Has there ever been a game so hyped as Fable? From the very early days of the project being announced by Peter ‘Theme Park’ Molyneux, a whole raft of new and exciting features which promised to revolutionise the RPG genre were thrown at us from all angles, with the tantalising prospect of a fully mouldable adventure in which we could do what we wanted, where we wanted and to whom we wanted. Hype has quite often been the bane of the video game industry, though, and the fact that Fable fails to use almost three-quarters of the promised features could worry readers who haven’t played it yet to worry that they have been tracking the development of the Xbox’s very own Daikatana.

What’s remarkable is that not only does Fable provide a great slice of adventure gaming; it almost, almost makes you forget about all the broken promises. Set in the land of Albion, the player is cast as a Hero who has worked his way up after seeing his family cruelly slain in front of him. In the land of Albion, Heroes are trained at the large Heroes’ Guild, and upon completed his training the player is allowed out to adventure around discovering his own past, and why his village and family were taken from him.

What hits you immediately with Fable is that the presentation is lavish, with beautiful medieval villages and landscapes woven with care and attention to detail. Likewise, the soundtrack backing your quest has an epic quality that suits the pace of the game brilliantly. Best of all has to be the voice acting though, with the majority of the voices supplied by English actors and actresses, resulting in some great rural dialect. It all paints a picture of a quaint, old-fashioned world in which trouble is never far from bubbling to the surface.

Rather than follow the Final Fantasy route and having a linear story with a number of side quests, Fable allows the player to select a number of missions from the guild that he can undertake for experience, money and fame. Interwoven with these missions is the main part of the story which you can undertake at your leisure, meaning that you can explore the world to your heart’s content and make a name for yourself in various manners.

It’s that ability to wander off and do things that will end up filling the majority of time in Fable, which makes the fact that it’s so enjoyable all the more of a bonus. Want to wonder casually into town, down a few beers in the local pub and chat up one of the local ladies? Go right ahead. Fancy proposing to one and buying a house to get up to some canoodling? Sure thing. On the other hand, you could just stroll into town, pick the first unfortunate victim you come across and launch an attack their way, earning you the attention of guards and the dread of the population.

In this respect, Fable works brilliantly. Carve a virtuous path through the land and you’ll be greeted with cheers and adulation wherever you go, which is a great feeling. Start slicing villagers and local people to shreds and people will run away from you and cower, whilst guards will immediately become suspicious. All the while this is happening, your character’s appearance begins to change to reflect his orientation. Turning yourself into the Evil Knight Of Doom will see your skin go grey, your eyes darken and a great sense of menace spread across your appearance, with the opposite being true for being Albion’s own version of He-Man.

The ability to mould the adventure continues with the option of buying haircuts, tattoos and beards from local vendors, so if you ever wanted a game character to look like Ming the Merciless or a member of ZZ Top then your dreams are about to come true. Likewise, eating and drinking too much will cause your character to gain weight and become rather large, whilst running and fighting will tone him up and keep him fighting fit. There’s no wrong and right way to do it all, meaning that you can shape your hero your way and still be able to complete the adventure. A humorous addition to all this comes in the form of buying cards which define what the population will call you; walking into town and being called ‘Arseface’ by a local kid in a country accent is one of gaming’s finer moments.


When you can wrench yourself away from the plethora of possibilities the game offers on its fringe, the main story itself is a little hackneyed but still enjoyable nonetheless, with a reasonably surprising plot twist along the way for good measure. Dotted throughout the game are a number of cut scenes that take on a look similar to that of stained glass windows, each with the same haunting narration. These usually occur during main passages of time in the game, although a few occur during such events as marriage.

Perhaps Fable’s strongest point is the atmosphere that it works to provide. From the happy, relaxed village that you begin the game in to the dank, miserable prison that you find yourself locked in later in proceedings, every place has its own style and feel. The range of locations is pleasing and gives the player a number of unique and memorable settings to quest through, whilst the ability to do pretty much as you want will leave you getting your own individual experience from each.

In one way, you feel a bit sorry for Peter Molyneux. One gets the impression that Fable was his dream project, and that he has had to force himself to make a lot of concessions to get the game actually working properly. Then again, you feel like telling him that what he’s ended up giving us is perfectly acceptable as it is, and a thoroughly entertaining adventure game. You can certainly see some seeds being lain with what’s been done here, and with the added power of new generations of consoles and a bit of tweaking Fable could be the catalyst from which some great adventures will come forth. Here’s hoping.