Audio Albion
From the first note, any gamer worth his or her thumb calluses will recognize the tell-tale tones of the masterful, Oscar-winning composer Danny Elfman. Mixer Dennis Sands and Elfman (of Batman, Beetlejuice, Good Will Hunting, and countless other films as well as the seminal eighties rock group Oingo Boingo) provide the haunting and undeniably catchy intro music for Peter Molyneaux's epic new roleplaying game (RPG), Fable®. And, the music couldn't be more appropriate for the game. In fact, it's stuck in my head as I type this, and I don't even mind. As a long-time Elfman fan, I give it a 9.5! (My only 10 goes to Batman.)
A full moon, an Elfman score, and Fable.
Elfman isn't the only artist that adds to the subtly crucial aural atmosphere of Fable. The incidental music is what you'll be hearing more than anything, and it's spot-on perfect. Thanks to composer Russell Shaw, every area and town has its own subtly changed background music. Elements of this music can tell you if you're feared, signal if danger is imminent, and most of all, add the right tension, mystery, and drama to key scenes.
In-game music adds mystery and awe.
But, Fable's audioscape isn't just about the fantastic music. The game's sound effects, guided by composer Shaw (with Crag Beattie and John Silke), are crisp, varied, funny, frightening … and in full Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound! A great example of all the sound elements coming together is the Fist Fighter's tournament. (In four towns—Oakvale, Bowerstone South, the Bandit Camp, and Knothole Glade—you can duke it out in the ring for fun and profit.) Once in the ring, the fight music swells, adding even more tension to the one-on-one, Shatner-iffic combat. If you dodge, you'll hear the crunch of the dirt as you roll out of the way of an oncoming fist. If you throw a punch, you can immediately tell from the sound of the impact whether you connected or whether you need to block a riposte from your foe. All the while, the crowd reacts to your fighting style with approval or disapproval, depending on your methods.
Kids say the darnedest things in Fable.
Perhaps the most entertaining audio element of Fable, especially for an American audience, is that nearly every character speaks with a distinct accent from somewhere in the United Kingdom. Even the subtitles for the dialog are full of u’s and c’s where you wouldn't expect them. And, that dialog is touching, hilarious, and even creepy. I've put in nearly 50 hours on this game, and I've heard thousands of lines of recorded dialog—and I'm still hearing things I haven't noticed before.
For example, run past a crowd of bad kids out past their curfew in Bowerstone, stop, and break wind (a magnificent sound effect in and of itself, I might add). Some kids will say you look like a monster, but I swear 80 percent of them will swoon. As another example, my character got married to a woman who liked presents. Big on greed, she was. I took off for some adventuring and forgot about her, and when I returned, I could tell from just the tone of her voice that she wouldn't be inviting me back to the boudoir.
Yes, your character can have intimate relations with his lawfully married spouse (or spouses), but there's nothing graphic about it. In some of the cleverest use of sound in Fable, the screen goes black when you and your baby head back to the love shack. Instead, you just hear sounds that should be good for the ego of any longtime RPG gamer.
"Come over here and say that to my face!"
But, why listen to me? Fable's well-written dialog speaks for itself. Here are some favorites:
"I know you’re the Piemaster, I've seen you eating pies!"
—Said by a Bowerstone kid after I paid good money for the nickname "Piemaster" and ate a dozen pies in the center of town.
"That's an awful crime, no matter who you are."
—You'll hear this from any nearby villager or trader if you begin to cut loose with the ultraviolence on an innocent.
"Oh, uh, that? How did that get there?"
—This backpedaling is courtesy of a non-playable character (NPC) hiding a stolen item in plain sight.
"Sorry, I don't bat for that team."
—Said by a longshoreman of the straight and male variety that didn't appreciate a bit of flirting from a big, beefy hero with tattoos.
And, finally, if you get married and then proceed to get lucky, you might hear some of the following lines from the wives available:
"You must have used your Will on me!"
—Bowerstone South wife (the easy one).
"You're a hero in more ways than one."
—Bowerstone North wife (the rich one).
"Just call me Mrs. Hero!"
—Oakvale wife (the celibate one).
Article by Danny Chihdo
