Will I be good, or evil? A hero, or a criminal? Married or single? A ladies man, or...man's....man?
User Rating: 9 | Fable XBOX
Fable is a great RPG for the Xbox, and is a must have for all Xbox owners. To simply describe this game in one sentence, I would say "It's a mix between The Legend of Zelda and Grand Theft Auto". The first thing I notticed was the great music, which was composed by the great Danny Elfman. He did music for movies such as Spider-Man, and The Incredible Hulk. He's even done the theme song for The Simpsons. Knowing that Danny Elfman was involved with the musical score of the game I knew that my ears were going to have a good time playing this game too. Now let's talk game play, which is pretty simple. You attack, Defend, and cast magic. The combat is real time, so you have to be aware of whats going on. They have a targeting system which is similar to Zelda, so you don't have end up missing all the time. The magic system in the game could be better. How it works is that you hold the R button, then all the spells you know are at your disposal. Sounds good right? Not really, because you can only cast use 3 spells at a time. That means you have to cycle through by using the Y button throught the other sets of spells. And there is no assigning and spells to any buttons either. For example, you could use 2 spells more then other, but based on when you learned those spells, you might have to scroll through the spells back and forth just to use them. Now, unto the leveling system. Leveling is pretty easy enough to understand. The more you attack with your melee weapon, the more strength experience you get. The more you shoot your bow, the more skill experience you get. The more you use your magic, the more will experience you get. There are three stats to bring up in each category. In strength you have Toughness, Physique, and Health. For your skill, you can bring up your Speed, Accuracy, and Guile. Will is a bit different though, with will experience you can learn spells, bring up your mana, and make the spells you already know better. There is also General Experience, which is floating green orbs that appear after you defeat and enemy. General Experience can be used for all categories, it's kind of like the uncle that helps pay for the big screen T.V. that you can afford with the money you already have. There is a Feature in the game called the Combat Multiplier. Basically, the more successful, attacks you make with out getting hit once, the more experience you gain when you inflict blows upon your enemies. The story to this game is pretty good in my opinion. Basically you're a little boy in a little village, living with your family, blah blah blah. One day on your sisters birthday, bandits attack the village! and supposedly your whole family was killed in the attack. You were saved by a wizard like guy named Maze and taken the the Hero's guild where you are trained to become a hero. While your at the Hero's guild you go through a tutorial that teaches you the stuff you need to know about the game. After this tutorial you are released into the world of Albion. The only way to progress in the story line is by finishing quests that you can accept at the Hero's Guild. With each and ever quest you learn more about the story and your family. There is alot you can do in the world of Albion. You can go crazy and go on killing rampages, or you can settle down and get married. The amazing thing is that you can get married to a man if you want to, yes they have homosexual NPCs in that game. Depending on what you do, determines on how people view you. If you've committed alot of crimes, people will run in fear from you. If you help people and complete alot of quests, people will cheer for you in your presence. Also the ladies will adore you :). For you cheap bastards out there, you can also rob houses and steal stuff from shops. The world of Albion is a beautiful place but, I wish it was a little bigger. there are alot of areas but they're pretty small. The A.I. of the enemies could be better also, I only died once or twice in this game, and that's because I didn't have any potions. I also wish that there was more you could do in the game. The story of the game could be a lot less linear too. There are very few quests that have a bad side to it where you can help the bad guys instead of fight them. So basically, this game has a great and immersive experience, and great character development. In the sequel, I wish there could be better A.I., a bigger world, a less linear story line, and more I can do. 
