Horrendously Ugly, Numbingly Simple, Frustratingly Clunky, and Surprisingly Racist - Fable Anniversary with my partner was a blast, for mostly the wrong reasons. Its... Complicated.
Not the game, mind you - For how much Fable attempts to wear its ambitions on its sleeve, a vast majority of its numerous mechanics feel under-baked, unbalanced, and as though they could have been cut or heavily altered without much consequence.
Specifically, while mechanics such as the passage of time, your character's physical appearance being modified by your in-game habits, the entire morality system, and the way you interact with NPCs feel core to the Fable identity, there isn't a single one of those mechanics that hadn't already been done more successfully elsewhere, with some of those games even doing more than one of those at a time. Even though it's is an easy and almost unfair card to play, Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic's NPC interaction and relationship building and physical appearance-altering morality system was already being praised a whole year before the original Fable's release.
Still, I suppose Shallow Gimmicks That Aren't Implemented All That Well is Fable's thing.
Fans of the franchise will note its charm and sense of whimsy and humor - Fable certainly attempts to be a humorous game, and to its credit it is genuinely funny at times.
BUT
The vast majority of the most hilarious parts of the game are certainly.... Not "unintentional" - that seems to not give proper credit to the game's systems - but Unscripted. Having my character become gradually more attractive or scary and hearing the citizens of Albion isn't very immersive, but it is ridiculously funny. Not being able to visit the local tavern without being bombarded by 8 NPCs all shouting the same 3 voice lines, sometimes in sync with one another, is a riot. The local barber being unable to run away in hysteric fear at max volume but still agreeing to give me one of 6 awful haircuts is a hoot-and-a-half. Accidentally one-shotting a friendly NPC because of the busted ass targeting system immediately causes an eruption of laughter, without fail.
It's awesome.
When the game isn't so absurd-its-entertaining, which is admittedly not very frequent, Fable really shows its colors of being a basic, janky, and butt-ugly RPG experience. Combat isn't particularly fun, nor is it at all balanced or functional. Romancing NPCs is a matter of spamming buttons until you get a black screen with the same awkward line of sex dialogue repeated more than thrice. Exploring the world map is functionally walking down endless forks and hallways bookended by loading screens, and while the levelling up/experience system feels fairly unique, there's a very limited amount of actually-useful applications of what you spend your progression toward.
As a moment-to-moment action video game, there's really not much to Fable. None of the characters or the story is even that complex, interesting, or even competently told. And even on a bigger scope, Fable is a limited amusement park for gimmicks by the bucketful that aren't satisfying on their own. But somehow, against all odds, despite so much of the game being dull and Not Good, the entirety of the experience has been one of my most memorable in recent times. It was almost hypnotic, and I constantly wanted to revisit it when I wasn't playing it, despite easily becoming frustrated, confused, or bored when I was playing it.
I haven't played the Original Xbox version, so I can't really comment on how faithful of a remaster Anniversary is, but a remaster of an original Xbox title on the Xbox 360 in 2014 - The Xbox One's sophomore year - is boggling, and the results don't really justify its existence either. Fable Anniversary is not only hands down one of the ugliest games I've ever played, but it also runs awfully, and is filled with technical problems. Whether these latter 2 qualities are retained from the original or not is irrelevant to me. They stink. Even if i can adjust to the nauseating art style, the performance and bugs can make Fable Anniversary a chore to play, saying nothing of the actual game design.
Lastly, the one other unforgivable, un-adjustable fault of the game is it's so blatantly racist attitudes and themes. These are so obvious to me, that I'm genuinely bewildered at the lack of discussion around it. Having maximum "good" morality results in your character having white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes, while having maximum "evil" morality results in the character having cracked black skin.
Typical morality-driven colorism aside, the base game's 3 non-white character consist of 2 rival characters that you spend the entire game proving your superiority over, while the 3rd is a stereotypically labeled "exotic" sex worker.
Less than uh, stellar representation. Even in 2004.
Fable's thematic focus on a heavily heteronormative, white male hero power fantasy might not make this very surprising for some, and it's certainly not the only area that Fable has not aged well in, it sticks out like a sore thumb and is incredibly unwelcome.
All in all, Fable is very much Not Great, but it is entertaining and intriguing just enough to have me wanting to check out the next 2 mainline games.
Certainly one takeaway I have is that Playground Game's upcoming Fable reboot has its work cut out for them, and surpassing on the original's ideas and themes should be no sweat for the Forza Horizon veterans.
Not the game, mind you - For how much Fable attempts to wear its ambitions on its sleeve, a vast majority of its numerous mechanics feel under-baked, unbalanced, and as though they could have been cut or heavily altered without much consequence.
Specifically, while mechanics such as the passage of time, your character's physical appearance being modified by your in-game habits, the entire morality system, and the way you interact with NPCs feel core to the Fable identity, there isn't a single one of those mechanics that hadn't already been done more successfully elsewhere, with some of those games even doing more than one of those at a time. Even though it's is an easy and almost unfair card to play, Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic's NPC interaction and relationship building and physical appearance-altering morality system was already being praised a whole year before the original Fable's release.
Still, I suppose Shallow Gimmicks That Aren't Implemented All That Well is Fable's thing.
Fans of the franchise will note its charm and sense of whimsy and humor - Fable certainly attempts to be a humorous game, and to its credit it is genuinely funny at times.
BUT
The vast majority of the most hilarious parts of the game are certainly.... Not "unintentional" - that seems to not give proper credit to the game's systems - but Unscripted. Having my character become gradually more attractive or scary and hearing the citizens of Albion isn't very immersive, but it is ridiculously funny. Not being able to visit the local tavern without being bombarded by 8 NPCs all shouting the same 3 voice lines, sometimes in sync with one another, is a riot. The local barber being unable to run away in hysteric fear at max volume but still agreeing to give me one of 6 awful haircuts is a hoot-and-a-half. Accidentally one-shotting a friendly NPC because of the busted ass targeting system immediately causes an eruption of laughter, without fail.
It's awesome.
When the game isn't so absurd-its-entertaining, which is admittedly not very frequent, Fable really shows its colors of being a basic, janky, and butt-ugly RPG experience. Combat isn't particularly fun, nor is it at all balanced or functional. Romancing NPCs is a matter of spamming buttons until you get a black screen with the same awkward line of sex dialogue repeated more than thrice. Exploring the world map is functionally walking down endless forks and hallways bookended by loading screens, and while the levelling up/experience system feels fairly unique, there's a very limited amount of actually-useful applications of what you spend your progression toward.
As a moment-to-moment action video game, there's really not much to Fable. None of the characters or the story is even that complex, interesting, or even competently told. And even on a bigger scope, Fable is a limited amusement park for gimmicks by the bucketful that aren't satisfying on their own. But somehow, against all odds, despite so much of the game being dull and Not Good, the entirety of the experience has been one of my most memorable in recent times. It was almost hypnotic, and I constantly wanted to revisit it when I wasn't playing it, despite easily becoming frustrated, confused, or bored when I was playing it.
I haven't played the Original Xbox version, so I can't really comment on how faithful of a remaster Anniversary is, but a remaster of an original Xbox title on the Xbox 360 in 2014 - The Xbox One's sophomore year - is boggling, and the results don't really justify its existence either. Fable Anniversary is not only hands down one of the ugliest games I've ever played, but it also runs awfully, and is filled with technical problems. Whether these latter 2 qualities are retained from the original or not is irrelevant to me. They stink. Even if i can adjust to the nauseating art style, the performance and bugs can make Fable Anniversary a chore to play, saying nothing of the actual game design.
Lastly, the one other unforgivable, un-adjustable fault of the game is it's so blatantly racist attitudes and themes. These are so obvious to me, that I'm genuinely bewildered at the lack of discussion around it. Having maximum "good" morality results in your character having white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes, while having maximum "evil" morality results in the character having cracked black skin.
Typical morality-driven colorism aside, the base game's 3 non-white character consist of 2 rival characters that you spend the entire game proving your superiority over, while the 3rd is a stereotypically labeled "exotic" sex worker.
Less than uh, stellar representation. Even in 2004.
Fable's thematic focus on a heavily heteronormative, white male hero power fantasy might not make this very surprising for some, and it's certainly not the only area that Fable has not aged well in, it sticks out like a sore thumb and is incredibly unwelcome.
All in all, Fable is very much Not Great, but it is entertaining and intriguing just enough to have me wanting to check out the next 2 mainline games.
Certainly one takeaway I have is that Playground Game's upcoming Fable reboot has its work cut out for them, and surpassing on the original's ideas and themes should be no sweat for the Forza Horizon veterans.