Brute Fable
“Think you can beat me, farm boy?”
—An unsuspecting tough guy before meeting Hardcore’s hammer.
You've run aground at the Hardcorner, where I've been embroiled in an advance build of the amazing new roleplaying game Fable®, a game that offers something for everyone, regardless of gaming style. That, of course, includes combat-crazy berserkers on brutal missions that test strength, resolve, and your health meter in an incredibly smooth and functional combat system that never lets up or freezes for lengthy contemplation. This week, I drop the hammer with combat tips and strategies for a particularly difficult kill-happy quest.
Hardcore Fable means violence is on the menu.
The Flourish of Melee Combat
The Fable combat system is deceptively simple and nicely integrated with magic. (Just because you're a muscle-bound Herculean menace doesn't mean you won't want a strength-enhancing spell or timely fireball now and then.) Your main attack button is X; you block or dodge (with the left stick) by hitting Y; and you perform a "flourish move" with B. The flourish is key to fighting successfully and to stringing together combos that build up your combat multipliers. Your combat multipliers get you more experience and help you do more damage, and in at least one case, a high combat multiplier will even open a secret door.
Here's how it works: You're in heavy melee combat with a foe (or, more likely, a group of foes), and you're blocking and dodging at the right times and have gotten in a few hits with X. You'll hear a little sparkling noise and the weapon will start to glow once you string a set of strikes and blocks together. Congratulations, you're ready for a flourish! Keep dodging or blocking as needed. (The flourish attack does leave you open to a pre-emptive counterattack from fast enemies, even if they can't block it.) Then, hit B when you've got a clear shot, making sure you target the nearest enemy with the left trigger. If the strike doesn't kill the foe outright, you'll get a knockdown.
If you haven't been hit or haven't missed with your flourish, you can turn to the next enemy and flourish again … and again … and again. As you do this, your combat multiplier will go crazy, easily getting into the twenties or beyond. If you get hit and lose your flourish power, just return to normal combat and get it working for you again.
If you're using the Berzerker spell, you're sort of on perma-flourish, so don't bother trying to Flourish. It won't work. (But that spell won't last forever.)
Melee enemies making you furious. Go berserk!
Save the Archaeologist
This quest very nearly drove me into controller-tossing fits. It's a seriously grueling mission that makes you save an important story line character—the Archaeologist—from evil creeps called Minions. Minions come in two primary flavors:
- Spell casters that toss up magical barriers and pummel you with explosive ranged attacks; and
- Mighty brutes that will flank you and attack from all directions with massive, double-bladed swords.
(By the way, the spell casters are no slouches in melee combat either). Protect the guards that come along to help you—even if you'd normally gut them like dogs at the first opportunity, you evil roleplayer—and you and the Archaeologist might just survive to see what happens next …
Reach the pier before the bad guys get him!
You'll start at the entrance to Bowerstone jail, in North Bowerstone. (To get into the North part of this town, you'll need to prove your worth in other areas.) A guard tells you that the Archaeologist has been taken, and just like that, you and the guards are in fierce fighting with the Minions.
First and foremost, protect that guard! If you've got the Heal spell, use it near him and restore some health for both of you. You'll need him for the last section of the quest, which is timed. Finishing the last chunk of this quest is darn near impossible without help from the constabulary.
Now, fight your way to the Minion spell caster, who has created a barrier. Kill him and move through to the next area, where there's more fighting and ambushes. Fight hard, keep watching the guards on your side, and they'll keep watching your back. You'll still probably need to finish the Minions off.
Finally, you'll reach the top of a cliff and get a cutscene warning you that the Minions have very nearly absconded with the Archaeologist. You have five minutes that are going to go by really, really fast …
Head down the path as fast as possible, leaving stragglers and wounded enemies for your guard allies to finish off. This will force all of the enemies onto the dock, where they can be taken out en masse with flourish strikes and area spells.
Dont forget to collect lots of loot from all those barrels you didnt have time to smash and grab a goodie out of the chest on one side of the pier.
Article by Hardcore
