By Bryan Arivett
Everyone knows what a Role-Playing Game is, or at least the fundamentals of one. You take a character on an adventure whilst developing skills, adorning new gear and meeting a selection of interesting companions. Fable retains many of these genre staples but dares to do it without wearing pants.
Fable takes place in the world of Albion, a land filled with denizens that remark often with great humor on your latest achievements, actions, looks and/or smells. These reactive NPC’s are at the very core of the Fable experience. It’s a game about choice, morality and how the world around you reflects on those specific aspects. There’s a general sense of warmth that exudes from Albion. I think much of that is owed to the whimsy of the soundtrack and the aesthetic of the surrounding environments, but there is no doubt the people inhabiting it are just as foundational.
Help a farm defend itself from bandits or assist the thieves stealing from them. Own property, dig for treasure and fish or murder an entire village, deface public property and throw your middle finger up at the local guards. These are the types of decisions that will change not only your characters appearance, wealth and influence, but how the people of Albion will treat you when you’re in their presence. It’s easy to commit crime in the pursuit of riches, but much harder to live in a place where everyone despises your very existence. For every choice, a consequence.
Luckily, the reactive world and characters is just one important aspect that Fable has over its competition, because it’s no slouch in its narrative either. You begin as a young boy burdened with watching your entire village burned to the ground and your family murdered. You’re quickly whisked away to live your orphan life within the grand halls of the Hero’s Guild where you will be trained to be one of Albion’s finest. It’s here that the story quickly takes you through your childhood and teenage years before leaving you on the doorstep to adulthood and the beginning of your adventure proper. The pace in which so much is covered probably seems odd in the scope of modern day games, but it felt real and revolutionary to grow older as the game progressed twenty years ago.
Fable has memorable characters that weave in and out of the hero’s life. Whisper is a childhood rival you can’t stop running into. Maze is your mentor and savior from the aforementioned burned village of your past. The Guild Master, Briar Rose and Scythe are other interesting characters you’ll meet along your journey, but none are more memorable than the infamous Jack of Blades. Equipped with a deep voice and a blood red cloak that distracts you from his pointy and obscure fingers, he’s impossible to turn away from whenever he’s on screen. The best stories have a villain that’s just as interesting as anyone else if not more so. Jack of Blades clears that hurdle with ease.
The tale will span your entire life as you uncover a conflict that transpires from a rich bloodline that your family cannot escape from. Certain segments of the story will take you places you’d never expect, with plot revelations that keep you engaged until the very end. When the narrative is combined with a thoroughly developed exploration of Fable’s morality system and NPC interaction, the concoction is unlike any RPG you’ve ever experienced. The best part is that by the end you’ll want to play it again just to see what would have happened had you gone left instead of right.
For some, the combat may seem simple. The basic hack and slash, light and heavy attack gameplay is here, but it’s combined with the ability to instantly pull out a bow or use a dozen different magic spells that can augment your gameplay in a variety of interesting ways. Future installments made the combat more uniform, but I find the experimentation possible here is where the series peaked. There are a handful of mini games available scattered throughout the different towns and villages, as well as opportunities to invest in real estate, show off your trophies and fish down by the lake. There’s always an interesting system to interact with at any given moment throughout the 30-40 hours it will take you to complete the story.
When Lionhead Studios’ notorious leader Peter Molyneux made a litany of promises that never came to fruition it left many who were excited for Fable frustrated. It’s not uncommon for developers to over promise and under deliver, but major features such as the ability to have children or to watch a tree grow from an acorn felt like massive omissions. It’s a testament to the quality of Fable then, that such an achievement was still met with plenty remaining on the cutting room floor. Sometimes you strive for perfection, but in the end only achieve greatness. That’s a hard battle won within itself.
FINAL VERDICT
Fable doesn’t stand out because it’s one of the best RPG’s ever created. It hasn’t enjoyed a two decade admiration for the flawless execution of its world and characters. It’s endured the test of time because it has an insatiable charm that offers a unique experience unlike anything else. Even when Fable isn’t at its best, it still feels wholly original, equipped with a whimsy and humor specific to itself. Fable dared to be original, to march to the beat of its own drum, and doing so has given it a legacy that punches far above its own weight. A classic that will forever be remembered.