INTRO:
The high/medieval fantasy role-playing game (RPG) genre has so many tropes that there would be little space left for innovation, despite its outlandish settings. Yet, this has not prevented Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios from promising that there would be new and remarkable designs to be seen in Fable, such as trees growing in real-time
Ultimately, plenty of reasons, causes and excuses that can or cannot be attributed to failure on their part resulted in the game being not really that much different from so many other fantasy RPGs that have been made.
Debuting on the Xbox console first, one would have thought that the limitations of that platform would be overcome by the game's porting-over to the Windows operating system (OS). Unfortunately, next to nothing had been done to fulfill the lofty promises that had been made by Fable's creator and its game designers, though the game does at least offer a stronger resolution to the story of the game, as well as some content that was not seen in the launch version of the Xbox version.
PREMISE:
Fable is about the story of a person who has a grand destiny in the game's medieval fantasy world (or land) called Albion. Typically, it starts with a tragedy, thus giving the player some long-term goals to achieve. Such an overarching story is nothing new in video games, though to cut Lionhead some slack, it is quite rare; Western RPGs that put children through traumatic experiences are not very common during the game's time, after all.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the premise is that the primary antagonist is an entertainingly mercurial and enigmatic villain, who also happens to portray the gray morality of the so-called "Heroes" of Fable's world. The player character's past and the drastic change in some characters that are dear to the player character may also be of interest to the player as the story unfolds.
However, the appeal of the overarching story is dashed by some other aspects of the game. Incidentally, these other aspects are the ones that Lionhead and Molyneux had hyped up as what would make this game different from so many other RPGs at the time. They did make the game different alright, but not for the better, and not by much.
HEALTH & WILL:
As is appropriate for an RPG, the player character has a health capacity, which is handily shown on-screen as a red bar. As to be expected of a health system, losing all of his health renders the player character quite dead, leading the player to a game-reloading screen.
Magic is typically prevalent in Fable's high-fantasy world; in fact, anyone is capable of wielding magic, as long as he/she has been given the necessary training and as long as he/she has the necessary "amount" of "will", which is the term that the game uses to name magical energy with.
Both health and will recover over time, though will does so at a faster pace. To immediately regain significant amounts of either, the player can always quaff down some potions.
However, Fable has the same game balance issue as other games that do not tightly design their potion-drinking mechanisms. There are no animations for potion-drinking, no cool-down limitations and no inventory limit on potions. Therefore, a player can get through almost every fight by stocking plenty of potions and jamming away on the hotkeys for potions whenever needed.
There may be a limitation to this mechanism that is brought about by limited stocks of potions in stores. However, with enough patience, the player can time visits to said stores when their stocks have reset and buy them out.
EXPERIENCE - GAINING EXPERIENCE THROUGH COMBAT:
For better or worse, Fable uses a gameplay element that has been seen in action-centric games that place emphasis on finesse in combat, such as Devil May Cry; this element typically grants more point-based rewards for greater performance in combat. Although this element is rare in RPGs and Fable could be praised for doing something infrequently done in RPGs, it can also be criticized for not building on other core aspects of the genre.
Anyway, inflicting as many hits on enemies as possible without getting hit in return contributes to a counter that is depicted on the left side of the screen. As the player inflict hits, a number in the icon for the counter denotes how much the experience yield from enemies would be multiplied when they are slain. Any hits from any weapon or spell can be used, so maintaining this multiplier would seem quite simple to veterans of action games with such a game mechanism.
Unfortunately, this otherwise entertainingly rewarding game mechanism is held back by the implementation of an unnecessary game design.
Vanquishing enemies in combat causes them to release glowing green orbs, the presence of which is poorly described by the canon. They would have been more appreciable if they were only there for aesthetic purposes, but they also affect gameplay; the player has to have the player character run around while pressing down on a button to suck them towards the player character.
Only by retrieving these does the player gain his/her deserved experience rewards. Failing to do so means that they will disappear after a while, their rewards forever lost to the player.
This is quite a hassle, especially when the player is trying to collect orbs that have fallen from slain enemies while dodging remaining adversaries. Furthermore, that the player has to hold down a button to inhale the orbs means that there is one less digit on the player's extremities that could have been used for the other control inputs, making this game design as cumbersome as it is bothersome.
This busy-work would have been rendered unnecessary if the experience rewards have been given automatically upon the demise of an enemy, thus giving it an impression that it was a game design that had not been thought through.
EXPERIENCE – TYPES OF EXPERIENCE:
The experience that has been described above is called "General experience" by the game. It can be spent on any of the three attributes of the player character: Strength, Skill and Will, which will be described later.
In addition to the cumbersome method of gaining General experience via combat, General experience is also awarded through the completion of quests, as well as some other activities. The amounts of this kind of General experience rewards tend to be massive, so this somewhat mitigates the need to grind for General experience in the long-term.
There are three other types of experience, which is apparently intended to reward the player for sticking to one set of methods for combat. Using Strength-related methods of combat grants Strength experience, which can be spent on abilities that are associated with Strength, for example.
These kinds of experience are granted automatically, which make gathering them a lot less of a hassle. However, they can only be spent on specific aspects of the player character, which means that the player has to gather General experience anyway if he/she wants to develop a well-rounded character or one with complementary capabilities quickly.
INTERACTING WITH OBJECTS AND CHARACTERS:
Perhaps the most convenient feature of the game is a dial at one corner of the user interface. This dial shows four icons arranged in a radial manner. These icons change as the player character comes into proximity with objects and characters that he can interact with: the icons are associated with actions that can be performed on or with said objects and characters, with the exception of combat actions, which can only be performed by entering into combat stances.
For example, when approaching a storekeeper, the icons for social interaction, such as gestures come up, in addition to the business-related icon for browsing the storekeeper's wares. Hitting the buttons that are associated with these icons has the player character performing these specific actions.
If there is a complaint with this part of the user interface, it is that it is more suitable for controllers than for the mouse-and-keyboard setup. There are options to bind the input controls to the numpad section on the keyboard, though this can still seem cumbersome.
A nimbus of light surrounds an object or character that the player character can interact with; this is a handy, if rather gaudy, visual indicator. Convenient colour-coding denotes the nature of the object or the attitude of the character towards the player character. For example, a red nimbus surrounds hostile enemies, whereas a blue nimbus denotes an object that the player character can physically interact with, or read messages from.
ATTRIBUTES - STRENGTH & SKILL:
As mentioned earlier the player character has three areas of abilities: Strength, Skill and Will. These abilities can be unlocked and improved upon by spending experience on them, though to perform this, the player must make use of the "Experience Spending Platform", of which there are only a few in the world of Albion.
Getting to one can be quite the hassle. Of course, Lionhead had stated that it wants to make the expenditure of experience points more meaningful, but this does not appear to add any value to the game; there is hardly any convincing backstory-related significance to the platform, and the feature to spend experience points could have been a lot more convenient, gameplay-wise, if the player can access it on the spot.
Returning to the three attributes, Strength concerns the player character's capability to wield melee weapons as well as inflict damage on enemies with melee attacks. Strength is further split into a few sub-capabilities, such as Physique, which determines the variety of melee weapons that he can wield, as well as the damage that he can inflict with them.
The perhaps peculiarly named Skill attribute concerns the use of weapons that require dexterity to use. These weapons practically cover the use of all ranged weapons. It also concerns the subtler abilities that the player character has, as well as some aspects of the use of melee weapons. For example, there is Speed, which determines the player character's rate of fire with ranged weapons and rate of attacks with melee weapons. Then, there is Guile, which affects mercantile and stealth activities (that will be described later).
ATTRIBUTES - WILL & SPELLS
Will is the use of magical abilities, and of the three, it is the most useful; in fact, it is so useful, that it has to be described in a section of its own in this review, though it will not entirely consist of praises.
The aspects of the Will attribute are categorized according to sets of spells with similar characteristics, though they are not well-named.
Attack spells are obviously intended for offensive purposes, though they are not the only offensive spells. Surround spells are mainly spells that affect the environment, though they also include summoning and life-draining spells. Physical spells mostly affect the player character himself, though it also includes more summoning spells and a spell that improves ranged attacks.
A Fireball spell is in Fable, but unlike, typical fireballs, Fable's have variable firing modes, depending on the level of the spell. The default level allows the player character to spam low-cost fireballs, but to hurl more powerful ones, the player has to manually charge them. Charging is aided by both aural and visual indicators; there is a high-pitched voice uttering gibberish, though the rapidly growing fireball may be easier to appreciate.
Some Attack spells knock enemies off their feet, such as Enflame (which also sets them on fire) and Battle Charge. These spells are more than likely to be favoured by magic-inclined players for their usefulness at crowd-control.
The Multi-Strike spell is useful for melee-centric player characters, as it doubles the hits on an enemy that has been struck; the Multi-Arrow spell offers similar benefits to ranged-inclined players.
The Berserk spell is another spell that aids melee combat; it has the typical benefit of increasing melee damage. However, it has the nuance of having the player character take more damage from attacks but also deliver unblockable melee attacks that also happen to permanently damage enemies' defences, much like Flourishes.
The simply-named Summon spell is somewhat different from typical summoning spells. Although it typically summons a creature of temporary existence, it can be replaced by another if it lands the killing blow on an enemy creature. However, the limited amount of time that this creature is retained in the game world is too short in order for the player to make good use of this nuance.
Of all the spells in the game, Physical Shield is the most useful. It not only diverts damage from physical attacks away from the player character's health to his mana reserves, but also nullifies any knockdown or stunning effects that these attacks have. It also prevents the player's combat multiplier from being lost.
Considering the variety of spells that a magic-centric player character can use, spells can seem a lot more convenient to use in combat than other means. In theory, this usefulness is balanced by the need to manage the player character's will, but the convenience provided for by potions, which will be mentioned later, mitigates this limitation.
APPEARANCE OF PLAYER CHARACTER:
Despite Lionhead's earlier promises of flexibility in character creation (implied or otherwise), the protagonist always starts as a white male. The player only gets to change his appearance after he has reached adulthood.
The player character can visit the salons and parlours in Albion to change his hairstyles and apply body art. The salons and parlours, however, require style cards for hairdos and tattoos before they can change the player character's appearance to these.
The player's actions also change the protagonist's appearance. One such option concerns the player character's moral alignment, which will be elaborated later. As the player character ventures down a moral alignment, his appearance changes to reflect it. For example, being evil has horns growing from his forehead, in addition to such other features that are stereotypical of the demonically evil. Other cosmetic changes brought about by changes in alignment include the introduction of a set of expressions that is associated with that alignment.
The player character also receives different responses from NPCs, depending on his moral alignment. Player characters that have been convincingly heroic will draw applauses from the every-day folk, for example.
In addition to alignment, the player character also has two other appearance-related statistics that affect responses from NPCs, called "Attractiveness" and "Scariness".
Attractiveness is affected by many factors, the biggest of which is the player's choice of clothing. There are fine clothes that increase this rating, though these are next-to-worthless in combat. However, there are apparels that have both worth in combat and contribution to attractiveness, such as clothing for mages, which, amusingly enough, are considered very classy by the game.
Having a high attractiveness makes NPCs swoon at the player character, which in turn contributes to another game mechanism that will be described further later.
Scariness can be "increased" by wearing severe looking clothes, among other less effective methods. Having high scariness causes NPCs to recoil away, but only if other appearance-related statistics are not high enough to offset it. In fact, Scariness appears to rank the lowest in prioritization when it comes to factors that influence the responses of NPCs.
Combat also affects the appearance of the player character; more precisely, the wounds that the player character have sustained are what would alter the player character's appearance – permanently too. Wounds, even when they have been healed, result in the accumulation of scars that reduce the player character's Attractiveness while increasing Scariness.
The attribute of Strength also affects the player character's appearance. As the player develops this attribute, the player character appears to have more muscles and such other features that are obviously associated with brawn. This in turn appears to influence the effectiveness of expressions that show off the muscles of the player character, though there is little other contribution that Strength has in this regard.
Weight is another statistic that alters the player character's appearance, though to be specific, it only affects the size of his belly. As the player character gains "weight", his belly becomes rounder and more protrusive, making him look more comical than convincingly obese. Most importantly, this statistic has next to no significance to the gameplay.
Despite the myriad of customization options that have been mentioned above, there do not appear to be any options to alter the shape of the player character's face. This is a missing feature that can stand out sorely.
Nevertheless, it is commendable that Lionhead has actually made the player character's appearance matter in the gameplay, which is a rarity in many RPGs at the time.
However, an observant player will notice that clothing alters these appearance statistics the most, having magnitudes of effect that far surpass any other method to alter these statistics. This skewed design may contribute to cheesy solutions to certain puzzles and minor quests, which may be to the detriment of the game's attempt to make the player character's appearance matter.
MORAL ALIGNMENT:
Throughout the game, the player can have the player character getting into situations both mundane and story-critical, in which the player's decisions would determine the moral alignment of the player character.
If the player performs convincingly heroic actions, such as saving a village from marauding bandits or simply killing evil creatures, he gains some points further down the path of what is considered "Good" in this game. Going around murdering honest, working folk, or picking a nasty decision to end a quest with, would have the player character venturing down the path of darkness.
In addition to the cosmetic and aesthetic consequences as described earlier, the moral alignment of the player character determines whether he can use certain alignment-restricted gear or not, as well as how efficiently he can use certain spells, which become more efficient if the player character is of a specific alignment.
There are other miscellaneous consequences, such as bandits allowing an evil player character to move past them without being accosted (they will even throw a compliment or two his way).
Unfortunately, the contribution of the system of moral alignment to the story is very small; which of the story's few endings is selected is among the very few things that the player's moral choices will affect.
Most importantly, trying to stick to one alignment is made difficult due to the scripting for the awarding of alignment points. This problem is at its worst in combat; killing certain creatures and characters is guaranteed to award points of a specific alignment, such as killing bandits certainly grants "Good" points. Considering that many evil creatures are inherently hostile to the player character, it would be difficult to fend them off without gaining any unwanted alignment points.
RENOWN & REPUTATION:
Despite what has been said about moral alignment and responses from NPCs, the player will only see the latter when the player character has gained a reputation, for better or worse. In Fable, reputation is reflected by the amount of the player character's renown, which is measured in points.
The player character starts out with almost no renown, which means that NPCs will barely notice the player character, much less make remarks. As the hero inevitably gains more renown, NPCs take notice of the player character and respond to his presence according to his appearance and alignment.
The main way to accumulate renown is through performing and completing quests; this is standard-fare in the RPG genre by the time of this game.
However, there is another way to gain Renown that can be quite amusing, though not necessarily novel or original. This involves showing off trophies, which are parts that have been harvested from specific monsters that the player character has slain.
At any time, within a settlement such as a town or city, the player can enact a mini-game that requires the player character to run around and showing off the trophy to as many people at once as possible within a limited amount of time; a score counter shows how well the player is doing. The bigger the potential crowd, the greater the score reward; showing the trophy to NPCs that haven't seen it before also rewards greater score.
Eventually, once the timer runs out, the score will be tallied to calculate the amount of reward that would be granted to the player. However, every subsequent showing off of the trophy has diminishing returns.
Moreover, luck is a factor in this mini-game. Although NPCs do have predictable schedules in their daily lives and thus a player can try to plan for these via observing them, having them bunching up for a convenient showing off is a matter of luck; NPCs may stop to have conversations with others, look at the scenery and such. This is where the game's attempt at portraying believable lives for these NPCs work against the player.
(However, the player may try to make use of another feature of the game to have NPCs coming over to one location, as will be elaborated upon later.)
Different permutations of alignment and renown levels contribute to titles for the player character. Completing certain major quests also yield additional titles. These titles are actually spoken aloud by NPCs, together with remarks on the hero's achievements.
Fittingly, deed-related titles cannot be changed (at least not without performing some hanky-panky on game files). Nicknames, however, can be changed, by paying rumor-mongers for changes. These nicknames are uttered by NPCs, which is an amusing nuance.
These nuanced designs make the reputation system in Fable easier to appreciate. On the other hand, they also happen to highlight the fact that NPCs do not utter the Hero's name (given by the player) in any manner.
WEAPONS:
At any time, the player character can only be equipped with one melee weapon and one ranged weapon; switching them out requires a trip to the inventory screen, if the player does not want to bind the equipping of certain weapons to the hotkeys.
Fortunately, switching a melee weapon and a ranged weapon is easy; a tap of a button triggers a very short animation. As a side note, spells can be fired at any moment, regardless of any weapon equipped, though the player has to toggle between spells.
There are no shields to be wielded and no clear distinction between one-handed and two-handed weapons, which do not bode well for any impression of the sophistication of the melee combat in this game. The player character appears to wield just about any melee weapon in the same manner, from dirks and morning stars to huge maces and claymores. There are few significant differences between different types of weapons, and even these are typical, such as blunt weapons doing crushing damage and sharp weapons doing slashing damage.
There are even less differences when comparing one ranged weapon with another. At most, only the firing rate and damage-per-shot would be different, discounting the aesthetic designs associated with them, e.g. the animations.
It should be noted here that attacks with ranged weapons have to be "charged" before they can be loosed; arrows have to be nocked, and bolts have to be loaded. This can seem a hassle at first, but fully charged shots happen to go through the defences of certain enemies, or shatter them outright.
Fable has a feature that lets the player improve weapons by inserting items that are called "augmentation jewels" into them, if they have any slots (typically enough). This is practically Lionhead's take on the gem-and-slot system that was quite common in Western RPGs at the time. Unsurprisingly, the jewels cannot be removed once they have been spent on a weapon with slots.
ARMOR & OTHER APPAREL:
The apparel that the player character wears determines his durability in battle as well as his appeal to civilized folks.
In the case of combat, a piece of apparel may or may not provide protection in the form of armor points when worn. Armor reduces the amount of physical damage that is inflicted on the player character. A piece of apparel may also provide other forms of protection, called "resistances", and much like the "resistances" that have been seen in other RPGs, these influence the amount of damage that the player character takes from non-physical sources of harm.
A piece of apparel may belong to a set; collecting and wearing them all as a set does not appear to confer benefits, which is perhaps a missed opportunity for a bit more sophistication (albeit unoriginal) in the designs of apparel.
As the inventory system provides unlimited capacity, the player can collect as many sets of apparel as he/she likes, which may be appealing to players who happen to have a liking for fictional fashion. Conveniently enough, the player can have the player character switching between sets of apparel using the inventory interface.
This convenience comes into play when the player decides to make use of the game's very limited implementation of disguises, as will be mentioned later.
FLOURISH:
In addition to the Combat Multiplier, there is another game mechanism that rewards finesse in combat in the form of the Flourish attack. After having inflicted a few consecutive hits in melee combat on an enemy without getting hit in return or missing an attack, the player character is surrounded by a nimbus of light, which denotes that the player can perform a special melee attack that blows through any enemy's defences, even when they are taking defensive measures, such as raising their shields.
In addition, flourishes may permanently damage an enemy's defence, such as ripping off pieces of armour or shattering shields, so it is to the player's benefit if he/she can time the expenditure of a Flourish on a particularly threatening enemy.
The mechanism of Flourish makes melee combat a lot less rote than simply mashing off combos and dodging. However, one can say that there should have been more of such mechanisms, which could have made melee combat a lot more interesting.
POTIONS:
Fable has some of the most convenient and powerful potions seen in RPGs – perhaps too convenient and powerful, such that they have a specific section of their own in this review.
The usual health- and magic-replenishing potions are among these, and as mentioned earlier, using them is as easy as jamming away on a button.
However, one particular type of potion can seem overpowered. The Resurrection Phial is a very rare potion, but each one is practically the equivalent of an "extra life", to use a term that is associated with puzzle-action platformers. If the player character is slain while there is a Resurrection Phial in his inventory, the game does not transition to the game-over screen; instead, it consumes the phial and has the player character coming back to life with full Health and Will on the spot.
Potions are also the only other means that the player can resort to in order to improve the player character's health and will capacities, outside of the experience-spending system. There are very rare special potions that can do this, and they are often found within silver chests, which will be described further later. They also happen to completely replenish Health or Will immediately upon consumption, making them as useful as regular potions.
On the other hand, the player character's Health and Will capacities have ceiling limits that cannot be surpassed with the imbibing of any further potions of such kind. When these limits are achieved, the value of these limited-quantity potions dives.
STEALTH:
Fable has some features for stealth-oriented gameplay. Although these appear to be satisfactorily functional, they have very little significance to the core of the gameplay.
At any time in the game, the player can have the player character going into sneaking mode, which has him taking on a comical but otherwise convincingly cautious-looking crouching pose. His movement rate slows down to a creep, but NPCs lose any knowledge of his presence as long as they cannot see him; this is a crudely simple design that has been seen in older games that attempted to have stealth-oriented gameplay features.
Anyway, to assist the player at sneaking around, there is a counter next to the mini-map that denotes how many NPCs have the player character within sight either partially or wholly. The counter also shows whether anyone has a good view of the player character, via an icon that resembles a closing/opening eye.
To be able to perform any sneaking, the eye must be almost closed; if it is almost closed, the player can still attempt to sneak around without being automatically detected. However, the player character may be detected if he tries to do anything other than sneaking around, such as opening containers.
If the player persists with exploring the stealth-oriented features anyway, he/she would discover that there is not much reward to be had from sneaking around and stealing things. Many things that are found in NPCs' homes and such are paltry items that are easier to get simply by buying them off stores. There are only a few notable items that can only be obtained via thievery, but otherwise there are few other incentives to skulk around.
Moreover, stealing items is not an instantaneous action; the player needs to wait for a timer to complete before an item can be stolen and placed into the player's inventory. The more expensive the item is, the longer the timer is.
In addition to sneaking around, the player character can don a disguise or two to get past some places without being attacked outright. The Bandit disguise, obtained via completing a set of apparel for the appearance of a Bandit, appears to be the only functioning disguise in the game. Wearing it allows the player to move through Bandit camps without being attacked, though wearing it in cities and towns infuriate the guards and have them attacking outright.
Lionhead has missed an opportunity to implement more disguises, which would have been to the benefit of the stealth-gameplay aspect of the game.
Developing the Guile of the player character eventually unlocks the Lock-Picking "expression". That this is implemented in the same manners as the other expressions can seem odd, suggesting that it is a game design that was crammed in instead of being given a place of its own. Anyway, the Lock-Picking expression allows the player character to pick open locks, but there are very few locks in Albion that can be picked open and which do not strictly require a key.
PASSING OF TIME & AGING:
Lionhead has intended to implement the mechanism of passing of time in Fable to enact changes such as the growth of trees; this has been implemented in its earlier games, namely Black & White.
However, in Fable, the mechanism is mainly associated with the scripts for the behaviour and schedules of activities of NPCs. For example, storekeepers open their stores during the day, and close them during the night before going to sleep.
Changes that occur over time such as the growth of trees – which was promised and hyped up by Lionhead and Molyneux – were not implemented, apparently due to processing limitations of the game engine and the lack of ability on the part of the developers (who have managed to implement such changes in Black & White, to mention a reminder).
Anyway, the player character is not affected by the changes between day and night; he does not need any rest and has no clear day-to-day biological clock; he ages through other means that will be described shortly. However, for certain quests and side endeavours, the player has to take heed of the time of the day before certain scripts can be triggered.
The mechanism of aging is not described well by the game, other than its vague mention that the passing of time causes the hero to age. In actuality, using the Experience-Spending platform to improve the player character's capabilities is actually the trigger for aging. If the player makes several playthroughs with different frequencies of visits to the platform, the player may notice different rates of aging for the player character.
Aging causes the player character's attractiveness to drop, but otherwise there does not appear to be any other consequences. Furthermore, the player character's age stops at 65 years; he will not become any older.
This can lead to some odd visuals in in-game cutscenes, when the game places the player character next to pivotal characters, such as one of his parents. If the player character has aged considerably, he may well look not really that much younger than said parent of his, to cite an example of such a visually silly moment. Furthermore, characters in the game, including the player character himself, do not appear to notice his aging; in fact, they do not even remark on his age.
Such half-hearted implementation makes aging a pointless feature in Fable.
ECONOMY:
As to be expected of a typical RPG, the virtual economy in Fable generally revolves around the player character's wallet and the availability of stock and funds in shops. Although this is satisfactorily functional, it is also a disappointment as it fell short of the developers' promises, implied or otherwise, of a vibrant economy that operates out of the player's control.
This disappointment would be further reinforced when the player realizes that he/she can exploit the virtual economy. This can be done by understanding how the player character's Guile rating works when interacting with shops.
Having a higher Guile rating lowers the prices of goods that can be bought and raises the prices of goods that can be sold to stores. This can circumvent the game's simple representation of the effects of demand and supply.
For example, with a high enough Guile rating, the player can buy out all of the stock of one shop, even as the prices of the goods increase as their supplies become scarce, and then sell them all back for a profit.
Perhaps this exploit could have been averted if the availability of stock does not affect the prices of goods being sold or if there is a limit on the player character's inventory capacity, but these restrictions have not been implemented.
The only measure that goes against this exploit is the limited funds that a shop has; eventually, its money would run out, if the player resorts to this exploit to gain a lot of money. However, as with stock, the shop's funds reset periodically, so the player can somewhat schedule trips to one shop and another to accumulate cash.
GAMEPLAY – SAVING GAMES:
During quests, the default save-anywhere system is disabled. When the player reloads a saved game for a quest, the game plonks the player character down at the start of the quest-critical level while resetting everything else.
Instead, the game-saving system regresses to a variant called the "Hero Save" during quests. Fittingly enough with respect to its name, this variant of the system preserves the data set for the player character's state and inventory, separately from the data set for the game world. To elaborate further, as the player character collects loot and experience from a quest-centric level, his statistics will be updated on the spot; making a game-save during a quest saves the Hero's state up to this point.
This means that a player can theoretically 'farm' a quest-centric level to accumulate loot and experience. In practise, this can certainly be done, but the player runs the risk of running into technical issues as the level is reloaded over and over. The data set for the player character may be updated with data, such as that for quest-centric items. This data may clash with the scripting for said level, thus potentially causing errors when the player decides to actually make progress in the quest.
If this occurs, the player's saved-game is effectively broken and the player has to resort to an earlier saved-game and then restart the quest.
Outside of missions, the game uses a much more flexible save-anywhere system, called the "World Save". This remembers both the state of the player character and the game world, and can be saved into multiple slots. However, reloading a "World Save" repositions the player character at the exit/entrance which the player had used to enter the level with, and not at the position where the player last left the player character.
QUESTS & STORY PROGRESSION:
To help track the player's progress, there is the representation of Albion in the headquarters of the Guild that the player character belongs to. On this ornate table, there are cards that show the locations of quest-centric places and such, as well as comparisons between the challenges provided by these quests and the player's overall power level (likely measured by the total amount of experience points that the player character has accrued).
Unlike the mechanism of experience, this feature is better explained by the canon and story of the game. To elaborate this statement further would be to include spoilers, however.
Anyway, the player can pick which quests to go on, which will update the player's quest logs. The "Gold" quests are primary quests that are needed to advance in the main storyline, whereas the "Silver" quests are optional. However, the "Silver" quests are generally of greater challenge than "Gold" quests that appeared at the same time as they did on the table.
These quests offer rewards upon completion, but the player can attempt to spice up the rewards by making boasts on the Boasting platform – and only on the platform – which when made good upon, increase the amount of gold obtained from completing the quest; some of them also increase the amount of renown gained.
These boasts are essentially tertiary objectives that are optional to achieve. The player can make boasts such as fighting enemies in only underwear (which is feasible if the player has invested in shielding spells) and having no weapons (which do not include spells).
Yet, as outrageous as some of them sound, they are still achievable, if the player can realize that magic spells and doles of will potions are key. However, this also highlights how much more useful the path of Will is compared to Strength and Skill.
Observant players will also notice that when the player character makes boasts on the platform, any NPC that happen to be nearby would be drawn over, regardless of the time of the day and what they are doing at the time. This can be exploited for the benefit of the Trophy-showing mini-game, but otherwise does not appear to have any other significance beyond creating a crowd around the Boasting platform.
Some quests involve the escorting of NPCs. The NPCs are generally quite good at following the player character around, so there would not be many complaints about their pathfinding capabilities. What makes them noteworthy, but not for the better, is that enemies that waylay the player character and his NPC charges do not appear to target the NPCs whenever they can; instead, they are more than likely to be focused on the player character. This is perhaps a convenient design, but a sceptical player may also point out that it makes escort quests in Fable much artificially easier than those in other RPGs.
However, these NPCs have no way of healing on their own; only the player character can heal them, and only if the player had invested precious experience into the otherwise worthless Heal Life spell.
TRAVELLING & TRADERS:
The player can have the player character running around from place to place, but it is a lot easier to use the Cullis Gates, which are practically teleportation devices that allow the user to move instantly between them. As running from place to place can be time-consuming, this is a convenient feature. Almost all significant settlements have Cullis Gates, which make getting to the settlements from elsewhere in Albion quite simple, assuming that the player can locate them in the wilderness.
In addition to the Cullis Gates, the player can also use the hero's Guild Seal to perform an immediate teleportation to the Guild, and then back to where he was from anywhere in Albion, not just the Guild. This is even more convenient; crafty players who can remember where they used the immediate teleportation feature can complete quests a lot more expediently by exploiting this feature.
However, the ability to teleport is disabled when the player is involved in a quest; there is no way to exit the quest area either. Therefore, it is important that the player prepares for quests before undertaking them, which is a lesson that the game will tell the player about.
On the other hand, the player may come across Trader NPCs during certain areas in these missions, who will be described shortly.
In the world of Albion, there are people who partake in the profession of trading, which apparently involves hauling goods on their backs and trading them between cities and towns, often using the dangerous roads that connect the settlements together. If the player character should travel the roads, he may well come across them.
The player can choose to purview their goods, assuming that they can survive the dangers that lurk on these roads, the most common of which are hostile wild-life that will attack them when they come too close, which they often do, given their lousy A.I. scripts that appear to be oblivious to danger.
The goods that these traders offer can vary wildly; some offer potions while others offer hairstyle portraits. Their amount of available gold also varies, as do the prices of their goods.
Alternatively, the player can have them killed, though some of the goods that they have will be lost; this is also considered an evil action.
PROPERTIES:
Not unlike certain other Western RPGs that have already implemented similar features, Fable lets the player character purchase and develop properties. However, these are at best, just a novelty.
The player character does not really need any housing of any sort, due to his lack of any need to sleep and eat. Therefore, the only few reasons for the player to have the player character accruing property are for the sake of relationships with NPCs, which will be elaborated later, and some side income.
The side income is obtained via renting out properties, which prevent them from being used by the player character (they are locked against entry). In return, money will accumulate from their renting out, which can be collected by having the player character manually walk over to the properties and interacting with the signboards in front of them.
The amount of rent can be increased by furnishing the properties or otherwise improving them for the purpose of habitation. However, the amount of rent would never seem to increase to the level where manually collecting it is worth the hassle. In fact, it would be more lucrative to simply sell the properties off after furnishing them, as their value increases greatly afterwards, especially if the player used trophies to decorate them with.
SOCIAL INTERACTIONS, CRIME & RELATIONSHIPS:
Some of the features of Fable that have been vaunted by Lionhead and Molyneux and are actually somewhat delivered as promised include the interactions that the player character can have with NPCs and the relationships that he can get involved in.
Social interactions with everyday NPCs are mainly performed through the player character's expressions and gestures. There are a lot of these, though the reactions from NPCs can ultimately be lumped under a few categories: disapproving, for foul expressions like farting, terrified, for frightening expressions (and attacking them outright), nonchalant/leering, for silly expressions, and entertained/impressed, for particularly high-level expressions, such as singing.
However, such interactions are at best just a novelty, and for very brief entertainment. They are actually rather inconsequential.
Crime is implemented in this game as mainly a hindrance to getting about in towns and cities after the player character has angered the local law enforcement. Committing a crime in a town or city and getting caught in the act places a fine on the player character's head, which can be cleared by either paying the guard that caught the player character, or going up to a "Wanted" poster to clear a bounty, if the player character has resisted arrest.
However, a curious player (that has little regard for fictional people) may notice that once a family is murdered in their entirety, their home goes up for sale. On the other hand, profiting from this is next to impossible, as murders will never go undiscovered; in fact, as soon as the player character deals a killing blow on a civilian, even from a stealthy position and without any possible witnesses, a fine is immediately levied on him.
Perhaps Lionhead's and Microsoft's concerns about reprisals from industry watchdogs have restricted what the player could have done with murders of fictional people, but in any case, the potential entertainment that could be had from these have been held back.
The player character can gain a spouse, or spouses. This is where the aforementioned statistic of Attractiveness comes into play; a player character with a high Attractiveness rating can attract the attention of NPCs, immediately raising their infatuation levels (depicted by heart-shaped icons floating above their heads) without doing anything other than standing in sight of them. Having high Renown also happens to help.
Otherwise, the player character has to shower said NPCs with gifts, which can be costly. In fact, the effectiveness of high Attractiveness and Renown ratings makes gift-giving quite worthless to pursue.
Anyway, eventually, infatuated NPCs may start dropping hints about wedding rings, indicating that the player character can now wed them; they generally will not refuse the proposal.
However, having a spouse is almost inconsequential in terms of gameplay, especially if the player wedded an unimportant NPC. The spouse NPC does not contribute much to the main storyline and even when asked to accompany the player character on quests, he/she cannot do much in combat. In fact, the only thing that the spouse does well is occupying one of the player character's properties, preventing it from being used for anything else. These limited designs make the spouse system very difficult to appreciate.
There may be some amusement to be had from arousing them enough to have them jumping into bed with the player character, but a fade-to-black screen with suggestive utterances is all the player would have, which can be a disappointment. Furthermore, spouses have to be kept happy, or they will demand divorces. Enacting divorces causes a significant shift towards the Evil alignment, amusingly enough (though perhaps not for everyone).
(Uncouth players may notice that spouses can be exploited for a certain side endeavour in the game, one involving human sacrifices.)
If there is any value to be had from Fable's feature of having relationships, it is that it is not afraid to venture into what is considered to be taboo by the socially and religiously conservative, namely giving the player the opportunity to have the male player character gaining male spouses, and more than one spouse, e.g. being a polygamist. However, that Fable falls short of showing sex scenes can seem to be very disappointing holding-back.
SILVER KEYS & CHESTS:
Lionhead has loudly proclaimed that the player would be rewarded for exploring Albion, and in a way, this promise was partially delivered.
Albion apparently has legends revolving around impervious Silver Chests that can only be opened with Silver Keys that can survive the passing of time, unlike other works of artisans.
The Silver Chests are sometimes sitting in very obvious places, apparently ignored by everyday folk. A chest can only be opened if the player has the right number of Silver keys to unlock it, which is depicted by very obvious numerals on the chest itself. The Silver keys are not expended when the player uses them to unlock chests.
The Silver Chests often contain very rare items, such as the coveted potions that increase the Health and Will capacities of the player character. Therefore, it is generally in the player's interest to attempt to remember the location of each Chest and unlock them when the opportunity arises.
DEMON DOORS:
The somewhat inappropriately-named Demon Doors offer tangible rewards that are similar to those offered by Silver Chests. However, the player may be more amused by the Demon Doors themselves, which are actually sentient.
Appearance-wise, they hardly look demonic; this is a quirk that one of them does point out with very amusing statements, including one about them not being really able to look at themselves. Speaking of statements, they have some of the most hilarious lines in the game, most of which concern their predicaments about being practically static structures.
All of them are voiced by the same person though, who sometimes does not provide a convincing inflection to the voice-overs. This is to the detriment of the otherwise memorable lines that Demon Doors have.
Anyway, Demon Doors will often pose to the player character challenges that have to be overcome before they will open and allow the removal of their contents. Some of these challenges are easy and can be completed in front of the Demon Doors, whereas some others require more effort, such as marrying a "posh wife".
On the other hand, some of the rewards are not worth the hassle that the challenges demand. For example, the challenge of marrying a "posh wife" is actually a daunting task that involves some other quests that can take quite a while to complete, yet the reward is a so-called legendary weapon that is quite underpowered compared to the weapons that the player would find later. Conversely, there are challenges that are so easy that the reward can seem to be over-compensatory; for example, there is a challenge that involves getting fat in return for a potion that increases Will capacity.
There is no animation for the opening of the Demon Doors; their models merely vanish. This can be somewhat disappointing, though the disappointment would be alleviated by the excitement of being able to get at the goodies behind them, though this excitement may be dashed if the loot turns out to be undesirable.
COMPLAINT – THE LIMITED REALM OF ALBION:
That the collection of Silver Keys, the opening of Silver Chests and the discovery of Demon Doors are rewards for exploration would have been a more convincing statement if the places in Albion are actually vast and expansive.
They are not; in fact, Albion is little more than a bunch of isolated levels strung together with loading screens. There is a map of Albion that can be brought up, but it is just there for cosmetic purposes and canonical posterity. The levels in the game are little more than maps with generally linear designs, with paths leading to other maps or paths that lead to obvious dead ends that contain treasure that is not hidden well, or encounters with special enemies that are legendary in challenge of combat but not elusiveness.
It will not take long for the player to search every nook and cranny in any map that he/she has not come across before.
Although the very limited level designs would appeal to players who want to rush through the game, they will not endear to RPG veterans who prefer vaster game worlds.
On the other hand, the small and simply connected levels may be somewhat more convenient for the purpose of backtracking. For example, there are a couple of magical temples in the less-civilized places of Albion that provide lucrative rewards for the player character if the player has him providing plenty of supplication in them, but which requires more than a few trips to-and-fro more established places; the simple connections between levels may help the player in making these trips.
ENEMIES:
Being a game with medieval fantasy settings, Fable offers the usual archetypes of opponents, from the game's take on goblins and oversized wildlife to the staple of undead and demons. There would not be many enemies that a fantasy RPG veteran would find aesthetically or thematically refreshing.
As for what they do in combat, they do the usual things; they approach the player character and attack away with whatever means that they have. They do have some interesting A.I. designs though, such as the tendency to surround the often lonesome player character, which certainly adds to the challenge of defeating otherwise predictable opponents.
The game also resorts to typically artificial injections of challenge, such as hemming the player character into an arena of limited space, as well as environmental hazards.
The player character can block light attacks from enemies with either a melee or ranged weapon, which generally nullifies damage from incoming blows. Certain enemies may also recoil from the blocking, opening them up to attacks. However, there are many enemies in the game that can perform attacks that cannot be blocked, namely virtually all bosses.
Conversely, many enemies can also block attacks by the player character. The regular enemies that are encountered early in the game do this with little frequency, but the ones that appear later tend to block more often, thus necessitating the use of crowd-control tactics or attacks that stun or knock them down.
Unlike regular enemies, bosses in Fable often lack animations for stunned and knocked-down states, and some do not even bother to block. This gives the impression that the player character is just plinking away at them, defeating them through attrition rather than finesse and guile; this is to the detriment of the enjoyment that could be had from encounters with them.
On the other hand, boss fights are not too formulaic. To elaborate, all bosses are not rendered impervious until the player does something to make them vulnerable, and neither are they affected by the trope of obvious weak points. Any hit that the player character can make on bosses will damage them, though the player is also encouraged to look for openings by observing their attack animations.
GRAPHICS – LIGHTING AND SHADOWING:
After having played the game and experiencing its visuals, one would have the impression that what Lionhead could not achieve gameplay-wise, it tried to compensate with graphics.
Albion is a vibrant-looking realm, that much cannot be doubted. However, in its eagerness to make Albion vibrant, Lionhead may have resorted to too much bloom for its lighting. Many surfaces in the game, including people's faces, have so much shine that the game can be very difficult on the eyes; spells make this even worse.
Disabling bloom would make the lighting and shadowing in the game much easier to appreciate. They are done well enough to provide convincing atmospheric immersion for most of the levels in the game. For example, in the forests of Albion, the tree cover from sunlight is satisfactorily well-done.
GRAPHICS – CHARACTER & CREATURE MODELS:
Lionhead has implemented stylized, almost caricature-like designs to the models of characters in Fable. Although most humans in the game appear to have somewhat believable proportions in sizes of body parts, exaggerated hands and feet give them a cartoonish look that may or may not be appealing to the RPG veteran, though it would seem quite welcoming to anyone else.
The models for creatures in this game are a lot less cartoonish though. There are menacingly oversized wasps and other wildlife with nasty-looking natural tools of killing, which make for visual indicators that are effective at conveying the message that they are indeed harmful. Some creatures do look comical, such as the Hobbes and most Skeletons (who have the same silly exaggerated proportions for their extremities), though getting attacked by them would remind the player that they are not there for purposes of humour.
GRAPHICS – LOCALE DESIGNS:
The places in Albion that the player can go to are perhaps Fable's best graphical assets. Compared to the locales typically seen in other fantasy RPGs, Fable's are convincingly lively-looking, sombre or idyllic, where appropriate. That the game has supporting scripting for these places make them even easier to appreciate; for example, haunted cemeteries are made all the way ominous and oppressive by having skeletons respawning from the ground.
GRAPHICS – MISCELLANEOUS:
As a reward for careful aiming, the player can score tremendously greater damage by hitting sensitive locations on the models of enemies, such as heads for humanoid enemies. This is not unheard of in games, but what is remarkable about it is that they happen to showcase some graphical deaths that may seem peculiar in a game with fairy-tale visuals such as Fable. For example, most human enemies lose their heads when they are killed with headshots, leaving behind bodies with red stumps for necks.
VOICE-ACTING:
The game has generally satisfactory voice-acting, with some of them being quite splendid. The best voice-acting, at least when compared to that for other characters, is perhaps that for the main villain of the game. The main villain starts off as mercurial, mixing cynical praises with mockery; eventually, the main villain sounds increasingly menacing as the character's true nature becomes clearer and clearer.
Unfortunately, the main villain's entertaining voice-over is a stark contrast with the lack of voice-acting for the protagonist, who is only ever heard uttering anything when fighting or making expressions (with the silliest ones having the most legible utterances).
Perhaps this was intended to make the main villain out as a deliberate anti-thesis of the protagonist (which is an impression that becomes stronger once the true source of power for the main villain is revealed), but it is also a missed opportunity for Lionhead to give voice-overs to the protagonist, who after all, is irrevocably male and has an ancestry that is typically epic.
As for everyone else, an observant player may notice that although most of the voice-overs for everyday folk are satisfactorily inflected and delivered with convincing appropriateness, they are provided by a very limited number of voice-actors and –actresses. It would not be long before the player realizes that unimportant NPCs such as peasants and town-folk are voiced by the same man and woman with thick British accents, or the same British adults who pitched their voices so as to sound like children.
SOUNDTRACKS & SOUND EFFECTS:
Some of Fable's soundtracks are made by Danny Elfman, who is a veteran but otherwise relatively unknown composer. It is difficult to know which are his, as the other composer is Russell Shaw, who has worked on many of Molyneux's games. It is perhaps due to the latter that some of the music would seem familiar to those who have followed Molyneux's works; there are the familiar themes of wonderment and ill-omens in the tracks that play during cutscenes, as an elaboration.
Some of the soundtracks are memorable enough to be remembered for many years, such as the hauntingly melodious and somewhat forlorn track that plays when the player character has entered through Demon Doors. Another memorable track is the one that plays during combat with regular enemies, which is exciting enough but not too intrusive.
As for the sound effects, most of them would not seem new to the seasoned RPG player; there are the usual clashes of metal on metal, magical whooshing and such.
THE LOST CHAPTERS:
The Lost Chapters provide some additional content over the original version of Fable by including some new enemies and locales, as well as an extension to the cliff-hanger story in the original version.
There are new monsters in the form of severe-looking magically autonomous suits of armour. Although these are impressive to look at initially, that the game recycles them a lot in the additional chapter for the story would cause any awe that the player may have to diminish quickly. The same can be said of the new locales, which has a lot of snow and glaciers, all of which showcase more of the eye-aching bloom.
The conclusion to the Hero's story is the most appreciable contribution to the Fable saga, but this is done through typical means; different ending cutscenes play out according to the alignment of the player character and the very few pivotal decisions that the player has made. Such designs are nothing new in RPGs
CONCLUSION:
Fable does have many nuances that make it different from many other RPGs, such as the boasting feature, but these ultimately lead to the usual gameplay tropes of RPGs, namely gathering loot and money. It deserves some recognition for doing things that other RPGs rarely do, but ultimately Fable did not make enough use of these to become particularly remarkable. The Lost Chapters edition may seem to add more to the franchise, but it is otherwise a reminder of Fable's wasted potential.