Fable Review

You start off very young, but grow faster than you might expect.

Looking at all this, then, it's easy to see why Fable is fantastic fun. But now, let us remember that this is, in fact, that great Molyneux masterpiece that we've all been waiting for since the Xbox's launch date. You'll remember all the promises of choice, of freedom, of an epic landscape that changes and evolves with your hero. You'll embark upon this game and have in your mind a picture of an epic quest of the kind we've perhaps never seen before. A few hours in, you'll realise that, despite its qualities and charm, Fable is neither a game of freedom, nor a game of choice - nor, indeed, is it by any stretch of the imagination an 'epic'. And it is at this point, sadly, that Fable begins to fall down around itself.

Take, for instance, the concept of alignment that is one of this and most other Molyneux games' main concepts. Though the villager AI is sufficiently sophisticated to make this possible, the problem is that it simply isn't effective. It is, in fact, a supreme challenge to end up anywhere other than comfortably in the middle or slightly to the side of right. In many cases it is expressly necessary to vanquish bandits in order to complete quests and progress the story, and so the very act of progressing through the game forces the player to the side of right without their having the least say in the matter. Killing villagers, possibly the most evil act that can be committed within the game, gives only paltry retribution and only a few more 'evil' alignment points than nicking someone's Will Potion from a shelf. You'd have to massacre an entire village for it to have any bearing whatsoever on your alignment. 'For every choice, a consequence', according to the game's box; in fact almost every act one commits within the game is entirely inconsequential.

the designer's inability to realise his dream has turned it into one of the saddest game development stories of this generation.

Fable is full of things like this. You're supposed to be able to choose what clothes your character runs around in, but choose anything other than good, thick chainmail and you're likely to be slaughtered on the spot during any quest. You're supposed to be able to choose your hero's hairstyle, but you only ever end up choosing the ones that add to your Attractiveness and so don't provoke annoying comments from the villagers. You're supposed to be able to choose what tattoos he wears, but doing anything remotely out of the ordinary adds to your Scariness and causes villagers to run away in an extremely irritating fashion when you're trying to talk to them. You're supposed to be able to choose whether to fight for good or for evil, but you have to take up all the quests offered you in order to earn experience from them, and they tend to cancel each other out quite nicely in terms of alignment scores. What's more, just as you've learned to accept all of this and play Fable for what it is, it ends, abruptly and without much warning before we feel we've adequately appreciated it. Fable really needs to be played through at least twice to get the most out of it, and that's something I'm sure many gamers will simply be unwilling to do.

Odd thing is, none of this ever makes you angry. It makes you sad, because you can see what Fable was meant to be. It's perfectly possible to see the majestic outline of this game's great vision within the shadow that is its actuality. Fable, in the end, feels like an empty dream, full of concepts that could not be quite realised and ideas that have not been quite implemented, finally petering out prematurely without half as much aplomb as it would have hoped. Playing through Fable is a deeply sad experience; it is a revolutionary notion trapped within the constraints of a fairly run-of-the-mill action game.

The lighting gives the game an almost permanent glow.

And to be honest, it's worth buying Fable on the strength of that alone. This game's noble aim far surpasses that of its heroic protagonist. Had we not expected more from such an ambitious developer and such a protracted development period, Fable would have gone down extremely well as a very good little adventure. As it is, the designer's inability to realise his dream has turned it into one of the saddest game development stories of this generation.

Thankfully, I think we're all capable of forgetting all of that. It's very easy, while playing Fable, to forget about what it was supposed to be and sink with delight into the charming and absorbing adventure game that it is. Fable is ingenious in many ways, and though its ideas are perhaps not fully fledged - hey, at least they're there. You still enjoy yourself, you still feel close to your-hand-crafted character, and you still get a lot of satisfaction out of guiding him through his life. Fable is, in the end, the Xbox's best adventure game - and that is the thing that we should not forget.