Fable

With credits such as Populous and Black & White to his name, Peter Molyneux has a well-deserved reputation for being a gaming genius. Although, sometimes I find his games are acquired tastes, falling to a niche of hardcore gamers. With Fable, however, I think he�s made RPGs more accessible, much like Command & Conquer and Warcraft made strategy games more accessible to gamers of all kinds. And when all is said and done, Fable is one of the most enjoyable and purely fun games I�ve played all year.

The game begins with you as a young boy, growing up in a small village untouched by violence. You can keep it that way (for awhile) by being a good boy and doing good deeds. Or you can be an evil brat, stealing things, wrecking property, and punching people at random. Guards and villagers will warn you that the path you choose will shape your life, and oh boy, will it. It�s the key feature of the game.

You will grow from a little boy to a young man to an older man over the course of the game, your appearance changing along with it based on you experiences and actions. Only now you�ll have increasingly powerful swords, bows, and some kickass magic to inflict upon the monsters�or the civilians. When Big Evil flexes its muscles as it inevitably does in RPGs, you�ll naturally want revenge. But will you be the noble opposite of the big bad villain that wrecked your life, or will you be just like him�only worse?

Though you might eventually choose to be unheroic, Fable trains your character up at the Heroes� Guild, and then sends you on various quests to establish your fame, fortune and power. Rescue that kidnapped boy, escort this merchant, typical RPG stuff. Combat is executed simply, and for the most part effectively. The X button attacks, and B allows you to do special attacks, such as skewer someone on the ground. The Y button blocks, which is fairly awkward to reach (and the reason my character is covered by scars). Holding the right trigger toggles your choice of magic spells. There are many mappable buttons for your favourite spells, and some weapons have slots where special items can be inserted to increase their power (like Diablo II). So there is decent amount of combat customization available.

When you�re in town buying items or talking to people, you�ll find interacting with the townspeople is absolutely joyous. There are all sorts of emotes you can use to get a reaction from them. You can flirt with them, strike manly poses, intimidate them, even pass wind at them. Sometimes they�ll applaud at the sight of you, or tremble in their boots if you�ve been bad. Do enough flirting and maybe give away a nice present or two, you might even find yourself with a spouse. I use the non-gender specific term �spouse� because even though you can only play as a man (one of the game�s few aggravations) you can enter into a relationship with both men and women. In fact, as long as you own a house there, you can have a sweetheart in every town. Don�t neglect them though: they are divorce courts in the land of Albion.

I know people who are more obsessed with the towns than they are with the rest of the game: wooing every young lady in sight, buying up homes and businesses, fixing them up so they can be rented out. Homes even allow you to proudly display trophies of your battles. The game really makes you feel like you�ve accomplished things through both possessions and the reactions of the NPCs.

One of the coolest things about Fable is how your character�s abilities and appearance change based on your choices. If you�ve been good, you�ll look pure and sweet and innocent. If you�ve been bad, you�ll look like you�re touring with Marilyn Manson. If you focus on combat, you�ll be big and buff; if you�re more of a magic user you�ll look like you could use a few square meals. You�ll pick up scars in combat if you get roughed up too much, and you can top off your look with some tattoos or a haircut of your choice. Character graphics are so varied that two different gamers might have characters that look like they�re from different games. Environments are lush and the game has great sound and music, giving it that epic feel an RPG needs.

Although being the character you want to play is a huge part of the game�s appeal, it is not as free or natural as you might expect. Evil characters really have to work at being evil. For example, as you hack up the evil critters that attack you, you are awarded Good points, even though you were probably just defending yourself, not acting on behalf of the community at large. You�ll need to counter-balance this with frequent attacks on innocent bystanders. When you�re on missions or the main story path, Fable does not give you much choice in the resolution. You do have a few good/evil decisions to make, and very occasionally you can accept a more chaotic quest than a noble one, but ultimately Knights of the Old Republic has a more dynamic quest system. In KOTOR, you often have an ok, good, bad, very bad or very good resolutions to a quest. In Fable, once you�ve accepted a quest there�s one way to solve it, and if you fail, you try again.

There are some who will feel that Fable is not as dynamic as it should be, and maybe even a little short, since it doesn�t take long to get through if you don�t focus on the other frills the game has to offer. For those who love to explore their games though, Fable has so much to offer. There are demon doors everywhere, with special requirements you must meet in order to pass. There�s fishing and treasure digging to be done. Before undertaking a quest, you can add a �boast� that requires you to finish the quest in a special way that makes it harder--like doing it naked, for example. Some people will love to experiment with tattoos and haircuts and titles, which you can also buy. Being known as �Reaper� or �Ranger� or even �Arseface� to the public at large is really funny.

Fable is a great game, and if you get hooked you�ll probably want to play through it a few times. Me, I was an angel the first time I went through. This time, I�m gonna be a real SOB. Whisper and her brother ain�t gonna live through this session�

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