Fable, what I don't understand

[Fire Daemon]

I bought Fable when it first came out and then later I bought the lost Chapters. This tells you two things:

1)I own fable
2)I enjoyed fable

These are both correct.

Now what I don't understand is why so many people don't like fable. It seems like many people claim that it failed to meet its hype and I must admit in many ways this is true, it did fail to meet some of the things we expected from it but in my opinion it gave us so much more.

It is often stated that fable (and the Lost Chapters) are short. This is true; you can play through the game in around 8 hours or so if you rush. IF YOU RUSH! If you take your time to do what Peter M recommends you to do then you can easily take 12 to 15 hours to finish the game and keep on playing if you want. And then you can make another character and do it all again if you want and double that time.

Writing that I think it sounds like I'm a raving Fan Boy defending this game from the unchecked masses of the Escapist. This is isn't what I'm trying to do. I enjoyed fable and am trying to figure out why people don't like. I think the main reason why may be because people walk into expecting games like Morrowind or Baldur?s Gate but with much more depth.

However it is likely I am wrong.

Tell me why you didn't like fable (or why you did) and maybe we could have an intelligent (maybe even fun) discussion revolving around Fable without fanboyism.

 

[sammyfreak]

Im trying to find a bargain bin copy of it, it actualy seems fun.

 

[PaintChips]

I liked Fable just fine. Had a lot of fun with it, actually. In fact, I bought it over Live just to play it again recently (I lost the original disc a long time ago).

But at the time the game was released, I wasn't interested in keeping up with the latest games; I never checked gaming sites to see all the up and coming releases. Maybe I liked it simply because I wasn't hyped up for it.

Speaking of which, how did it not live up to it's hype? I'm honestly curious now.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Mostly it's down to the claims made for it during development, the game itself was something radically less than what was promised, mostly because the Xbox hardware simply couldn't do what they wanted.

Still, it was a fun action RPG, some annoying niggles (like a preponderance of escort missions), and simple but fun combat.

 

[JakubK666]

Fable was a very good game and the only reason why it was so heavily bashed is because of what Peter claimed it would be.Something also known as AC Syndrome or Reverse-Portal Syndrome.

I bought the game without listening to any of the hype and I was surprised how fun it was.

 

[Saskwach]

I enjoyed Fable a lot, too. I just wish Pete M had kept his trap shut so I didn't spend the whole game wondering where the meaningful good/evil choices were. An action adventure RPG I can dig. An action adventure RPG advertised as something much more is slightly depressing.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

Fable was a victim of Molyneux not knowing when to shut the fuck up.. He promised us the earth and didn't deliver. Molyneux is a great ideas man, but they should never, ever, let him speak.

 

[noolli]

i liked fable, i downloaded it off XBLM and it was worth the 1200ms points i payed. it could have been better i suppose but it didn't need to be. I did think the ending was a bit of a disappointment and the game was far too easy for anyone who considers them-self an RPG person, which makes it more of an action adventure as there are little upgrades which require no sort of skill or experience. the points system for leveling up the character is also flawed as you can never upgrade just one thing at a time and you eventually become a well rounded person as apposed to a specialist.

 

[Impulse_9]

Fables a great game for me but thats because I love the world its set in. I take time to appreciate the things like the character development, trading etc etc. Infact I think it did spoil itself slighty by having quite so much easy mobility meaning the wilderness areas are visited roughly once.

A couple of my friends didnt like it all though, they thought that the graphics were too shiny and that the game was both too short and too easy. I can tell why, because it is quite short, and I guess it is quite easy once you have the combat mastered. But I think is what divides the people who undamentally liked it and those who didnt.
As with other games by Peter M, you either are the sort of person who escapes into the world of the game and buys into the characterisation, the sometimes largely redundant side quests and the like.
Or, you are the sort of person who boils it down to the raw gameplay, the mathematics behind it and play it like you would play any other RPG like DII or WoW.

I get the impression as I did with Black and White that what PM is trying to do is to allow you to be who you want to be first, then make a good game second, and its because of that which is why I think fable is easy, its because if it were harder, the choice of character builds would become fewer and fewer and thats not something that his games ever seem to want to compromise on, and so, they must compromise on the gameplay in some aspects, in this case, the difficulty level.

 

[The_Toe_Bighter98]

Ahhh, could it be because you mainly had to be a fighter? You either throw balls of fire at your enemies for minutes, or just walk up and stab them a few times. Its shortness is of course another disappointment, along with its ease, and even its quests/be good or evil approach.

I could go on and on, or I could just point out the review Yahtzee has already done. Which really means I ran out of things to type, so there.

 

[Madlarkin]

Fable failed to deliever on many aspects that was promised by Peter M, i can remember avidly waiting for that game after reading a review long before it came out.
It offered a wide selection of choice, even going so far as to say that if you trambled someones garden then they wouldn't like you, or if you stayed out during the day your skin would become more tanned and if you where out at night mostly you would become paler.
However, those features didn't actually appear in the game.
There where other features too that didn't show their faces, which was sad.

Also, Fable had an annoying cast of actors, as an RPG i couldn't take it too seriously because of the regional dialects the npcs spoke in. Whilst some sounded like they where from Yorkshire, only main npcs had a vastly different accent.
I grew tired of hearing the same shrill tone of voice coming out of everyone i ran past.
It was like living in a world where everyone is a member of the band that made the Hamster dance.

Fable also didn't seem to take itself too seriously either as a game, whether this opinion of mine makes me an asshole or not remains to be seen. However, i prefer a game that doesn't try to be humerous in every aspect. I particually do not want to be able to give my "hero" a title of "Arseface" "Chicken Chaser" or "Pieface".
Granted, they did have some serious options but really i don't think those others should have been in there.

the points system for leveling up the character is also flawed as you can never upgrade just one thing at a time and you eventually become a well rounded person as apposed to a specialist.

On reflection you couldn't just dump everything into Mana if you wished to play a caster orientated character,however you still didn't have to end up looking like Conan if you wanted to be a wizard. Ther where other perks you could put things that didn't alter appearance, it was still possible to specialize. It was just players discretion as to what you did want to.

Fable also lacked replay value, i didn't want to play it a second time after the first because i knew the games a closed off path.
Unlike promises (yet again, that old nag creeps in) of a totally open world which you could immerse yourself in. There was little in the way of locale to visit, two cities, your starting school and that wooded place.
Then there was the whatever location the game deemed you had to go to after that, there was no free roam environment.
It's another aspect that sorely disappointed me.

My final point, the very part that wound me up in Fable, partially down to replay value.
After defeating the end boss, and aquiring the greatest sword in the game.
What was there to fight? Answer, nothing at all.
Other than minor little beasties you've been able to beat down anyway, that whole reward was just like pissing in the wind.
Its fine until it comes back into your face.

Fable for me was a game that was rather lack lustre in it's design, i was eager to aquire it when i heard of all the glorious concepts it would posses, however on playing it i found it a wholesome let down.
Perhaps if you hadn't heard of all the non-existant crap that was going into Fable in the first place you may enjoy this game.
I for one was seduced by the promise and got an empty box.
I enjoyed it whilst i played it, the realization of my dislike for it was immediately after i had completed the game.
I had finished it, there was nothing else to do, nothing to explore. It was a sad realization that immediately crushed everything i thought Fable was.

 

[RedSolitaire]

Two things annoyed me about Fable

1) The speed at which your character aged. You could easily be into your sixtys by the time the game ended (and generally long before that) but nobody else changed. Expecting every character to age along with me might be a bit much but it was kinda jarring and wierd to talk to your older sister when she looks about 16 and you're 65, especially when she repeatedly refers to you as "younger brother".

2) The rewards for being evil. Isnt the point of being evil that you get far more power then the good guys? Hence the choice of power or conscience. Not so in Fable. Choose the sword over your sister? Good guys get an identical one 5 minutes into the expansion. Choose to keep the mask? Nothing happens at all, except now you have a stupid mask permently bonded to your face.

 

[excessum ado]

Those of you looking for a copy of it should just download it from the xbox originals page in the xbox live marketplace.

 

[Cryofthewolf]

I didn't like that it wasn't open-ended like Morrowind or Oblivion. The game was also just downright weird. The marriage aspect seemed like a waste of time, and the good/evil scale just didn't make sense. It just didn't do it for me the way Morrowind, Oblivion, or Baldur's Gate /Neverwinter Nights did.

 

[laikenf]

I really wanted to put Fable up there in my favorite games list when I started playing it, but the truth is that as an action RPG game it comes short in many aspects (forget the hype, because I never really heard of Fable until about 2 years after it's release). Character interaction could've been deeper, the only person who seems to age is you, it's VERY short, it's VERY easy; the whole good- evil mechanism along with the consequences those choices bring seems very tacked on (sometimes it's just downright pointless). It's not all bad though, The graphics and sounds are great, I pretty much enjoyed the combat system (although it too could've been a bit deeper), good sense of humor, and I can't deny it could be pretty fun to explore. I'm looking forward to Fable 2, just hoping that they actually FINISH what they start this time around.

 

[Kemmler0]

Don't listen to the nay sayers man. Fable was a gleaming diamond amongst the many turds on the rack at that time.

 

[mitsoxfan]

The problem with Fable, for me anyway, was the vast chasm between what was promised by Molyneux, and what actually was delivered.

Expectations aside, it was a wonderful blend of Adventure and Action, with some RPG elements thrown in for good measure. It sort of strove to be an open ended, choice driven OoT with some RPG elements, and a Good/Evil slider, and in that regard, it did well for itself.

But Molyneux made it out to be this Earth-shattering, genre-changing, mind-blowing game, which it wasn't.

It was about an 8/10 when Molyneux promised an 11 (and on that note, go refresh yourself with 'This is Spinal Tap' for the 'true' meaning of 11)

 

[mwhite67]

Fable felt really short and hollow to me. It seemed like just a very few hackNslash levels linked together without many items or spells or towns or dungeons. I expect RPGs to last at least 25 hours WITHOUT side quest I don't want to mess around trying to make the game feel longer. This game felt like it was over before it started for me. The sequel better be 20 times better or it will be a total pass