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Oh dear... another disapointment.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: February 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

In the early days of computing, a small UK outfit called Bullfrog made some of the most groundbreaking 'God' games ever; Populous and Powermonger being the most memorable. Years pass and Bullfrog releases several incarnations of various god games culminating in their rebirth as "Lionhead" and the release of "Black and White", a PC god game with a tamagotchi pet gimmick. As with most of this company's games, a 'good versus evil' element comes into play allowing the player to choose a path of righteousness.

But in their latest release 'Fable', aside from your character's visual appearance, things don't really change much between good and bad. Spells and equipment, as well as armour and weapons are useable equally regardless of your moral alignment. And you will also be able to realign yourself whenever you choose - in fact the game sort of forces you to with some quests requiring adjusting your good alignment and others bad. This in turn, makes the touted 'you decide' factor somewhat moot.

So that leaves us with a adventure romp which, whilst initially fun, is so ridden with horrible foibles that I simply gained little enjoyment from it. Sure it looks real purty and the day to night gradual transition is very effective but the game limits you to very specific vicinities - no free roaming here. In fact, even though you can walk in some water, other areas are inexplicably out of bounds - some ponds are surrounded by invisible walls, tiny bonsai bushes are impenetrable. So you're looking at a nice faux postcard whose appearance belies boundaries that have little baring on where you can go. Shame.

Sound is great - until a character talks. They have used the most annoying amateurish UK v/o artists imaginable. If you're a Brit it might be fun to hear the regional dialects - but for the rest of us it's incoherent babble. They didn't even confine accents to areas giving off a sense of locale. Instead each character is gifted with a random unattractive nasal twang from regions unknown.

Moving from location to location brings up the next most problematic part of Fable. Load times. Areas are specifically loaded - no preloading or streaming. So if you go through a gate, under an arch or pass a tree the loading screen pops up. And stays there. Some areas are no more than a single cave or corridor yet you have to endure the same loading time - often it takes longer for an area to load than it does to travel across. Sure you can teleport to certain important areas but travelling on foot is an exersize in patience. Have something to read with you when playing.

The storyline is common fare - family wiped out seemingly with you as the only survivor, you seek revenge of the killer(s) and knowledge from those who raise you. The cutscenes vary from interesting to tedious - most of the dialogue is terrible with unexplainable pausing between delivery. You can skip them of course, but as a player I want to know what's going on, what I'm supposed to do. So I sit there whilst unanimated manniquins talk at you. And boy is it dull -

"Oh there you are (pause)... I thought you were dead (pause)... I'm glad you aren't (pause)... Will you help me (pause)... I think I'll need some help (pause)..." and on and on and on.

Combat is frustrating and magic is unuseable during battle since you can't pause combat to reassess your magic powers or change them to make them more applicable. I completed most of the game with 'Lightening' - I didn't both seeking out alternative powers since Lightening seemed to do the trick and changing spells during a fight was clumsy to the max.

So yeah I didn't like it. It wasn't for me. In summation; nothing new here and vastly overhyped and simply not that much fun.

Sorry Bullfrog but Populous is turning over in its 80s grave.

Fable overview+helpful spell cheatish thing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: May 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Fable is a new generation of gaming. It is officially the best game in existence. Every single arrow you hit someone with, every one living man you just decapitated with that awesome sword, axe, hammer, or weapon, even every giant fireball or lighting blast changes you and your appearance. Every time you do one of these you get exp in that certain field, either strength (melee damage, defence, and health bar sub-categories), will (divided into the spells that can be upgraded four times after purchasing and mana bar), or skill (sub-categories ranged damage, speed, and guile) guile is how snealy you are and gives you steal, lockpick, and lower prices everywhere. The spells are amazing but make you age faster, however, you can only get to 65 so it doesnt make a difference except appearance. Years can also be subtracted by donating to the gods. BUY THIS GAME!

The helpful spell cheatish thing is summon. when you use this it makes a puny little wasp to help you. The first thing it kills it will become for the rest of the game. do not use this until you are pretty far and face trolls in the wilderness, like in greatwood caves (note: outside the caves in the open area). get one to low health then keep useing summon until the wasp kills it. Now every time you use summon a troll will fight for you

A beautiful game, straight out of a Grimm's fairytale.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: September 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Believe the hype people!! I was defitnetly sceptical myself before I purchased the game a few days ago. Now after playing for about 8hrs I have to say that it was worth my $50.

The storyline is not too deep to where it takes away from the game itself. This is more of a "dark" fairytale in which YOU make up the story as you move along. Do you want to be the people's champ who is cheered by everyone or do you want to be an evil villian slaying everyone in your path? You can become a powerful swordsman and develope a muscular physique or use powerful magic and stay skinny and pale. In any regard YOU choose the outcome.

The graphics are beautiful, some of the best I've seen in any game. Everything from the trees and plants swaying naturally in the breeze to the real-time lighting effects, to the battle scars you character developes looks awsome and breathtaking. I was amazed at the level of detail put into this game.

The sound is very good. As you walk about you will be suprised and the amount of atmosphere that is created just through the sound alone. People greet you and give you compliments or laugh at you, monsters let out eerie whaling sounds when you kill them, and the musical score sounds soothing and perfectly fits into the game.

I agree that Fable plays like KOTOR with real-time combat. Instead of just hitting a button and watching your charater move two seconds later, you're actually controlling his every movement at that very moment. Every fight feels different from the last and you have to be smart and quick with your fighting techniques or you will probably get your ass kicked. Need to beef up your charater? Well then go out and fight to earn character points which you can use to build him into a lean mean fighting machine. You wanna get drunk at the bar or anywhere for that matter? Buy you some beer and throw those suckers back. You'll get f'd up in no time and trust me it's very funny. There are so many things to do in this game that you'll be playing for hours and hours and hours.

Overall, I have to say this game will probably go down as one of the best games ever. It's a dark fairytale straight out of a Grimm's novel. Once you start playing you'll be hooked from the start and thats what a great game is supposed to do right?

Rent it.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: September 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I agree with the most common observation that this games was way too short. I beat it in 9 hours albeit not digging to deeply. Also I only died once in the whole game (and that was only because I didn't drink one of my 100 health potions in time) and that was at the endgame boss. And apparently your character can't talk which lends to problems when a game is advertised as being able to choose your own path.

Anyway, I had fun playing it but a day after beating it I've already forgotten about it and have no desire to replay the game as "Evil".

I highly recommend renting it but not buying it. Oh and the music was awesome, I do remember that.

Should you buy Fable? I will tell you.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: September 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Fable is a game that aimed way too high and had no chance of doing anything but coming up short of gamers' expectations. Yes, it's a good game. Yes, it's worth playing. No, it's probably not worth buying, nor is it as deep and realistic as its creators profess.

The game is short. I beat it in 12 hours and that includes a fair amount of screwing around. This is unacceptable considering it's developers claimed that Fable would be the greatest RPG ever made.

The game is easy. If you're good at videogames, you will find this game easy. They say you can "boast" to make your missions harder, and while this can make indiviual missions tougher, it's not enough to make the overall game experience more difficult.

The good/evil idea is a good *idea*. Implementing it in a way that is satisfying to the player has yet to be achieved by any game and it would appear we have a long way to go. Can't really blame the developers for trying but the morality element is painfully two-dimensional.

The action is good. Combat is fun and addictive. There are a good amount of skills and powerups to choose from when spending your experience, but again, the extremely short length of the game makes all your careful experience spending feel wasted.

The story blows. Take a stereotype fairytale and take away a few hours and you have Fable's story.

The game is novel at first. It tricks you. But as you play more you see that, at best, Fable is a good action/adventure game: not the ultimate good/evil RPG that some had hoped for. Rent it.

Wow.....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: October 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is a really good RPG. You can do litteraly anything. Kill townspeople, get married and divorced,have kids, have sex, and loads of other things. You can be a hero or be feared by all and grow horns. Although its a little shorter than i expected it still gives you time to make different characters. Time goes by fast untill you become an adult and even then you age a few years in each real day(depending on how much you fight). I also heard somewhere that you age faster when you cast spells. Sadly they decided to not make this on xboxlive which would be a very good feautre for the game. This is a really fun game so i would go out and get it if you havent already.

False advertising, game doesn't live up to hype AT ALL

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 19
Date: September 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Why this game got so many stars is beyond me. I was looking forward to this game for over a year. The idea that I was going to watch my character grow up sounded so unique. Scars? You mean I would actually see scars from my battles? Wow!

First obvious beef. If this is all about me, my choices, my growing up...why can't I have the choice of being a female? Nope, gotta be a guy. Gee, marriage is gonna be a blast *rolls eyes* I get to marry a woman. That may be fine for some but I am a woman who would like to marry a man thanks. This should be your first hint at the extreme limits of this game.

Well here's how it really goes...childhoood lasted all of 10 minutes, maybe 15 at best. I was a certain age entering the game and I was that specific child age of maybe 9 years old, for the whole 15 minutes...cut scene...you wake up, start training for 10 minutes...cut scene...wake up...you are a teenager of maybe 16. You do training,10, maybe 20 minutes later...cut scene...you are now a young adult and I have a SCAR on your face. Back up Jack...where is the growth I was promised? I thought I would watch my character grow up gradually...not poof into 3 specific age stages in less than an hour. Utterly dissappointed in that. How the heck did I get the scar? I was in training the whole time and never got a notice or visual hint of receiving a wound that would leave such a scar. Talk about cookie cutter production there. There was very little content to do for those way to quick child years. No sense of pride in my so called battle scar because I don't even know how I got it.

I have to ask, what was the point of being a child at all when it barely existed. That was such a main selling point in there advertising. Ooooo scars...gee...thanks for slapping on the face marring that obviously comes standard for everyone and wasn't unique to anything I did. These attributes seemed to be added more like an afterthought so they could really overhype them for the games release.

The rest of my complaints are well voiced in other reviews here. Linear gameplay. Overhyped. Graphics were aweful. I felt like a wooden puppet with a huge head in a wooden puppet world. I could barely stand to look at myself. Pointless gameplay.

I am not even going to finish this game. I can't stand it. I am taking it back so I can at least get some turn in credit. Otherwise I would throw it in the trash.

As a side note. I am 34 years old and have been playing RPGs on both console and PC avidly for at least 10 years...not to mention casual gaming prior.

It isn't Elder Scrolls.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 16
Date: June 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This may or may not be helpful. I got this game hoping for something like Morrowind with racier content. You can get married? Your appearance changes based on actions?? You can get DRUNK??? All this sounded kind of cool.

What I GOT was a closed-course obstacle chicken-kicking game.

All right. It's PRETTY. Graphics aren't bad. Story's not too terrible, either. But... well, first off, YOU ARE A BLACK-HAIRED MALE. The end. That's it. Secondly, the thing with time-passage was way too fast for my taste. The "appearance changes" were limited and silly (you BUY hairstyles -- what???). More than quests, the game plays like beating levels you can't really re-play. After Morrowind, which I LOVE, this felt bland and dull and awkward. I don't recommend it for people who enjoyed the open-endedness of Elder Scrolls, or its scope. But for people more comfortable with something DEFINITE instead of "running around aimlessly" -- this may be your game.

And I will admit, the chicken-kicking was kind of fun, as was having tavern wenches swoon over my hero with the extended flirt-system. Yes, that was entertaining. Just... not for very long, in my case.

A Never Ending RPG.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Fable, like any RPG, has great graphics, and reasonable physics. What other games don't have is the customization. Every action you take, wheteher good or evil, affects the way you look (good heroes walk around with halos over thier heads while an evil villian grows horns) and the way NPCs (non-player computers) react towards you. This game features a variety of clothes to fit your personality and a vast choice of weapons ranging from a stick to a crossbow to a great hammer and everything inbetween.
The great thing about Fable is the fighting of course. There are three main ways that you learn to fight. Melee, Ranged (bow and arrow) and Magic. You can choose which you want to excel in or be great all around. Also, leveling up is convienent.
All in all, Fable is one of the best and most realistic (for a video game that is) RPG around!

And I don't even LIKE video games!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

My brother recieved this game for his birthday and I was initially not interested, but this game is REALLY COOL. You choose what kind of personality you have, you can choose your hairstyle and clothing, fight with trolls, get married, buy houses or even take over a villiage if you want It's really interesting and you can play it differently every time, so it doesn't get boring. Be evil, be saintly, be fat, be a drunk, be strong, kick a chicken or two. It's really neat!

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