[Games] What Went Wrong with Fable?

by Nick Judin
November 4, 2004

Fable. Even if you aren’t in with the video gaming culture, you’ve probably heard of Peter Molyneux’s most ambitious project to date. Years in the making, the idea behind Fable was to have a world that you completely shaped—you kill a man, 10 game-years later, his son returns for your head. Save a kid’s life, and he could return the favor one day. Plant a sapling as a boy, and when you’re a wizened old man, you can see that it’s grown. Unfortunately, Fable doesn’t accomplish this.

The promised choices, touted as intricate and “gray,” as opposed to the obvious good versus evil decisions in many RPGs, I found to be simple and completely predictable. This world doesn’t truly react to your actions. If you wipe out an entire town, you may be feared, but if you quickly donate a little pocket change to the local church, suddenly you’re everyone’s favorite hero again.

Also disappointing, Fable was supposed to be a world where the experience changed every time. It doesn’t. Your deeds are not revolutionary; they are simple recorded statistics. The social interaction, which was supposedly ocean deep, is a shallow as a puddle. Your character never really talks; instead just uses a handful of silly expressions. The only true choices you make are simple yes-no questions, and if the good path lets you spare a foe, you never interact with him or her again. This happens on at least three occasions. Some incentive!

I’m not a very demanding person. But the errors in Fable were too numerous to overlook. The combat is far too easy. I have played the game through several times, being both evil and good, and not ONCE did I die. Ever. In fact, it’s actually hard to do so, considering the game tosses revive vials and potions at you around every turn. There’s no level of difficulty, and the whole time it feels like you’re being led by your nose through the world of Albion.

The story is pretty pitiful. Fable took four years, a huge cast and, as reported in the credits, several thousand take-out dinners to make. But the plot sounds like it took three guys, one night and a batch of “special” brownies. “OK, family got killed, blah blah, now I’m… being taken in by a organization that trains heroes…come on Molyneux, weren’t you even trying?”

I’ll admit, the sound and graphics were excellent, making Fable look more epic than it was.

That fact of the matter is that Molyneux was just blowing smoke; for years he wove tales of this fantastic new game, Fable, as the next generation in gaming. But in truth, he delivered a product inferior to the current generation.

 
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posted by Jo-D on 11/03/04 at 07:22 PM