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I'm satisfied due to reasonable expectations.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 104 / 126
Date: September 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Title: Fable

Description: What path will you choose? The highly anticipated and arguably over-hyped fantasy/ adventure game from an extended Microsoft developer. This unique game claims to have extreme character versatility and game possibilities. Your appearance and skills will be altered by things you do in game. If you eat too much you get fat if you fight a lot you will get large and brawny and you also age. Fight the forces of evil or join them. You can adventure with thieves or settle into domesticity with your new wife (male or female.)

Platform: Xbox

Learning Curve: 7- With so much to do in the game expect to spend some time familiarizing yourself with the many skills and spells and also basic social interaction. I don't think you need to have "1337 g4/\/\3R" skills to fight and advance in the game, but the fighting system might take a bit of practice and the game gives you tutorials early in the game.

Replay Value: 9- The standard storyline will have the limitations of what it is, but if you stray from the intended path you can play the game many times altering your persona to be good or evil. Slaughter merchants or be a dastardly polygamous the possibilities can go on and on.

Difficulty: 5- This game has an average level of difficulty from what I can tell. With proper training and skill purchase most enemies shouldn't pose a problem.

Guide: Available through Prima publishers for $14.99. I'm surprisingly satisfied with this guide so far. The guide helps navigate the game easier and might help you get through some puzzles if you are stumped.

Pros: Versatile gameplay, awesome graphics, hilarious dialogue, addictive gameplay, and interesting follow through storyline.

Cons: Main character is as imagined "generic" to permit versatile play, camera angle with bow can get jumbled, D button controls are sloppy, and "noble" heroes will have to be careful for villagers wanting a part in battles with monsters and I often found myself accidentally hacking the occasional merchant.

Time Expected to Invest: As much time as you want, but I imagine most people will find a good month or so of solid play before they are off to another title. I think I will enjoy this title for a bit longer though.

Retail Value: $49.99

Suggested Purchase Price: worth over $40. Try to find it used if possible or wait until the price goes down.

Overall: 9- I admit I really like this game, but I'm trying to keep the casual gamer and expectations in mind when I rated this over all. I think some will be disappointed by the gameplay not being as "versatile" as many thought it would be, but really if there wasn't some kind of guided story involved for more "linear" gamers you'd just have a pet character on a game that would wonder around aimlessly with no direction. I like the option to do either in this game and I think many gamers will feel the same. Was this game too overly hyped? Perhaps, but I am still satisfied with the outcome. Is it a disappointment? No, disappointment is getting ready for the second time for a lunch date only to have the person inform you when they call that they are too "tired" to meet that commitment. I swear I had to get ready, drive into the city, and wait until she got off again and then... sorry off topic. Anyway, no I was satisfied by this game and that is enough for me to consider my purchase worthwhile. I recommend this title and I think while not "revolutionary" the game brings something new and fresh to gaming.

Fairy Tale Graphics with diabolical controller setup

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 71 / 86
Date: November 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I resisted the temptation of writing a review too soon for this game; I have now played nearly 10 hours of Fable and here are my thoughts.

The graphics are just plain crazy; wonderfully done! I'm still fascinated at every ray of light that comes down through the forests and trees. Truely a marvel in gameplay.

Sound is also another home run with a surround sound setup. The sound will suck you in to the realm of the game and bring you that much closer to the ever blurring fine line of reality and dreamland.

Fighting. Well, lets put it this way. If you are after a hack and slasher hero, then the game is set up pretty good for you. Just hit the X button multiple times to increase your attack multiplier and then hit the B button for a flourish kill. However, if you want to cast a spell somewhere in there, then things get a little interesting. It can be very difficult to keep an eye whats going on the screen while scrolling through your spells to figure out what you want to cast.

Controller config is where the game has it's downfall. The problem is that there is too much customization you can have going on. Unlike many games, EVERY single button, trigger, joystic and pad is used during combat. This becomes an absolute nightmare when you start to get attacked by more than 5 creatures at any given time. What's even worse is trying to prioritize your victim in the melee is virtually impossible. A very typical combat scenario turns into the floundering of the controller as you try to remember to hold in the right trigger and hit Y to scroll to the right spell setup. All the while you are getting slashed. So you want your spell to get the guy in the back of the crowd that is shooting at you? Keep that right trigger in, now hold in the left trigger and continue to click to target different enemies; again, all the while getting slashed. This doesn't even take into consideration trying to keep you health up and Will by using the D-pad somewhere in that battle.

Don't get me wrong, the game is a definite purchase. However, the developers have created so much here that it is overwhelming when it comes to the combat.

But hey, I still can't put it down.

Annoyance @ power gamers

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 18
Date: September 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Here's the deal, this game was not meant for gamers who want to see the final video as soon as humanly possible. This game is about building your character in both a statistical aspect and social aspect. I couldn't begin to tell you everything you can do in this game.

I think a LOT of the bad reviews on here are coming from power gamers who were expecting a game that was SO good that there was no hope for it to live up to the expectations. Granted I think this game could have been a bit longer, and I would have loved a totally open ended play style like Morrowind, but you know what? Morrowind has so many options that most people get lost and never see half the game. It's the difference between going to a playground and going to an amusement park. Both are fun, but at the playground you can go anywhere and do anything... the amusement park has controlled areas you can do stuff. Just different styles.

This game is definitely a rental for people. Personally I don't regret playing this game, the possibilities are amazing. Haircuts that make you more attractive or scarier, gifts you can give to women (or men if you want to swing that way), boasting about how well you are going to do on quests to boost the renown you get for completing them.

They say the devil is in the details. I think that they set the bar at a great level in the details catergory. A little refinement on the length and openness of the game would make this one HELL of a title. I would LOVE for them to bang out a sequel to this. Don't listen to all the nay-sayers here... try it out yourself, but realize that all the hype that people got going here might taint your opinion. Take the game for what it is and enjoy the hell out of it.

It -almost- lives up to the hype.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: January 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Here we go. Fable's a hit or miss game for most people. Hit for those that didn't follow it since it was called Project Ego, and miss for everyone who has to complain about how a few things were left out of the final product. While I have been following it since it was Project Ego, I was never too hyped about the game. It looked good, but I wasn't going to get my hopes up for something not finished. When it did come out, people expected it to get perfect reviews. Being the "new age of rpgs". Well, Fable got good reviews...none of which were perfect. I think IGN gave it the highest rating, and even then, people rioted. Then, they actually played it, and most agreed that this is "just a rental". Well, I've played through it on both good and evil versions now, and I'll have to go with "buy it". But paying full price might not be the best idea.

Fable starts out with your character. A young boy who has to do good deeds in order to get enough gold for your sister's birthday present. In the process of going home with her, the entire town is killed and burned to the ground by bandits. A wizard named Maze comes by and saves you, taking you to the Heroes' Guild. It's here that you're trained in the ways of the sword, bow, and magic (or Will as it's called in the game). After completeing the training, you're off to be a hero, doing various quests and deeds for people. But how will you do them? In a quest to protect a farmer's crates from bandits, will you kill those that come to take them, or help the bandits in taking them? Everything you do places you on a side: good or evil. For instance, walking into town and breaking a barrel adds a few points to your evil rating. Taking things from peoples' shelves in their homes, like you'd usually do in any other rpg, is also a no-no. Yes, there's a lot that you can do to change your alignment, most of which are hilarious. Kicking chickens, beating kids, pelvic thrusts, etc. But of course, there are consequences. If you're too good, enemies won't fear you. If you're too bad, helpful people may run away, and guards will keep an eye on you. There's so much to mention, that it'd require another review. But have no doubts, this is a busy game. But the main story kicks in once you find news that your sister is still alive. After that, you take up quests to find her, and see what's going on with a so-called "Jack of Blades", a once great hero.

Fable rewards you for many things. In taking quests, you can choose the "boast" option, in which you can...let's say beat a monster without wearing any clothes. If you do this, you'll earn extra gold and renown. Renown is just that- it's your status in the world of Albion. As it gets higher, you're more well-known and people begin to respect you. Finishing quests nets you high amounts of renown, but showing off trophies is another way. Usually, when you complete a quest, you'll get a trophy to show off. Kill a tough monster? Wave its head around people, and earn more renown. Don't like the people as they say "oh, showing off again?"? Beat them down with it. And then there's your appearence. Finding different haircut and facial hair cards lets you get different styles. Some being more attractive than others, useful for getting married. Tattoos are the same, most of which look cool. Armor has the same effect as well. Eating diffent foods also has a role in how you look. Some foods like apples, carrots and fish are healthy and some others even boost your points in specific categories (strength, skill and Will). But eating too many, like apple pies, make you fatter. Going from slim to fatty is just a matter of pies. Oh, and interestingly enough, eating tofu makes you more good, while eating crunchy chicks makes you more evil. Combat is a blast, and even now I'll run around taking out enemies just to raise my stats, though there is a cap. Depending on what you use to kill enemies, you get general experience, and then experience for either power, skill (bow) or Will. General points, as I'm sure you can guess, can be used for anything, while the others go abilities only in their respective pools. Skill has accuracy, speed and guile. Power has strength, health and toughness. And Will has all kinds of cool spells (slow time, heal and berserk being the only 3 you'll really need). As some people mentioned, swinging around big weapons makes your muscles bigger, and using too much magic makes you look older. This is true and fales. Using melee weapons more changes your appearence depending on if you were too thin or fat before. Using magic ages you very quickly (leveling up ages you as well, but not as much). After just one day with the game's calendar, and using the lightning spell a lot, I went from 20 to 46. Rediculous.

I remember seeing demo videos of Fable's gameplay and the framerate was terrible. It was shoddy and a pain to look at. Well, the final product is smooth for the most part. It suffers from the "glitchy" movements found in Knights of the Old Republic, but it doesn't take away from teh gameplay one bit. Character models have their own unique look and I'm always zooming the camera just to check the models out. The guys did a great job here. Monsters are all equally cool, having their own specific movements that are all realistic (well, aside from being made up that is). What stands out the most though, is the scenery. I'm telling you, every single location is beautiful. From the coast town of Oakvale to the cemetary shrouded in darkness, it's a treat to just visit these places. It'd be nice if the environments could be messed with ala Otogi. Old interviews with the Fable crew mentioned this would be included, but I guess it was taken out for time restrictions. I even remember hearing how everything would live in real-time. Trees being tiny one day, and massive after a few years pass by. I'm not complaining about things taken out, but it'd be impressive if this were in the game. But it'd probably push the Xbox to the max.

Danny Elfman does most of the music. In conclusion, it's perfect.

So why does Fable get 4 stars? Well, the main reason of course, is that it's far too short. I beat the game on my first playthrough in roughly 15 hours. Then, after I knew what I was doing, 7 hours. There's no excuse for what was hyped to be a massive game being this short. And there's something I noticed: after I finished every quest possible for each side (good and evil), I checked out the map. Maybe 1/3 of the map is actually used in-game. Why not make expansion packs or downloadable content for more quests? Oh well. Fable 2 has been confirmed for the next Xbox, and the guys should learn from this huge complaint. Also, targeting is an issue that took me a while to get the hang of. It took me forever to figure out that hitting the right thumbstick while targeting someone switched targets. Way to not mention that anywhere during training. Plus you can't "go anywhere anytime you want". I wasn't really expecting that, but when you're in the middle of a quest, if you want to go back to town or the Guild to get supplies, you cancel your progress in the quest and have to start it all over again. But aside from the length and lack of any real replay, I was satisfied with Fable, and didn't flip out over it getting the "low" ratings of anything less than 9.5. Oh, and I just remembered. Both endings are pretty horrible. They consist of nothing but a quick painting on a wall and a sentence or two about what happened to the world. And DON'T skip the credits by pressing 'Y' if you want to continue after you beat the last boss. I did that, and had to fight him again because the "quest completed" screen didn't show up, and all I had left was the save right before him. But have something to do, as the credits take a long, long time to scroll.

If you're looking for an rpg on the Xbox, aside from Knights of the Old Republic, you can't do much better than Fable. So help me god if you pick Sudeki over this. Fable delivers when it comes to a great experience, and I look forward to the next installment. Who knows what new features will be added using the next wave of technology and having even more memory to work with.

Thank you very much Lionhaead Studios

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 33 / 56
Date: September 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Fable is a game somewhat of an overhyped game. Some things such as everychoice you make decides who you are is not exactly true. While it still is an awsome looking game (from the 2 hours of footage and trailers and all the reviews ive seen)not all the promises are fulfilled (im not gonna go into detail). Besides that, it is a very entertaining game, just dont go into it expecting you can do anything. One more thing is... you might have heard it is a 50 hour game but from the people that have played it (finding most the secrets and completing most of the side quests) they found it to be 20-25 hours.
You start the game as a young boy about 12 years old, and your father reminds you it is your sister's birthday. He tells you that for every good deed you do he will give a gold coin to buy your sister a birthday present. You go around town exploring (there ar other ways to get coins "cough"). The interaction with the town and economy is amazing. So then a little later on a group of bandits raid your town and you survive but your father is killed and your sister and mother are kidnapped. From there the guildmaster, Maze, finds you and brings you to his guild where you will learn combat and all the controls turnig you into the beginning of a hero. (the variety of things to do in fable never really gets boring as there is almost always something to do ex. bored? try fishing or enter a pie eating contest. not in a village? try going off the road and the chances are good that youll find something interesting. After you finish the guild the rest of your story is pretty much up to you, to be good or evil and whatnot except you do have to follow the main quests qhich shape the story but even those can be different from someone elses. Some examples of evil deeds would be convincing someone to follow you into the forest then chopping them to peices or maybe breaking into someones house at night when there sleeping to steal ther stuff. Examples of good deeds would be killing undead or picking apples if someone asked you to. Since taking on a a full review would be too long ill leave it to someone else. For and 8 page review with over 200 screenshots and about 10 movie/trailer/clip/actual game footage go to www.teamxbox.com for a full Fable review from someone who has played through the game twice. Another thing, please click very helpful for this review. So that it gets on the front page of reviews, everyone can read it and everyone can know the greatness of fable, thank you.

Morrowind But More Linear

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 21
Date: September 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Now that they hype is over and the game is finally here all these overexaggerated five star reviews will be done with unless they're genuine.

All in all, the game lived up to the hype in my opinion, I know not to get my hopes up too much for a game anymore, too many let downs with movies and games in the past. I don't even care about Halo 2.

This is a fun game people. Sorry you can't do whatever you want to do from raping small children to flogging your Guildmaster. If you want to do that, go out in the real world.

At first, I tested out all the things you could do, before starting the actual quest mode. You can kick chickens, punch your dad, get drunk which is actually very humerous. It's fun to do the quests drunk too, start throwing up when some bandits are coming. Lot of good weapon choices, etc. Every game has to have some linear path to follow, otherwise it would be pointless other than to roam around doing whatever you want. This game is like GTA meets Zelda meeds Morrowind.

Graphics are slightly better than Morrowind, which is what I was expecting. Most character interaction isn't that interesting, but I have a good imagination so it's not that hard to see what the producer had in mind.

I wasn't disappointed by this game, it was worth the wait.

Not Too Shabby!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: September 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I am very happy with this game; like the rest of you, I did think it would be a heck of a lot better. The graphics are pretty good, the story line is cool, the 'idea' behind the game is pretty awesome. The only real problem I saw with the game is the inability to wander around. The world, the surroundings, are quite linear. I was expecting more of a Morrowind feel. I'm slightly disappointed... oh well. I mean, the game is still very revolutionary, it's just not the caliber people were expecting. If you planned on buying it, go ahead and do so. It won't be money wasted.
Just to get a few things straight:
1. It's not like Morrowind or GTA where you can just do what you want.
2. Fable is a good game, with good intentions, great replay value.
3. The fighting system, I think, is a lot of fun; picking up the experience orbs afterwards, is a little annoying.
4. Over a period of time, choices you make chenge how you look. You can also get haircuts and tattoos to change your appearance.
5. Traveling around is not too tedious, you can teleport anywhere you've been before.

Over before it's unwrapped!!!!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 15 / 20
Date: October 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game the day it came out. I was finished it, including all side quests about a week later. This game was amazing. The graphics were fantastic and the different choices to make made the game-play interesting enough to keep me hooked.

There were a limited number of enemies to fight and as my character evolved I found that they became far to easy to defeat, even in large numbers.

Although the game says that it provides you with the freedom to do whatever you wish I don't believe this is so. Admittedly you can be as good or as bad as you like and this does affect your interaction with other characters. However the environment itself is limiting and very linear. You can't jump and so the smallest of rocks or ledges are impossible obstacles. Basically every area amounts to a number of paths that you can travel and little else. There is no real sense of exploring an area or discovering secrets.

In the end it was the shortness of this game that disappointed me the most. The story progresses and the quests are fun and entertaining, but in truth there aren't enough of them. The plot is unidirectional and predictable. This game would have benefitted from about 30 more hours of game play or more.

The truth is when I reached the final battle against the last boss I couldn't believe it was the end. I thought for certain there would be more, perhaps I would be transported into another world or dimention a dark version or light version [based on my good-evil rating] something...ANYTHING! But alas the credits rolled and I was left with an empty feeling. The end simply came too quickly.

I recommend this game to fans of RPG games with Live Action Battle because it was fun and kept me absolutely enthralled with the game-play [limited as it was]. But rent it, don't buy it. That is all the time you will need to ring this game dry.

Beautiful and Unique

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: October 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Fable is a wonderfully implemented and impressively beautiful game. The game engine, character interactions, fighting with weapons, magic, everything - works really well, generally just how it should. And the graphics are beautiful leaving little if anything to be desired. I guess it doesn't have the advanced lighting, shadowing, etc. of a game like Splinter Cell but they are certainly nice enough.

I've not finished the game yet but I've already gotten my money's worth. I can see how a 12 year old game maniac who plays continuously might finish Fable quickly and feel like $50 is a lot of money for just a few days of solid play. But for a busy adult, whose game skills are not olympic, and $50 is not noticible, you WILL get your money's worth. I think I'll be playing this game in my spare moments for weeks and then I'll periodically return to it over years to play a bit more.

With regard to the freedom factor - its true that this game is not as free-form as Morrowind or Baldur's Gate. You can wander around, but mostly over a relatively small set of paths and towns. Its not a gigantic unexplored world to get lost within. I think this game's freedom is a different type. The freedom in this game revolves around what type of hero you want to become and I think in this case the game does a great job of allowing you to select what you want to be. And there look to be many acceptable, fun answers. In this way I think this game is a step above Morrowind or Baldur's Gate.

Overall, Fable is amazingly well built. Balanced, smooth, fun, without excess frustration, and a pleasure to play.

Hopefully the creators will use the same technology to build a sequal with even greater flexibility and world size to satisfy all the RPGers.

Best RPG I have ever experienced

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: October 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have been a gamer my whole life, starting with the Intellivision in the 80s (Burger Time, anyone?). Never before has a game been so addictive and has had me coming back to it when I swore I'd go out and interact with the real world for a while. It took me about 15 hours to complete (I only did 6 side-quests, there are many many more I'm told).

Fable is designed to allow you to be whoever and whatever you want your character to be. You first start off as a child and you grow into an old man as the game progresses. Every move you make changes the way your character turns out. As a result of everything you do you can be evil and make children run from you and villagers fear you, or you can be good and have people clap for you and cheer at you everywhere you go. Also, the way you prefer to do battle will determine your class. If you use your sword a lot you'll end up a warrior; if you use your spells most of the time you may end up a caster; or you can use your bow and become a ranger. You can combine them as well. I beleive the stats menu said I was an "Arcane-warrior" or something to that nature.

The graphics are very detailed. The story is captivating and deep. And the sounds and music are very well done. Despite my giving it 5 stars it does have its flaws. The villagers get annoying very quickly, the game is rather short for an RPG and another 10 to 20 hours more would have been great (I did ignore a lot of quest cards toward the end which may have made it longer, and I didn't do all the demon doors), and there is a small amount of spells and equipment (which is understandable since the game is so short).

After wasting a well spent 15 hours of my life on this game trying to be on the side of good. I think I'll waste another 15 or so and try to be evil next time around. I highly recommend this game to any gamer, whether you like RPGs or not.

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