Video Games Monster

5 Responses to “Fable”

1. 
   Profane
   Sep 3rd, 2010 at 11:07 pm

   Review by Profane for Fable
   Rating:
   I will have to say that I am no RPG fanatic in any way shape or form. That being said, my choice of buying Fable as my first XBOX game was an odd one. As a former student of philosphy and admirer of all things mythic and violent, I was attracted to the selling point and tagline about the choices and consequences…..
   
   I was not dissapointed at all.

   I can agree with many of the reviews offered thus far, yes, it is a little bit too short, and there are not nearly enough side quests of miniquests. But I have a feeling that is something that will be worked out when the sequel comes out. Also hoping for some live based missions or larger world maps to rival the everquest crowds or the FF platforms.

   Simply put, I really enjoyed this game, and recomend it to anyone who is into fantasy based levelers.

   What I liked the most:

   Great design: The maps were great! very well drawn, and realistic. Felt like there was alot more to explore, but there wasn’t…..

   Good action: The fighting was never booring, unless you get too strong on the powerups….but there was always a few suprises that cought me off guard.

   The whole morality driven character design, great. Could have used more options and finess, but it’s great fun to play this game from multiple vantagepoints. Being good is fun, but being evil….well we all know that’s even more fun.

   I got a bit addicted, (as in real life) to giving my character tattoos….. they really do affect the way your character is percieved. And, just like in our reality, some tats are just dumb. A neat little feature is that when you get them revomed, you get white scar tissure where the old tat used to be. Same with battle damage, or torture scars, they mess with the ink jobs.
   
   The haircuts are fun, but a but silly at times.

   The wepons are fun, but the great ones come too late in the game…..

   I liked being able to buy houses and steal things. You can even steal houses from people by killing the inhabitants and buying them with the rent from your own properties, or stolen money. This works for stores as well…..

   What I wish It could have had:

   It it could have been a longer game…just so one could explore the level maps better. As I said, more mini missions next time please, especially after the main story is completed. (All that power, and nothing to do……)

   It would have been nice to be able to return to the Guild after the last level…..or the Arena after beating that…..(possible multiplayer online improvements there….)

   Vehicles would be nice. Horses, carts, war wagons…..adds a little more to the buying and selling aspect of the game, and breaks up the monotony of the whole teleporting to new levels thing. (Plus think of how much you can steal from a whole wagonload of goods…) Customizable horses and carts, even ships to do some pirating action (a little bit of ZELDA Windwaker vibe there)

   Online multiplayer options: Why just fight the undead, or npcs when you could waste other would be heroes or villians. Create your own rivalries…. compete on guild missions or the arena.

   Better AI: Some of the npcs that “helped” you along the way were just in the way, others caused more harm than help. Squad controls would be nice to fix that. Or the ability to assign your invintory or expressions to your helpers….

   An unloadable invintory: I got pretty bored with endlessly cycling through all my useless tatoo and haircut cards just to get an item selected for limited use. It would be cool to be able to sell or store many of those one use marker items other places. Re-usable treasure chests would be cool.

   More minigames: The whole fight club thing was pretty cool, got a bit repetative, but it could be better. The archery contests were weak, could have used more realistic based mini challenges. Straw targets just don’t cut it.

   More fighting styles.

   More weapons. especially for assassins…..knives, darts, garrotes……stelth kill moves…..shields perhaps, decorated with customizable crests or markings. Staves for wizard types which could be both a ranged and melee weapon. (like Maze had during his big scene……) Perhaps even the ability to steal weapons and armour from the dead, not just cash or meat.

   More villians. Bandtis, the undead and monsters…oh my……gets old fast. How about facing off against armoured knights, angry citizens, rouge guild agents,(other than the bleedingly obvious plot driven ones.) corrupt guards, jealous ex wives…. all of that…..)

   Re-usable Demon Doors: A fun and annoying part of the game: but ovber all more than Kinda useless onces you get all the treats inside. Perhaps turn the secret areas within them into usable mulitplayer maps or npc areas. More shops, usable homes, etc. W

   Bigger cities: Sure the maps were great, but I would like more multidemensionality to my towns. Bigger buildings, more levels, complex roads and alley ways. Resturaunts, brothels, not just crappy inns or roadside beer tents….

   Basically I guess I would love to the the enevitable Fable sequel to be a great mediveil style GTA game.

   But until then, I am going to play Fable over and over again, aiming to get every little once of fun out of it until I can’t stand it again. Still some treasure chests unlocked……..still some people I havent killed. Or saved, depending on the game…..

   Get this game, spend some time with it, and hope that what good it has rubbs off on the RPG market, and what bad it has is fixed in the sequel.

2. 
   Jonathan Thomas
   Sep 3rd, 2010 at 11:13 pm

   Review by Jonathan Thomas for Fable
   Rating:
   The hype surrounding fable through it’s development has been mixed, from promises that it would be the best ever to a disaster. I can’t say it’s either, I warn you, if your expecting the best game ever lower your expectations, or you’ll ruin the experience. That’s just the problem, Fable isn’t what everyone hoped for but if you accept it for what it’s for you’ll find it’s a great experience.

   On the exterior it’s a beautiful game, also the characters are well animated, and the vibrant and colorful worlds immerse you and it’s one of the best looking titles available currently on the Xbox. Besides some frame rate hiccups and awkward lip-syncing this is pretty flawless.

   This wouldn’t mean anything is fable wasn’t fun to play, And not to worry – it is. The combat here is real-time, the easiness in switching to magic, archery or sword fighting is superb. That’s another interesting point, you can play fable in a lot of ways, Primarily being your choices versus good or evil, unfortunately I never felt awfully inclined to be either, If I was evil I never felt revered, and if I was good I never felt acclaimed. There are several side paths to do, marriage, mini-games, and chicken kicking… It leaves a lot to do, but even with all that it only adds a few more hours to the already seemingly short experience, which might be discouraging.

   Sound effects here are well done, The game has a cinematic ambience, The music is great, as is the voice acting. Your hero of course is mostly nameless (Though you are usually referred to by your “Nickname”, which is easily changed at a shop, and even then It’s a limited selection) Still I can’t say anything bad here, except for some repetition on certain aspects.

   In the end Fable is fun, and this shouldn’t be passed up. Though fable might not be as groundbreaking as hoped it would be it’s still great. With the replay value and open-ended nature here you’ll end up playing it through twice at least.

3. 
   Leaky
   Sep 3rd, 2010 at 11:29 pm

   Review by Leaky for Fable
   Rating:
   I wasn’t too familiar with the idea of the game before I purchased it.
   
   Complete a lifelong journey from childhood to the grave. Fighting your way through life and solving the mystery of your family. The game changes with your every move….

   The game sounds very good, but when you start to play, you realize that your childhood lasts about 20 minutes, and your teenage years last about an hour. So really the game of a life journey can be decieving.
   
   But all that aside, the game is very exciting; increasing your character’s attributes ranging from how strong they are, to the many magical spells you may cast. Determining if you would rather travel down the path of good or evil. Marying a woman….or even a man (the character is a boy)?!?!

   Quests give you the ability to earn gold and experience points to level up your character to fight the toughest guards, theives, monsters, and even the undead. One issue that I do have with teh quests are that there is a golden icon that leads you to the path in which you are supposed to take to complete the quest. So, in other words, the quests are laid out to you with no questions or concers; except defeating those that stand in your way.

   One portion of the game that does keep your interest is the ability to party til you puke, that’s right, your character can get so incredibly drunk that he will actually vomit! Be careful though, because if you want to marry, you must present yourself in a well manner.

   I would advise any RPG fanatic to pick this up off the shelves immediately and set some time aside for this game.

4. 
   lab88
   Sep 3rd, 2010 at 11:53 pm

   Review by lab88 for Fable
   Rating:
   I suppose I’m one of the only people reviewing this so far that actually played the game. I hadn’t read a lot of hype on this game before played it at a gaming convention, and only saw a small bit while I researched the release date for this game, so I don’t think I’m “buying into the hype”. I restarted the game at the con and played from the beginning until I turned into a teenager, and then completed a few tasks after that. The total length of time I spent playing was about 1.5 hours. I only played the “good” side. It was really cool and I can’t wait to buy the game and finish it.

   You are only a kid for about an hour of gameplay, and the start to the game is slow. The slow start is why I gave the game only 4 stars for the “fun” rating. However, what you do in the beginning matters a lot, and it gets much better, so I’ll forgive the slow start and give the game 5 stars overall. I didn’t get all the way to the end, so it better not dissappoint, but I played enough of the game to know that it will at least keep me occupied for several months while I play through the different variations.

5. 
   Robert Schiller
   Sep 4th, 2010 at 12:11 am

   Review by Robert Schiller for Fable
   Rating:
   Excellent game, lived up to the hype. Might be a little short, but there is some replayability there if you want to try it opposite of the first go ’round (evil vs good or vice versa). I’d buy it again.