Review of fables

Presentation

Considering his age, Fable still looks pretty good. While some of the visuals look a little dated, the slightly cartoonish aesthetic has aged remarkably well. Where Fable shows his age is in the animations, but the effects aren’t too noticeable unless you’re looking for him.

One thing Lionhead Studios hasn’t skimped on is the music. Russell Shaw and Danny Elfman have composed a beautiful orchestral score that is an absolute joy to listen to. The opening theme really puts you in the mood for an epic fantasy adventure, and the rest of the soundtrack never fails to set the right mood for any scene.

I would never recommend playing a game just for the soundtrack, but Fable certainly comes close.

Fight

Fable divides combat into three distinct disciplines defined in the game as strength, skill and will. These translate to hand-to-hand combat, stealth / archery, and magic respectively, although there is some overlap between the first two categories. In theory, all three are equally important to the many heroes that inhabit the world of Fable, but in practice this is not the case.

Hand-to-hand combat is hugely rewarding, with a fair amount of variety of weapons and upgrades. It manages to walk the line of being simple enough for new players to understand, but with enough nuance and complexity for experienced players to exploit.

I’ve encountered a few minor balance issues, none of which significantly detracted from my enjoyment. Overall, it’s a fun and engaging experience that often kept me in suspense.

Skills

The same does not apply to archery and stealth, the “Skill” category on the leveling screen. Both are awkward to use, and neither feels worthy of the effort. Enemies are not visible until you get relatively close, which makes sniping difficult. Bows are useful for taking out lone enemies before the real fight begins, but not much else. Either way, it’s hard to get more than two or three hits before your target is in melee range.

I suspect Fable only includes stealth for the sake of completeness. It’s slow, awkward, and most of the time, just plain impractical. Most areas consist of one or two open arenas with narrow corridors branching off from them. Hence, hiding is nearly impossible about 80% of the time.

Even when you can hide, all you do is delay the fight for another 30 seconds or so. I’ve used stealth a handful of times throughout the entire game and never thought it was worth it.