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Fable: The Lost Chapters Review
This updated version of Fable is better than the original, since it extends the game's
main quest, but the world of Albion isn't necessarily worth revisiting if you've been
there already.
The Good
* Lively, beautifully envisioned gameworld is fun to explore
* Interesting, if slightly shallow, morality system causes your character to evolve
* Outstanding presentation makes the game exciting to see and listen to
* The Lost Chapters adds some great new quests, extending the storyline
* Budget price tag.
The Bad
* Main quest is quite short and linear
* Combat system can be exploited, thanks to some overpowered spells
* Character interaction is shallow
* The new content is stacked at the end, forcing Fable players through the old stuff
again.
For most of the structured gameplay, you'll be undertaking quests that are the stuff of
standard-issue fantasy. Rescue missions, dungeon crawls, showdowns against powerful foes,
and all the other clichés make their appearances in Fable. None of the quests take very
long to accomplish, thanks partly to your hero's convenient ability to teleport around the
world, as well as to the onscreen minimap that always points you in the right direction.
Fable's quests offer a bit of varied challenge in how they allow you to "boast" for
additional rewards by agreeing to take on bigger risks. Basically, you're able to take
dares on certain quests, such as vowing to go through a mission "naked" (just in your
Union Jack-emblazoned underpants, that is), or to slay every foe from the mission's
beginning to end, or to complete your objectives in a certain period of time. These boasts
can add an extra bit of challenge and variety, but they aren't really necessary. The
penalty for a failed boast isn't severe, but if you fail the quest altogether then you
have no choice but to restart that quest and keep trying until you succeed. It's strangely
disorienting to be required to restart a simple side quest from the beginning when Fable
is presumably a game about living with the consequences of your actions. Again, though,
the game isn't hard, so the threat of having to replay quests doesn't turn out to be much
of a problem.
Your hero will grow immensely powerful as he gains experience. Even large groups of foes
will be unable to stop him.
As you complete your missions and slay opponents, you'll gain experience points, which you
can spend to customize your character and how he actually plays. This leveling-up system
is quite good, and unlike some of Fable's novelty elements, it actually adds depth to the
gameplay. Basically, you'll get to improve your character's various abilities within three
different pools: strength, skill, and will. Strength abilities influence your melee power,
toughness, and maximum health. Skill abilities affect your speed, archery, the prices you
get from merchants, and your ability to sneak. Will abilities govern your maximum magic
power and available spells. Interestingly, you gain experience points in each of these
three categories separately, as you fight using melee, archery, and magic, respectively.
You also earn a fourth, general type of experience on top of that, which can be spent on
any of the three ability sets. All abilities within each of the three pools are available
right from the get-go, and it's a lot to take in. Fortunately, some helpful text and
voice-over clearly explains how each option may be useful to you.
Though this system works very well, it discourages pure specialization. You might start
out hoping to become the best possible fighter or magic user. But, eventually, you'll find
yourself having to spend exponentially more experience for limited gains in your chosen
field, versus spending relatively small quantities of experience points to gain
proficiency in new skills. So you're almost certainly going to wind up as some sort of
hybrid fighter/archer/wizard, though you'll still probably lean toward specific sets of
skills, of which there are numerous viable combinations.
The sum total of Fable's elements is a decidedly interesting mix that invites, and often
rewards, exploration and experimentation. That's great, but for what it's worth, the game
doesn't entirely succeed at making you feel like you are the hero. The epic premise
doesn't quite translate into an epic experience. This is mostly because the form and
structure of the gameworld feel contrived. Fable consists of a sequence of relatively
small, winding, interconnected maps, separated by brief but noticeable load times. The
hero himself has no personality (and never speaks, except for a few short, gruff phrases
when you make him emote), and the game's cookie-cutter non-player characters, while often
amusing, don't come across as lifelike. Fable's juxtaposition of cheeky humor and
surprisingly serious story themes also seems odd, as the humor tends to overshadow aspects
of the story that otherwise could have seemed much more dramatic had the game maintained a
more even tone. All of this makes the world of Fable seem very much like a sandbox (in
which your imagination will be the key to your enjoyment) rather than a fully realized and
cohesive fantasy setting--the kind that really draws you in and makes you feel like a part
of it. In Fable, you'll often feel more like the director than like the star of the show.
Fable is excellent from a technical standpoint, featuring highly detailed visuals brought
to life by soft, colorful ambient lighting, which gives the entire game an appropriately
dreamlike, wispy look. Little details are everywhere, and character animations are nicely
exaggerated, making the inhabitants of Fable appear larger than life. The various
environments, which include your standard fantasy trappings like forests, swamps, caverns,
and graveyards, are dense with color and little atmospheric touches. Weather effects look
very real, and other effects for spells and such are also great. But the best-looking
aspect of the game is certainly the hero himself and his gradual metamorphosis into
whatever you're trying to turn him into. Watching your hero take shape over time is a
one-of-a-kind experience that, in and of itself, encourages spending lots of time playing
Fable.
Fable packs enough memorable sights, sounds, and surprises to make it very worthwhile.
The same is absolutely true of the audio, which is quite possibly the best part of the
game. A beautiful cl***ical-style orchestral score plays pleasantly throughout the story,
changing its tone and mood effortlessly to fit each different type of setting and
situation. Ambient sound effects match or even surp*** the richness of the graphics. The
voice acting (all of it is British) is of very high quality overall, and there's a ton of
spoken dialogue to be heard. You'll occasionally hear some repeated lines as you wander
through towns, and this is really the only strike against a game whose sound is amazingly
well done.
Fable: The Lost Chapters is an imaginative game that's got enough remarkable, unique
moments in it to make it shine. That many of these moments happen to be good for a laugh
is all the better. It's true that the game's high points are not always frequent--its
ambitions are evident but not always fulfilled, and its pervasively playful spirit is
sometimes mired by convention. These tresp***es are more than excusable, though.
Regardless of how much time you ultimately spend playing Fable, you're not likely to
forget the experience for a long while. Do bear in mind, though, that if you played the
original, you'll have already experienced most of what the game has to offer, and fighting
your way through all the old stuff again just to get to the few hours of new stuff might
not be worthwhile.