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Welcome to the world of Fable

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: September 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Fable - Circa 2005

GOOD:
- Good/Tight controls
- Nicely balanced gameplay
- Variety of different locals to travel to (all done in fairly nice detail)
- Action RPG with lots of options to customize your character, actually how you act and level up your character determents how your character turns out
- Multiple endings

BAD:
- Not a traditional RPG or a traditional beat-em-up (like Final Fight), so it might upset people looking for more of either
- Main quest is a bit short
- Some complain of long loading times, but Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic and Jade Empire had loading times just as long

IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- Has mythical/medieval (European) theme
- Action RPG with real time fighting (like in Jade Empire or Kingdom Hearts), no turn based fighting (like in final Fantasy X) and no "partial" turn based fighting (like in Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic).
- Light RPG elements with slight weapon/armor upgrading. Great for people who like action/adventure games (like Onimusha) but want a bit more story
- Your actions make your character when you take a hit it will becomes a scar, if you hurt an innocent person people have trouble trusting you

GAME ITS MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- Jade Empire
- Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- Also check for the re-release version (for Xbox, also found on PC) of this game called Fable: The Lost Chapters, which comes with new items, enemies, and new quests.
- The special version has a bonus disc with the making of the game video
- This game was once called "Project Ego" while in devolvement, and originally even had a multiplayer option

Looking for a good RPG on the Xbox? Look elsewhere.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 20
Date: May 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

There was a lot of hype surrounding this game and how it was going to be a go-anywhere, do-anything, alpha and omega of role playing games.

It wasn't.

It's like they attempted to cross a RPG with The Sims, and came out with something that was not as entertaining as either.

The game play was linear, basically limiting you to choosing from a pool of missions of which you could accept or decline.

The overarching "story" was.... best described as a delusional childhood power fantasy, which might appeal to the type of person that likes TV cartoons like Dragonball Z.

The mini-quests were not too bad, but seemed contrived and without context at times.

The dynamics of interacting with the other denizens of the game were equally lackluster, culminating in how stupid getting married was. You woo a person by giving them gifts and doing stupid showboating stuff like flexing muscles at them. And then if the woo'ed character likes you enough, asks you to marry them. Then you've got to go get a wedding ring and give it to them--by which time they may no longer like you and you have to lavish them with gifts and more muscle flexing. Then you get married. Then you have to buy a house to live in. Then you have to give more gifts and flex. Then there might be a "come to bed" and some "oh" and "ah" noises on a black screen. Then you're back to "more gifts and flexing, please!" It's so aweful it's outright comical.

If you decide to not be an adventurer, you can do all kinds of exciting things to make a living. Like, say, fish in ponds and sell the fish. Or buy a couple houses and rent them out and drop by once in a while to collect the rent manually. Or buy items that are a little cheaper in one town and go to the next town where they fetch a slightly higher price and sell them there. The excitement never starts!

One of the most annoying aspects of the game is the ever-badgering, intrusive narrator-that-is-actually-a-character-at-the-Hero's-Guild voice. Constantly chiming in with such things as "Your health is low!" or "You have a new quest card!", as if he manually monitored all heroes and alerted them to stuff like that through a cell phone. There's a nice health bar on the screen where you can clearly see your health is low (or not). And how hard would it be to have a villager come up and ask for your help, rather than having the disembodied voice alert you that there is a "quest card" for you at the guild. It completely ruins the immersiveness of the game.

All in all, definitely take a pass on this game. If you're looking for a good story in an RPG format, I'd recommend Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic over Fable any day of the week.

Anything you want to do ?

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

What people were really waiting for in this game was the fact that you could do whatever you wished. That is unfortunatly only partialy true.

You walk into short "zones" that need about a minute to load, there are roads to follow, you can't just run around anywhere.

You can beat up anyone in your path, although this will trigger guards to attack you if your in a city. Nothing you can't handle either.

The graphics are rather nice, and you might get a bit addicted to running and completing every quests. The main storyline lasts for about 10hours. There are some minor glitches sometimes, but it's an overall 4 stars.

Money you should invest in this game: About 30-35$

Buy it. I don't regret it.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First off: don't skip through the end credits. You can continue to play your game after finishing the main storyline.

What is with short XBOX action RPGs lately? At least it does a better job with towns that Sudeki. I don't think it quite tops Knights of the Old Republic overall, though it is very close.

There are so many cool things you can do, but I've found the controls and menus are surprisingly simple. One downside is I wish the melee combat had a little more depth: there is little in the way of combos.

I like that peoples' reactions to you will often vary depending on the circumstances, and your behavior. For example, attack a few wandering traders, and they will start to all run at the sight of you, once word gets around.

Even if the voice acting isn't Oscar quality, it at least is believable. I think they sometimes ham it up intentionally, though, which I think keeps it a bit fun. A lot of the interaction reminds me of The Sims games

The towns are a lot of fun to goof around in. Gambling, buying houses, and interacting with the people is a blast. I just wish there were more towns to do that in. Nevertheless, I wasted quite a few hours just in the towns.

Graphic quality is pretty high. I won't say too much, since it isn't that important to me, other than that there weren't any glaring problems there. It is nice to be able to see the small changes in my character with time. I tend to get down and just brawl in a fight, so my characters have often come out pretty scarred with time.

Also, the replay value is pretty high, due to the variety of possibilities in the character. Of course, if you just like finishing the storyline, then you won't find this to be the case. Me, I like trying things out and experimenting, and Fable is an excellent game for that.

Fable

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have the game, and it's awesome. It's just overall fun, you can even ignore the storyline and just focus on making gold, and eventually own every buyable building. It's got a wide variety of cool spells, and upgrades, and the weapon augmentations are great. The different paths your character can take are cool, not just good or evil, but fat and skinny, and you can alter your character's appearence with different outfits, tattoos, and haircuts. My only complaint is that the storyline is a bit short.

Fable is a great RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Great game. I love the combat control. I wish you could actually fight in the Knights of the Old Republic star wars games. In Fable you can!! You control your characters dodging, weapon attacks and combos, magic attacks and item use all in real time. They did a great job of it and it is a joy to play. I hope they make a FABLE 2 for xbox next.

Fun, But Disappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First, know that I really did like Fable and am happy to have it as part of my collection. If I had to make a comparison, I'd liken Fable to Balder's Gate: Dark Alliance, which was an excellent game. I found Fable to be an enjoyable RPG with beautiful graphics and easy game play. The use of different weapon types, melee, ranged, or magic was well balanced. There are times when you will have to switch to hack and slash over magic and ranged weapons, but for the most part, you can choose one style and stick with it. This is one of the very few games where the use of magic as your primary weapon is actually viable.

With that said, there are some severe deficiencies in this title. It does not live up to the promises its developers set forth and should really be considered RPG-lite. Here is a quick rundown of what I found wrong with the game:

* Character Development: Simply put, there is none. You can't determine the sex, race, or appearance of your character. Character customization is the most basic of any RPG, yet, it is completely absent from Fable.

* Moral Choices: Really, this is one of the main points of the game, yet I feel it had almost no bearing on the game except for some physical changes to your character and to the response you receive from the townsfolk. There was no core story branching from the choices made whether they are good or evil.

* Moral Choices and Physical Change: The physical changes from moral choices were pretty bland. Horns if you are evil; light complexion and bright blue eyes if you are good. You do earn different "Renown" gestures, but I found myself ignoring these.

* Experience and Character Growth: Typical RPG fare here. While that in and of itself is not a negative, quite frankly, from all the press the game received prior to release, I expected a new twist on leveling.

* Equipment, Armor, Weapons, Etc: Here we find the biggest let down in the game. The selection of ordinary weapons is ridiculously limited. We have Iron, Steel, Obsidian, and Master categories with axes, long swords, maces, hammers, and great swords for weapon types. There are some unique weapons to be found, but even with their addition, it is still a very meager selection. Those who like archer characters get an even more limited selection of bows and crossbows. The one bright point in the choice of weapons is the ability to modify them with "augmentation" crystals. If you've played Final Fantasy, you'll understand the concept. Armor has very little variety; however, there are choices between a good, or bright, look and an evil, or dark, look. Even when there is a choice of clothing, the looks are so generic that it is hard to create a unique or "cool" looking character.

* Linear Game play: While there is some freedom of movement and choice of quests, the game itself is quite limited in choice. The game boards are more akin to 2D levels than free roaming 3D environments. Also, while you can choose to do side quests, the Guild Master frequently chimes in to tell you about an important quest (the main story line). It feels as if the developers wanted to push you through the story rather then letting you make your own choices.

* Underdeveloped Game Elements: Trading in Fable is a joke and feels as if it was an afterthought. Courting and marriage are interesting, but again, very shallow and not a highlight of the game. Drinking, eating, and sleeping are only there to restore health and aren't necessary to survival. OK, that's not such a bad thing if you don't like tedium, but these elements could have been better integrated into the game. The only funny thing is making your character obese....but even that offers a very minimal change in appearance and doesn't seem to affect your character's ability to perform physical tasks. The purchase of property is a waste of gold unless you are interested in pursuing the marriage element.

* Graphics: Graphics were beautiful. Some may not like the slightly cartoonish bent of the game's look and feel, but I think it was very well done. My main complaint is the lack of variety in the NPC models and their generic nature.

* Generic Interaction: Staying with the generic NPC theme, there was really very little interaction with the NPCs of Albion. There were a total of six NPCs that had any significant dialog, and most of that dialog occurred in cut scenes.

To summarize, the concept of Fable has potential, but it just wasn't realized in the game itself. There are some definite jewels in the game; the viability of utilizing magic as your primary weapon. Archery is viable, too, with some reliance of a sword for close in fighting, but they should have really included some other ranged weapons as well, such as slings or throwing daggers. The game fails to meet many of the promises made in its advertisement. Hopefully the developers listen to the gamers and bring the original concept to fruition in any subsequent Fable sequels.

It isn't trying to be and shouldn't be Morrowind

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

D&D-style 3rd person RPG for xbox, like Morrowind, but without the length, openness, complexity and GLITCHES of Morrowind. This is both its strength and weakness. Dumbing down and simplifying a game like Morrowind would probably cure its glitchy ails, but this is a double-edged sword.

PROS
- Amazing top-notch score (as with Morrowind's Jeremy Soule) by Russell Shaw and Danny Elfman (does mainly stylish fantasy and horror soundtracks such as Tim Burton films, Simpsons stuff, etc). This is infinitely more important than you think.
- excellent variety of enemies and bosses with their own unique abilities and challenges.
- excellent variety of items, weapons, armor, etc but simple enough that you can remember everything.
- experience and level-up system works fine.
- good story narrative (and thankfully you can bypass any cut-scene at any time)
- game length is fine, despite what critics have said. The game should not be compared to Morrowind (the longest game ever next to Oblivion) or GTA. There are tons of missions (quests). People that say you can complete this thing in 12 hours are either lying or have no life.
- hair, tattoo, etc customization (as in GTA San Andreas).
- fun to kick chickens
- good voice-acting, various british isles accents, english, irish, cockney, etc...the style and feel are a bit british (developed by Lionhead UK, now owned by MS). It's good to have an actual british game developer in the mix with US and Japanese dominated game design.

CONS
- main melee attack is mapped permanently to a button not the trigger (like every other game in the world). Can't map it to what you want. Counter-intuitive.
- uber-hype marketing nonsense; I think this is what everyone got upset about.
- some (not all) combat is button mashing
- while the graphics are nice, they are just a tingle cartoonish.
- ebony weapons. Uh, did they just rip this off from Elder Scrolls?
- save system is weird (world save and hero save) - just save the damn thing where the hell I want it to!
- a couple of IMPOSSIBLE MISSIONS. 1 for example has you trying to save a couple of hostages. You are able to save 1 only, the other is IMMEDIATELY executed upon your arrival. NO WAY to save her whatsoever. No way near the glitchiness of Morrowind, but still annoying.
- CANNOT complete side quests if you finish main quest. Why the hell did they do this? It's moronic.
- Last quest is impossible unless you were lucky like me and happened to have 10 thousand items to save your health. They do NOT let you prepare for it - it occurs without warning immediately following the quest preceeding it. If you didn't save somewhere before the preceeding quest and don't have tons upon tons of magic or health, you'll be totally SCREWED.

Morrowind is absolutely better, but due to its massive amount of glitches, it's also more annoying. If you want a lighter, more contained, briefer version of Morrowind with simpler gameplay, Fable is an excellent choice for xbox, also playable on 360.

NOTE: if i were reviewing FABLE LOST CHAPTERS, i'd give it 0 stars if possible. it's a marketing gimmick. Just a couple of added items and quests, THAT'S IT! The "LOST CHAPTERS" part makes is sound as if it's a sequel -- it's not even an expansion! Wikipedia calls it a "remake". I call it a "rip-off"!

A very good RPG, with some flaws....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have played through Fable and The Lost Chapters several times. All in all, this is a very fun game. The classic RPG elements of leveling up, buying or finding new and better weapons and armor, choosing to focus on magic use or hack and slash, and choosing to be good or evil are all included in Fable. The graphics are superb for its time, and the voice acting is top notch. In addition, the storyline is quite good, and is more complex than the average RPG 'save the world' tale. I have heard some complaints of Fable being too short, but if you take all the quests and max out all levels, the game length should be just fine (unless you are expecting a 50+ hours Morrowind experience).
Where Fable loses some points is the controller setup. The button configuration can be overwhelmingly complex, so much so that finding yourself using an item you did not mean to use can be a frequent occurance. In addition, you may find yourself using magic at an inopportune time, simply because you pressed the R trigger by mistake. The bow aiming feature might pop on at a bad time (like when you are being attacked by 4 creatures), and while rotating the camera view, the map pop-up might fill your screen as you are in the midst of battle (thus obscuring your view).
Also, Fable does tend to have some save problems. You may complete some quests and save, and upon reloading, the quests may have to be recompleted, or worse, may not have been saved and will not be offered again!
Still, these are rather minor complaints. While Fable really doesn't live up to its advertising of being an all-immersive RPG, it is quite good, and a blast to play if you like D&D styled RPG's. If you like Zelda games but wish they were more adult, definitely check out Fable.

Not as Good as everyone says

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: February 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Simply speaking, this game is a disappointment.
When I first started playing the game I didn't know much about the 'hype' of it. Heck all I knew is that it was supposed to be a 'great' game and that was enough for me.
And Honestly enough... it was a decent game at first, untill I finally beat it 8-9 hours in. When that point came.. I was totally crushed.

That is not to say the game isn't fun. Heck my c-worker is 35 hours into the game and he's not yet 1/2 way done.
The Graphics are Great, the fighting controls are excellent. It was very simple and easy to fight, and the attack modifier was an interesting addition once you got used to it.
You can get married and have women fall in love with you.
You can own houses and shops and earn money from them.
You can be a hero or a villan, become fat, get drunk, have sex, anything.

The problems in this game are bountiful however.
Earning money is Easy, way way too easy. Just play the memory card game in the inn of the first town you come to. 1000 credits for every win.
Within an hour of my start I had the best sword, and the best armor that I could buy, on top of which I owned 1 house and 1 shop. That wouldn't be so bad except the armor and weapon I bought is next to the best in the game, the best is only available approx halfway through, and isn't really that much better than second best.
Another major problem is that the game was VERY easy. The fights and battles were hardly a challenge for me. I 'died' only once the entire game, but with carrying 9 resurection vials that wasn't a problem at all. those things are very easy to obtain and bring you back to life instantly.
Much too easy, too little of a challenge.

All the above wasn't too bad, and I didn't mind it as much.. untill I reached the end. The end was the shortest and most disappointing of any game I have ever played. The worst part is that whatever you do throughout the game is pointless at the end.
Getting Married, drunk, buying shops or houses, having money, anything is all just a filler to make you go 'cool' or 'wow' or 'interesting'.
what you do throughout the game does not tie into the ending in any way, and I didn't like that because what point was there in me marrying 3 women and owning several shops and being a complete alacholic? none. Just a waste of time.

A couple other gripes about the game:
I don't like how you can kill most anyone anywhere, however the first town you come to you can't kill anyone.
I didn't like the fact that the game is so linear. Weather you are good or bad.. you do the same quests and same things time and again. Kill someone? leave them alive? it doesn't matter the same thing happens later on anyways because of the result of your decision.
I didn't like the fact, that if you choose to be evil, and kill everyone in a town, that the town guards come nonestop.
At one point I must've had 100 guard bodies on the ground in front of me... very very sad indeed. Hopefully there is a point where they stop coming, but I never got to it.

Basically if you like linear games where you can do a lot of different and unique things, and don't care about how easy, or short, or simple it might be then You might enjoy this game.
If you're unsure, rent it. It can easially be beat within a renting time period, and it might save you 30 bucks in case you hate it.
If you want a better, non-linear RPG, at the expence of graphics get morrowind.

IF they make a second fable I'd hope that whatever you did came back to bite you in the end, or they used it to ... make the end interesting.(show a video of your 3 wives duking it out) (maybe a video of you raising a family in one of your homes) or being a lush in a bar... something that makes you want to go through it over and over to see every ending, every possibiality.. every outcome.
Just my thoughts

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