Fable is one of the most entertaining games to play from any genre...but it's short, so enjoy it while it lasts.
Fable didn't just offer the option to play bad...it encouraged it!
That's a rare thing. Other games that play with morality...KOTOR and Mass Effect come to mind, as evil as the games let you become, they still feel dictated by a necessity to play 'good enough' to fulfill the merits of the story.
Not fable. It almost seemed to BEG you to beat up the people who convinced you to get a rediculous haircut, or ran in fear from you as you approached a town.
Fable didn't judge you :)
Not to say playing naughty was the only way to go. Playing good was just as entertaining, if not quite as immediately gratifying.
The graphics had alot to do with it. Unlike games like Kotor or Mass Effect, the visuals in Fable were obviously comical, and the sights of the horror you inflicted on unsuspecting chickens or defenseless peasents was equally comical. Without that 'cartoony' look, the carnage and mischeif would not have worked so well.
The story in fable was fine...and honestly, even if it were the best story ever told, it would have still taken a backseat to the morality play in the game, and all the enjoyable ways you could live out a role as savior or sinner.
Which, thanks to little touches, begin to make your character appear more like a devil or angel, the more you lean down one path or another. Typically, i treaded somewhere in the middle, doing awful things, then kind ones, so my characters looked relatively normal.
The combat system in this game was simplified to the point of idiocy, which for most games would be a complete and utter failure, but for Fable, it simply made it more accesible to a broader audience, and encouraged players to keep on playing through, and hear the boo's or cheers of the crowd as you came home victorious.
Which, leads to the only problem I had with the game. It was short...way too short! And because of how much fun interacting with characters was, it really stood out. If there was only a way to push those corridor boundaries out a little further, opening up just a little more in the way of content, this game could have been the RPG fans version of "The Sims."
Still, in the short campaign, the game is completely entertaining, from the moment I picked up my controller, till the moment I realized in horror that it was over already. Some more quality length would have made this game a true landmark, but even with it's brevity, it was immensely satisfying, and never lost my interest.
In a life where we are generally encouraged to be good and do as we're told to encourage others to be pleased with us, it's nice when a game like Fable comes around, and genuinely encourages someone to do what they want, good or bad, for the sake of nothing more than their own enjoyment.