Fable:The Lost Chapters Review

Out of nowhere, bandits attack your village. Before you can get hurt though, a hero named Maze shows up and whisks you away to the Heroes’ Guild, where you could grow up to be a mighty hero.

Cut to your teenage years and you’re still at the Heroes’ Guild. You’ll be trained on melee combat using a sword, ranged combat using a bow, and using magic. Melee combat is simple. Use the white button to draw your sword. Locking on to the enemy with the left trigger button, you use X to strike and Y to block. Hitting X repeatedly will trigger a combo. Melee combat is pretty much the meat and potatoes of Fable. After a few strikes, your melee combat icon in the lower right corner will power up, allowing you to de deliver a slower, yet more powerful and also unblockable strike.

You can use the black button to draw your bow. From here you can either lock onto an enemy using the left trigger button or click the left joystick to change your view to first-person for more precise aiming. Hold X to pull back your bow, the longer you hold it the more powerful your shot, and then let go. While the first person view is neat, I’ve never had any use for it. It’s much easier to simply lock on to foes. With that being said, I haven’t had much use for the bow at all. I’ve had to use it on a couple of foes that were out of reach, but for most battles, it’s much easier to simply use your sword.

Finally, on to magic. Use the left trigger to target, like always, and then hold the right trigger. This will display, in the lower right hand corner, which buttons will use which spells. In training, all you’ll possess is the lighting spell, which will be assigned to the X button. Hitting X while you have the right trigger held will unleash a lighting bolt at the enemy. Magic is a big part of Fable, and before you know it, you’ll be unlocking all sorts of spells as you level up your magic abilities.

Morals

Before you know it, you’ll be an adult, ready to go out into the world and do good. Or do bad. It’s up to you in Fable: The Lost Chapters. While the game doesn’t have as many choices as one would hope for, it still boasts an impressive amount of scenarios where your character will be faced with a moral dilemma and it’ll be up to you to help him decide. You can also alter your character’s appearance with different clothing, hairstyles, and tattoos. You’ll eventually gain a reputation amongst the land, but whether you’re adored or feared is entirely up to you. While none of this is particularly deep, it’s still fun to see how villagers respond to you and to witness certain physical “changes” that your character goes through.

On To Adventure

The adventure in Fable involves you doing various quest around the land of Albion. Whether these be quests from the Heroes’ Guild that advance the story, or simply doing small tasks for one of the villagers, is entirely up to you.

The combat in Fable is simple yet varied enough to keep it interesting. Different foes will attack you in different ways, though once you get used to the workings of Fable, it’s never that difficult to win a fight. You’ll constantly gain experience points, which you can use to upgrade your abilities at the Heroes’ Guild.

Visuals and Audio

Fable’s somewhat cartoony style works very well. The characters, for the most part, look wondrous and lifelike, while the environment looks lush and gorgeous. The voice acting is well done, from the deep, wise voices of the older Heroes to the high-pitched, inquisitive voices of children. The sound effects and soundtrack don’t stand out a whole lot, but they more than get the job done.

Wrap-Up

With all of the focus on Fable’s morality system, it really seems like they could’ve spent some more time on the actually content of the game. Not to say that it’s bad, quite the opposite, but aside from the moral choices that affect the game, everything about Fable seems like it’s been done before. Nevertheless, Fable is a worthwhile adventure, and the morality system is definitely worth checking out. Unless you have an utter hatred for RPGs, I’d say Fable is definitely worth at least a rental.