Caltrops - Gamerasutra - Re: Fable: First Impressions

Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra

by Kab(uke) Seme 09/17/2004, 2:44pm PDT

Kab(uke) Seme wrote:

Lizard_King wrote:

So far, it is quite possibly the most linear "open" rpg (I use the term lightly) I have played in recent memory. Remember how Gothic gave you the exciting choice between rice picking or mining or whatever to start with? Fable doesn't, and just gives you a straight series of menial tasks as "training". Ever dreamed of shooting arrows at dummies to earn a slightly better bow? YOU HAVE THAT POWER IN FABLE.

The graphics are ok to great...I kind of like the medievil scroll wannabe cutscenes, but that could be personal gayness afoot. The control is not bad, and the combat is either shaping up to be great or awful. It all depends on how the combos and magic will add in later on.

As for the good/evil CHOICE IS YOURS bullshit, I had a closeted hope that the game would allow you a middle road or a "don't pigeonhole me motherfucker just give me power" option, sort of like Morrowind accomplished by accident. It doesn't. Do you want to do good or bad? It's like KOTOR for people who like doing boring, unjedi shit.

So far, the way everything is handled, from the interface to the wierdo mute/mime character interactions is at least different enough that I still feel like playing. Also, the score is really, really good and varied. Other than that, a solid rental.

As for Good and Evil? It doesn't matter. Later in the game you can simply donate at the temple of your choice to shift that alignment either way. The endings are totally dependent on choices made entirely at the end for slightly different outcomes. OOOPS, SPOILERZ.

There is none. All potential replay value is negated by the fact one can, like Morrowind, just continue playing long after the game is over. I don't know why anyone'd want to. All the quests are the same boring escort, fetch and slaughter that were done in Diablo. Unlike Diablo, Fable encourages against specialization by making it nigh impossible to keep pumping experience into one character trait. My dreams of the solid block of muscle style Conan avatar or the palsied mageling died when I saw it would take four hours to get enough exp to ratchet him up one more point or I could use a quarter of the same experience could to slot myself half a dozen other attributes. Thus one will be a hybrid character by default, the only real customization being in the degree to which one favors any single skillset. Even the titles earned through heroic/vile deeds such as 'Malefic' or 'Chickenkiller' can be fucking purchased. Nothing one does has any substantive impact on the plot at all as the entire game buckled under the pressure of having to make players commit to their actions and thus destroyed the main conceit of the ENTIRE fucking game.

At its core the game is a middling to okay action/rpg with some pretty Barbie-dress-up attributes as one's character shifts toward evil/good, with the freeom to add mutton chops, tattoos and matching boots.