Fable: The Lost Chapters Hands-On

There has been a dearth of role-playing games on the PC lately, which is why odds are that Fable: The Lost Chapters will probably garner more than a bit of attention. Yes, this is the PC version of last year's best-selling Xbox game, though developer Lionhead doesn't like to use the word "port" so much. Instead, as its name suggests, The Lost Chapters offers more content than the Xbox version, along with the improved bells and whistles one would expect. We got our hands on a late version of the game recently to see what's new and what's different.

If you played the Xbox version, then you're well aware of what Fable is about. If you haven't, Fable is an imaginative and unique role-playing game that presents moral choices throughout the course of the story; it's not just about running around the world and killing creatures. It also borrows some of the creature-morphing technology from Lionhead's earlier game Black & White, which means that your character will change in appearance over the course of the game, becoming more sinister if you commit evil deeds or more heroic if you commit good deeds. And, in theory, no two characters will ever look the same, as there are a variety of customization options at your command. For instance, when you gain enough experience points, you can allocate them to increase your character's strength (making him look burlier), speed (making him look thinner), and more.

As we played through the early parts of the PC version, we saw this system in action. You'll start the game as a young boy orphaned after raiders destroy your village. Rescued by a mysterious stranger, you'll be enrolled in the hero's guild and taught how to be a hero. This opening sequence serves as a tutorial of sorts, and then you're ready to strike it out on your own as a young man. At the get-go, several quests are available to you. In this case, our objective was to kill monstrous wasps terrorizing a picnic area. After slaying the wasps and their deadly queen, we encountered a bully picking on a poor old man. You can speak to each of them, and they'll give you a story, and then you can decide if you want to help the bully or the old man, with the decision adding points to your good or bad tally. The game is stuffed with little dilemmas such as this, and they add up over time. To be sure, the game isn't anywhere near as open-ended as The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, but it should still offer plenty of replay value as you experiment with the different choices presented to you.

The new content in the PC version is literally a lost chapter that was cut from the Xbox version, so we can expect a slightly longer game as well. This new content includes nine new regions to explore, 16 new quests, new monsters to battle (including an impressive ice creature), new "expression" animations (such as the ability to play air guitar), new weapons, armor, and accessories (such as hats and other headgear), and the ability to create and import your own tattoos to plaster on your character's skin.

Fable is played primarily from the third-person perspective, and it feels very much like an action-heavy role-playing game at times. This brings up the matter of controls. Lionhead, tasked with translating the controls from the Xbox's gamepad to the PC's keyboard and mouse, has gone for a system that maps most of the gamepad commands to the left side of the keyboard. Essentially, you use the traditional WASD keys to move your character, and you use the mouse to control the camera (like in other PC games); however, you'll need to use a combination of the space bar, mouse buttons, Ctrl keys, and more to access your many different powers, including your ranged, melee, and magical attacks. The controls are a bit convoluted, but the opening tutorial walks you through the basics and lets you practice over and over again if you wish.

The production values of Fable are certainly impressive, and it's undeniably a lush and colorful game. Microsoft dropped a bundle on the game's budget, right down to the impressive opening score by Hollywood composer Danny Elfman (Spider-Man, Men in Black, and Batman are among his many credits). Fable has a bright color palette (along with a large number of light bloom effects to give everything a warm look), a Disney-esque art style, and a fairly significant amount of voice acting. And, as expected, the PC version boasts higher-resolution textures, so everything looks better, as well as higher resolutions in general, so everything looks crisper. Another benefit of the PC version is much quicker load times, particularly when you transition from one area to another. On the downside, the PC version looks to keep the console-style save system, at least when it comes to quests. You can only manually save the game between quests, so if you're in the midst of a quest, either complete it or be prepared to start the quest over again if you choose to quit out.

The PC version is coming together very well, and except for a few bugs, we'd say it looks almost ready to go. Surprisingly, it's not due out until the fall, which means that Lionhead has plenty of time to polish it. And considering that the underlying game was finished last year for the Xbox, we can probably expect the PC version to be pretty sharp once it gets here. While the game isn't as open-ended and deep as some PC role-playing games, Fable does promise fun, straightforward action adventuring with excellent production values.