but probably would have been better off
as a game like the games before it. I hope that we do get another game soon even though Lionhead is no longer operational. But I remain hopeful that someone within Microsoft's network of game developers will pick it up soon. 8/10
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