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Perhaps the box is talking about a different game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: September 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Oh man, where do I begin? Although this game is fun it, in no way, lives up to it's hype or even to it's description on the box. The story is lame and predictable; little boy is destined for glory, family gets slaughtered, boy becomes hero and seeks revenge, etc., etc. If you're looking for a groundbreaking story with twists and turns, you won't find it here. The story is pretty much what you find in every japanese RPG.

My biggest gripe here is the gameplay. While the game is fun as a hack & slash adventure game, the developers hyped it up to be an open ended RPG. Sure you can run around and talk to people but none of the interactions are meaningful. You don't get choices during conversations as you would with a game like Knights of the Old Republic. Instead you can pick Yes or No (and this is with like 5 out of 100 people). "Will you help this trader?", Yes or No. That is it. The combat system is purely hack and slash and there are like 10 spells in the game, half of which are geared toward making you temporarily stronger during melee combat (I think it's impossible to be a pure mage). Being a rogue is pointless and overly difficult. Sneaking around requires you to hold down the left analog while walking (trust me, your thumb WILL slip off and you WILL get caught). Stealing items requires you to access the function through a series of menus, making quick grabs nearly impossible.

Ok, so the story is lame and the RPG elements are lacking, but at least we can roam the world freely, right? Wrong again! The plush environments of Fable have been created for you to "keep off the grass". Every area has a designated path which you must stick to. You may want to walk on the grass but the invisible walls WILL stop you. So no, you cannot freely roam the world. Sure you can walk all of the paths but there isn't much point to it other than finding enemies on the road.

Well, there has to be a good variety of weapons and armor then! Sheesh, wrong again! I beat the game and discovered maybe 5 different types of weapons (Iron, Steel, Obsidian, Master, and some other super material or something) and like 7 different types of armor. Although you will find variety in the types of weapons (axe, hammer, longsword, katana, etc.) I really didn't see much difference when fighting with any of them other than the damage dealt. There was no feel of different fighting styles. Don't expect much variety from the monsters either. There are bandits, wasps, nymps, zombies, minions, and few other things that I can't remember the name of. All together you will probably encounter about 10 different enemy creatures.

Now, I know what you're thinking, this game has to be loaded with puzzles then! Nope, not a single one. The closest you will come to a puzzle is one of the demon doors (talking doors in the game that hold treasure) speaking vaguely on how you can open it. But none of these are very difficult to figure out either (you may have to think about it for 30 seconds or so).

One thing this game does offer up though is a bunch of features that are meaningless to the gameplay. In fact, all of it's widely mentioned aspects have no real affect on the game. Be Good or Evil... meaningless. The story will progress the same no matter which side you choose. People will react to you differently depending on your alignment but they will all still interact with you just the same. The only real effect that this will have is on your appearance. The same goes for haircuts and tattoos. Sure they look cool but they have no real purpose in the game. Certain harcuts and tattoos will make you less attractive (yes, this is an actual attribute in the game) but that will only make it more difficult for you to find a wife. Ahh, a wife, yet another meaningless feature. You can get married and... well, you can get married and continue playing the game on it's linear course. Oh, and the age system is completely bogus as well. I started as a teenager, 10 game days have passed (the game tracks your days within the game) and now I'm 40-years-old. How do you I age 20 years in 10 days? The game could have at least told me that 20 years have passed, but the friggin' thing says 10 days!

All in all, the game is fun, mindless, hack and slash that feels as though it'd be more approriate for a 10-year-old rather than the adult audience that it was geared toward. The game consists of choosing a quest at the hero's guild, killing the monster, going back to the guild, choosing a quest, killing the monster, going back to the guild... you get my point. This will go on for about 10-15 hours (15 hours if you do the side quests) and then you'll be rewarded with your anti-climatic finish. If you want a fun hack and slash adventure to occupy you for the weekend, then the game isn't bad in that aspect. But, if you're looking for an in-depth RPG experience, then I'd stay away from this one. FAR AWAY!

I gaurantee that after playing this game you will think to yourself, "THAT took four years to develop?!"

Fable - Lost Chapters: Platinum Hits Version

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: November 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Fable: Lost Chapters is the "Platinum Hits" version of Fable, and is an extended version of the original; not an add-on.

I have played through both versions and have not been sorry I bought the extended version. There is a lot of material added through out the entire game, and many story items that were fuzzy in the original are fully explained. There are many added quests and map areas, some with a definitely adult take (Darkwood Bordello)

Overall, I would say that this version has fair replay value and many more side quests to add playing time. It's still possible to beat the game in 20 hours or less; but rushing through will cheat you of some interesting and fun gaming time.

Even if you already have the original Fable, you will enjoy the added features of the extended version.

A Game Like No Other on Consoles...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: September 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Just finished this game (as it was just released), but it really is a fun RPG with hack 'n' slash action. Unlike games where you must choose a class (e.g. warrior, rogue, wizard) at the beginning, in Fable your "class" is defined by which attributes you use. Not only that, but your physical appearance changes based on: which class you choose, and if you are "good" or "evil".

The fighting is more like Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time than Diablo, and it the intricacies of the enemies and the stories are amazing. I have already started playing through a second time, as a "bad" mage.

The graphics and sound are outstanding, as is the storyline. The only warning I have is that the main storyline is quite short. If you ignore the side quests and don't spend extra time roaming through the countryside (which is gorgeous), then this may only be worth a rental for you.

I like that even once you finish the game, you can return to Albion as your character and just wander around, visiting places and finding treasures you hadn't seen before.

So you've anticipated it for years...was it worth the wait?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: September 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The best way to answer that question is "yes and no." I loved this game, and everything about it, until what I thought was a mid-story plot twist was the end of the game. I will go over very specifically what I thought was awesome about this game, and why the abruptness of the end hurts it so much.

So here's the dilly. You start out the game and are immediately thrown into a very rich and fantastic environment.

The graphics, while not the best seen on XBOX, are extremely good considering how long the game has been in development. I think the cutback in graphics benefitted the feeling of the game; the less-real appearance of everything complements the fantasy setting very well. You have to play the game to know what I'm talking about, but I assure you that the graphics cut was for the best. It not only kept the game running smoothly (most of the time), it truly helped me feel like I was playing a game about heroes and small towns and monsters. If you've ever read Grendel or Beowulf, it feels very much like that setting. Personally, I love that setting, so the game sucked me right in. I think they put a lot of effort into getting that feeling into the environment, and it worked very well. Besides the environment, everything else looks top notch. Monsters, weapons, armor, tatoos, scars, etc are all very well done.

The what-you-do-now-effects-what-happens-later aspect of the game is also truly amazing. Eat a lot, and you get bigger; on the other hand, if you never eat unless you need to to regain health (like I did), you'll stay slim. Wear armor all the time, you'll stay pale; run around shirtless, you'll get tan. Same goes for your hair: if you wear a hat all the time, your hair remains black; run around without a hat, and it'll bleach and become blonde. Get beat up in combat, you'll start developing visible scars. Wield heavy weapons, you'll get buff. Etc, etc. Beyond simply aesthetic changes, the true meat lay in the changes that occur when you commit good/evil deeds. It goes well beyond the blatant picking good/evil in KOTOR, and actually has a bigger affect on gameplay (it doesn't just change what skills you can use). You do good things, not only does your appearance change, but so does how people react to you. They'll cheer you on and hail you if you're good, while they'll cower in fear and look the other way if you're evil. I'm not going to waste time explaining this, as I'm sure everyone knows about it. Lemme just say that being hailed everywhere you go and have the entire town love you (literally) is a very cool feeling. They succeeded in making this part of the game key and fun.

What else did I like about the game...Well, there's the side quests you can do (which I suggest you do, as the main quest is not very long by itself)- basically, various people of Albion (that's the name of the land) need random help doing things and they request the assistance of the Guild. As a part of the Guild, you can either accept or reject the quest; it's totally up to you. Beyond questing, you can do a lot of social things that most games wouldn't even consider touching. You can get married (heterosexually or homosexually or both!), divorced, widowed, have sex, get drunk, kill off an entire town, buy a house, live in it or rent it out, kill a shop owner and take over his shop, etc. This aspect, while very very very cool, has one drawback which I will get into in a minute.

Beyond that, the story told is very formulaic. What makes it above average is the way it is presented. It is told as a story focused around you, the Hero of the era. Personally, my favorite part of the game was the way the story was presented. Its unoriginality is overshadowed by its riveting presentation. You'll have to play it to appreciate it, because words will not do it justice.

***Now...what makes the game bad? Its length. It was in development for four years, and the developer was claiming it to be the best RPG ever created. Wrong! Yes, it's very good. Yes, it's got many great aspects that every RPG should have. BUT, it took me about the same amount of time to beat this as it did Ninja Gaiden or Genma Onimusha (two *action/adventure* games)- about 12 hours. I'm not one to normally complain about the length of a game, but here is how it matters...

The way the story unravels, it makes the end seem more like a mid-story plot twist. Which makes for a very disappointing feeling to rush over you once you see the credits rolling. They even set the fight up as a quest with experience and renown rewards, making one think even more that it couldn't possibly be the end of the game. But alas, I was wrong. Maybe if the final boss was a little harder I would've SEEN the end coming, but he was easy, and I did NOT see the end coming. I played with melee-combat as the focus...and I didn't even have all three things mastered when I killed the final guy. He was WAY too easy. I ended up having to rely on ranged weaponry (which my character didn't level up at all, by the way), and it worked like a charm! Why oh why would my sub-par ranged weapons skill work (very well) against the FINAL boss? The answer will go forever unanswered.

The bigger problem I have with the abruptness of the end has to do with all those cool extra social features this game has. For instance, I bought two houses and rented them out, and by the time the game ended, I was still about $20,000 in the hole from the investment. I didn't even come close to earning back the money I spent. My wife? I saw her like 3 times and we had sex once...in a span of 15 game-years. After not seeing her for a whole year (because I went to prison for a year), she didn't act at all differently. This may sound silly, but if they are going to implement the wife-feature, then this kind of attention-to-detail should be present. All of the other cool side-things that could be done I didn't really do much of (I got drunk once and played drunken coin-golf once...which was awesome)...Why didn't I do much of it? Because I expected the game to be another 10 hours long (at least!).

A couple reviewers were wrong about something, which needs to be pointed out. I sat through the credits at the end, and afterwords it put me right back in the game, letting me do whatever I wanted now. But...really...there are no more new quests given out, and isn't much to do anymore except finish some old quests and kill the same old foes that you've been killing the past 10 hours. You can't really even work towards getting the best armor/weapons, as platemail is the best armor in the game, and I afforded the whole suit at like 5 hours in. Most RPGs try to satisfy that materialistic instinct we all have by offering a lot of different weapons/armor/etc to encourage us to kill more. But no...platemail is the best armor, and the best weapon really isn't worth the effort, because the 3rd best *store-bought* weapon worked fine when killing the FINAL BOSS.

I was very very pleased with the game throughout the 12 hours I played until the final minute, when the final boss died and the credits rolled. I loved the game up until that point, and now I just like it. While it lasted, it was an interesting experience. Riveting? Yes. Fun? Definitely. Revolutionary? Sorta. If you can prepare yourself for a very short RPG experience (decently lengthed game for any other genre, mind you), then by all means by it. If not, then just rent it, because if you're like me, you'll be very very angry when the fun has ended prematurely.

Great RPG, just be careful...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: September 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Today, after I left work, I went home, and I became a Hero. I remember when I was a child once. It seemed so long ago. On my sister's birthday, I ran some errands to make a little extra money to get her a present (I forgot her birthday again). Next thing you know, bandits attacked and razed my village, killing my friends, neighbors and...my father. I surely would have been next if it weren't for Maze of the Heroes Guild, who promised to train me and promised me an opportunity for revenge.

This is how you'll end up talking about this game. The sense of immersion from Fable is unlike any game that I've ever played on Xbox. You'll guide your character from childhood all the way through adulthood, being faced with choices that could lead you down the path of righteousness, or evil. There are literally hours of spoken dialogue for NPCs. The only problem is, the amount of time that it took to record the dialogue is probably the amount of time it would take you to complete this game. Granted, I didn't partake in all of the activities the game had to offer, but an experienced player could complete this game in 20 hours or less.

Back to the good points. Once you've completed your Hero training, you are free to roam the land on your own, or take quests. If you decide to roam free, you can visit towns, drink in the pubs, try and flirt with women (or even men, if that suits your taste) or go fishing. The problem is, trying to flirt will probably get you nowhere, because your given title is Chicken Chaser. But take a couple of quests, or gamble what little money you do have to earn yourself a cool title like me, Assassin, or Avatar. Within towns, you can also purchase houses to own or rent, decorate them and mount quest trophies on the wall to increase the value of the abode. Money is pretty hard to come by in this game, so my suggestion would be to go to a pub, find a game that you like to play and earn enough loot to get what you need and want.

When taking quests, they are separated into 3 categories: Bronze- mini quests that you really don't need to take, but fun nonetheless; Silver- a little more important, and can give you clues to subplots in the storyline; and Gold- quests that you must complete in order to advance the storyline. After choosing a quest that you want, you are given the opportunity to boast. In boasting, you stand up on a stage and tell all of the villagers around about how you'll complete your quest. For example: I took a quest to save a farm from Hobbes that were attacking (Hobbes are little goblins that can turn into a pain in the butt later on in the game). I stood on the stage and said that I would save the farm from the Hobbes while wearing nothing but my underwear and beating them with nothing but my bear fists. Doing boasts can increase you renown (how well everyone knows of you and your reputation) and your gold reward. By taking nothing but Gold Quests, you'll finish this game within a couple of days. To get your money's worth, try and complete all of the quests and help villagers as much as you can.

The battle system is pretty cool. Your abilities are split into three disciplines; Melee combat, long-ranged combat, and Will. All three of these disciplines are tied directly into the amount of experience you receive, not necessarily the type of enemy you defeat. I'll get into that a little later. With melee combat, you use your fists, sticks, swords, axes, etc. Defeating an enemy using melee combat earns you general experience and strength experience. If you prefer using a bow and arrow, long-ranged combat is for you. Defeating enemies with this mode of combat will earn you general experience and skill experience. Finally, there's Will, or magic. By pulling the right trigger you activate your Will menu. There are plenty of spells to keep any magic user happy, many of them have a Jedi Knight feel to them, such as lightning, force push, personal shield and life drain. Many of them have a look and feel that are completely original, like slow time, where the world around you slows to a crawl while you beat the crap out of someone. Dispelling enemies this way will earn you Will experience and general experience. the only downside to the Will menu is that in the heat of battle, you could take a few hits while scrolling through your spells to get to the one that you want, especially if you're like me and want EVERY spell the game has to offer.

Gaining experience in this game has got to be one of the coolest experience systems on any RPG. Depending on your battle preference, you will gain experience in that discipline, in addition to general experience. Think of general experience as your reserve experience. Head to the Heroes Guild and use the experience that you gain to customize your disciplines. Here's the cool part: In battle, as you cause damage to your enemy, you have a Combat Multiplier. As you increase your Combat Multiplier in melee combat, your weapon will glow and you can hit your enemy with an unblockable attack. The longer you fight without taking damage, the higher your combat multiplier gets. The higher your Combat Multiplier gets, the higher the amount of experince you gain from defeated enemies. When spending your experience, you will use the experience that you gained in that specific discipline first, then general experience. So, if you want to increase your Toughness, and the cost is 1000 and you have 500 strength experience points, you will use the 500 strength points and 500 general points.

Interaction with NPC can also be entertaining. Once you become renowned enough that everyone knows you (for either good or evil), NPCs will react to you as you pass. The slightly scary thing is that women and men can fall in love with you! How's that for freedom?! I distinctly remember walking through town, and women were throwing themselves at me and a balding man carrying boxes dropped his box and asked me, "How 'bout getting me a ring?" After I finished shivering, I went on about my business. You can woo a woman, get her to marry you and grow old with her. Or grow old with many wives! That's fun. Just know, women in this game are not stupid. They require a wedding ring (and they can tell whether it's fake or not), a nicely decorated home, and gifts.

The visuals in Fable are definitely of sound quality. Light sourcing alone is great and sometimes eerie. The music was composed like a great John Williams movie score. The passing of day into night is noticeable, beautiful and cool. The only frustrating thing is trying to get items that you need to take a quest, and going to a town merchant, and the damn store's closed because it's after dark. Now I have to find somewhere to sleep until dawn when the stores are open, or hang out in the pub until merchants arrive at their shops.

Fable is a breath of fresh air for those RPG lovers who own an XBox. This is definitely a better game than Sudeki and Steel Dungeon. You'll realize that within the first five minutes of playing the game that you're in for a treat. The graphics are beautiful, the aging process you go through is subtle but cool, the battle and experience systems are intuitive and not imposing, side quests are not annoying, choices between good and evil are not always a clear-cut line, interaction with NPCs are entertaining, and owning property is also a cool and unexpected feature that will keep you busy. The purpose of Fable is not to complete the story right from the gate, but to actually live the life of your Hero and take part in the daily activities that are available to you. Fable is definitely a purchase well worth your hard earned money. Here are my scores:

Graphics - Beautiful and sometimes visually stunning. Frame rate could've been slightly better, but not as bad as Sudeki. - 4.5 out of 5 stars Sound - Almost perfect. Changes in the music from town to town, engaging in battle and exploring caves is flawless. - 5 stars Immersion - How often do you care about the way your character develops? Not often at all. You get that here. - 4.5 stars Control - Magic can be a pain if you have a lot of spells. Combat is near-perfect. 4 stars Replay - Go through the game as a saint or as a sinner. Do both! Complete some or all of the quests! It's up to you! - 5 stars Good points - Everything that you just read Bad points - Playing through the main story is really short Perplexing points - Where are all of these silver keys?? Guys hitting on me in towns scare me. My wife still loved me after I got locked up in prison for a year, not having any communication with her, and grew gray hair. She was still that buxom red-headed beauty that I married! didn't age a day. come to think of it, no one ages but me!

Could have been more

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: January 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Hype kills. I could sum up this game as that two word sentence and be done. For people who aren't used to RPGs or even action RPGs probably won't have TOO much to gripe about in the game. If you aren't used to RPGs or action RPGs this might be a good game to start with, especially if you only have the Xbox. It's easy to get into and it's very light on most RPG aspects. My brother bought it after playing mine and (until Halo 2) had been playing it non-stop, beating it at least 2 times in the time it took me to get 1/2 way through it.

The reason it took me so long to beat the game was I lost interest. It was at the 1/2 way point that I started to realize certain things. My actions, while cool in the changes it had on me, didn't really do anything in the game world. This is supposed to be a "sandbox" world that would react according to me. And yes, people will run if you're evil or crowd you if you're good but there didn't feel like there was any oomph to their feelings. They are all nameless, faceless, repeating drones who do and say the same things over and over again. Peter Molyneux (the creator) had brainstormed publicly all that he hoped to accomplish. He accomplished not even 1/2 of what he set out to do.

Another complaint I had about the game was how linear it was. I was expecting an open world (maybe like Morrowind but not as large and overwhelming). Instead I was given small zones (complete with LONG load times) that had preset paths. Not once did I feel like I was "exploring" the world. I was being led down predefined paths. In Morrowind (a game that shares some of Fable's aspirations in design but has it's own set of problems) whenever I found something, I truly felt like I found something no one had seen in years. In Fable, where everything is laid out for you, I didn't feel that way. I also wondered where the random events come into play. One of the things Mr. Molyneux had discussed was how surprised he'd been by some of the events that happened that he wasn't expecting. Random encounters on the road, little things like that. The only "random" encounter I really saw was escorting a merchant through the forest. Of course, after completing the mission I come back only to see the same merchant requesting help to do the same thing, same difficulty, same reward.

The tag line for the game is "For every choice, a consequence." And that tag line, in my opinion, was never truly attained. Early in the game, you are given the appearance of consequences, but as it wears on I started realizing that my choices for good or evil didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Sure if you're evil you might have a different ending than if you played the good guy; but how many games are out there right now that you can do the same thing? From the Suffering to Knights of the Old Republic I&II, it's been done. What I wanted to see is my decision to be evil (or good) truly weigh in on how people reacted to me. That was the idea behind "every choice a consequence." It never stopped me from doing what I wanted to do; in fact it never made me think twice. For instance, you could kill out an entire town and the same lifeless bots will return. It never offers you any real consequences, just port out of town, wait 10 minutes then go back in, everything pretty much forgotten. Also, Mr. Molyneux had suggested that if you fought guards in town, they would alert guards from nearby towns to fight and you would be a wanted man...what that translates to is wave after wave of guards, nothing more.

It's also a very short, short, short game for an RPG. Professional reviewers said it was about a 20 hour game if you do everything. And I tried to make the game last as long as I could and it was only about 12 hours. That also involved me not using my warp function to get to most places (unless it was a really long hike). Like stated earlier, if you are looking for a game that gives you good and evil choices, you might as well stick with KOTOR since it will give you double or triple your gameplay. Sadly, there's not TOO much difference between the good/evil mechanic in the two games. They both, IMO, provide a shallow look at both sides.

As for what's good in the game. It's very easy to pick up and play which will appeal to a very broad range of players. It's quick, doesn't take much brain power and is pretty easy. The graphics are really well done, the trees and the forests animated very well. Surprisingly, (with the exception of hornets, I have never seen so many hornets so often) the forests don't have much wild life...though that's probably because of the hornets. Also, there was some weird clipping issues and graphical defects that happened once in awhile where it would appear that you were running in a HUGE sand pit. Particle effects are nice, spells are fun to use.

The best feature of the game is seeing what your character will look like. This is what kept me going until I maxed everything out (which can happen really quickly if you know how to combo). In fact, I really wish they would implement something like this in a MMORPG. I haven't seen a character really turn out alike with all of my friends; that's an amazing feat.

I've been pretty harsh on this game in this review. I guess my biggest problem was it could have been so much more. I wanted this game to rock, I wanted it to be everything Peter Molyneux said it would be. I wanted it to be "the best RPG ever" (Peter Molyneux). That said, I do hope they create a second Fable. Maybe then it will fulfill gamers wishes.

Fable, The Lost Chapters

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: April 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Even though the Amazon picture currently doesn't show it, this is the "Platinum Hits" version of Fable, called Fable The Lost Chapters. It includes expanded content not included in the original game.

I can't believe it!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 22
Date: April 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Okay, whether you have high expectations or none at all, this game just doesn't work. For one, the whole "freedom of choice" thing is a huge lie. If you want to be "good", you can rescue the same people over and over; for "evil", you kill them repeatedly. That's it. Second, you CANNOT choose where you want to go and what you want to do there. This game is mission-based, just like every other bland game this year. Oh, sure, you can "choose" which mission you want, but if you choose any but the "right" one, you'll find yourself getting killed in an instant. So no matter what you do, you have to follow a linear path.

The gameplay is a mess as well. The combat system doesn't work half the time (you'll often accidentally target people instead of enemies), and even when it does work, you'll still get killed because your skills aren't powerful enough. How do you get them more powerful? By going to the forest and killing bees until you level up. Hmmm, where have I heard this before? In every single other RPG to hit the market, perhaps? Unlike better games, where you always find yourself at the right level to move forward if you take on all the available enemies, Fable forces you to go back and forth between areas to get the enemies to respawn, watching a long loading screen each and every time you exit and enter an area. What fun.

Even the non-combat interface is completely dilapidated. Menus were a monster to navigate, and it took me a good ten minutes just to get my equipment on. And don't get me started on my attempt to use the controller customization feature.

Finally, there are the things that aren't "broken" exactly, but are still annoying. Like the people, for example. Even when you are just walking through an area, perhaps on your way back to kill more bees, NPCs are constantly chattering away in irritating accents. You can't get a moment's peace. Also, you can call me a prude if you wish, but I can't believe that "burp" and "fart" have their own buttons. This game is rated M for mature, but perhaps it should be rated I for immature.

Overall, Fable is an annoying, clunky, and frustrating game. Far from the promised revoloution, it delivers a package that doesn't even meet mediocre standards.

Highly Disappointing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 12
Date: September 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

After reading many different reviews I became more and more excited for the eventual release of the Fable. I must say however that this is certainly a game that does not live up to all the hype. Graphically this is one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen. In addition there are some elements that the game brings to the table that are very exciting, but when it comes right down to it don't really add much to the overall game.

If you are expecting an epic, or even exciting story, that works to pull you into the game so that you loose track of time (similar to KOTOR) then this certainly is not the game for you. In fact I personally will go out on a limb and say the story in Sudeki was more gripping and exciting (which really doesn't say much). Personally I thought this point was a huge let down.

The next thing that someone will notice almost immediately is how incredibly easy this game actual is. I was able to complete the entire game (side quests and all) in a little under 15 hours. In that entire time I never once died, had to restart a quest, or even to think for that matter. It seems like almost all of the missions you get are escorting people from point A to point B, with the routes marked out for you and nothing but mind numbingly weak and repetitive enemies along the way.

These points however wouldn't by themselves be enough to spoil a game for me, but the actual game play itself was. Your character progression is broken into 3 areas; physical, skill and will (magic). Within these categories there are a total of 3 abilities for strength and 3 for skill. Will gives you the choice of 16 spells, none of which really stand out in any way as being original, and all but 6 are useless. The truth of the matter is that you will inevitably end up having to play some sort of melee combat character. This is for the simple fact that ranged combat, although neat when you decapitate people, really isn't an option until later in the game at which point it really is to late to develop it effectively. Similarly a wizard type character is about as successful as a vacation resort in Antarctica. This is due to the simple fact that the 4 attack spells the game does in fact have, don't do anywhere near as much damage as a sword, take a long time to max out, and believe it or not almost every creature in the game is resistant to them. As such the game really turns into a sword swinging button mashing contest.

Now there are some good things to the game. As mentioned before the graphics are nice as is the musical score and voice acting. In addition to this you have the ability to really go to town on customizing your appearance. The alignment system is also fairly nice, albeit very predictable and often irritating in choices. For example ambushing and wiping out an entire town of bandits, who try to fleece your demonic hero, is enough to take you from prince of darkness to neutral?!? How do you figure?!? The other cool thing is being able to buy and decorate homes and shops, get married, have sex, and really do just about anything you would want in an RPG. These things however are, in my opinion, just window dressing and don't add much to the game.

Fable

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: May 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

An incredible game, it has very in depth graphics and a great story line. The beauty of the game is that there is a lot of freedom in character development. You can choose to be good or evil, depending on every action you take. The game was a little too short but the gameplay and graphics make up for it. This is a must buy for anybody with an xbox.

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