X-Factor
PC gamers have long been spoiled by designer Peter Molyneux's ambitious titles. His past projects have included the critically acclaimed Black & White and Populous—both "god games" in which players control the fates of many. Now, this influential designer is teaming up with studio Big Blue Box to craft the next great roleplaying game (RPG) for Xbox®, titled Fable®. Whereas games like Populous allowed you to play god, Fable puts you in control of your own destiny.
When the story starts out, our hero's village is being ransacked by invaders. The hero is then separated from his family and left to the mercy of barbarians. Now, he's an orphan and (without spoiling the story) he ends up at the Heroes Guild, where he becomes a warrior in training.
Though his clothing matches those of his fellow students, something is strangely different about our hero. He masters combat training and spell casting far more quickly than the other students, and his mentors take notice. Over the course of his life, a deeper meaning to his existence is revealed through the choices he makes in the process of completing quest after quest. Does he choose the path of good or evil? The choice is yours; however, with every action comes a consequence.
At this point, you might be thinking that this sounds like a fairly standard RPG story. "What’s all the fuss about?" you might be asking. Well, we had a chance to sit down with an early build of the game, and for starters, Fable is not about a single quest. It charts one man's entire life. The decisions he makes in the course of that life affect not only his performance in battle, but also his reputation and even his outward appearance. As we played the game, the numerous quests and side-quests forced us to make moral choices, and over time, this shaped our hero as a person.
When we took the path of violence, betrayal, and cruelty, our character slowly transformed from an innocent young boy into a grotesque, evil aberration. Passers-by knew from word of mouth that we were not to be trusted and responded to our character with cautious distance. (It's lonely when you're bad.)
On the flipside, when our hero followed a righteous life, he radiated kindness and beauty and was well met in his travels. This gameplay feature alone created an immersion factor that sets Fable apart from similar titles—but that's just the beginning of the game's many innovations.
A life of evil will change your appearance.
The combat system of Fable is action-based. Confrontations occur in real-time and allow you to choose from a variety of attacks, spells, and weaponry to dispatch your foes. As you pile up experience points, allocate them across a wide variety of disciplines. Fans of hack-and-slash games can bone up on their melee attacks and archery skills, while those more drawn to the occult can dabble in a host of mystic powers.
To keep combat fluid, the developers have provided a helpful targeting system to assist in thinning out crowds of attackers, whether they walk, crawl, slither, or fly. We found this particularly useful for ranged attacks and used it to make short work of bandits, while preserving our character's health. If you're going to be using ranged weapons, though, make sure to allocate some experience points to accuracy. Otherwise, your salvos will miss their mark more often than not.
Travel the world and meet new people.
The game's rich and beautiful environments include some fantastic locales, both indoor and out. From the soft beams of sunlight streaming through tree limbs to falling leaves and gently swaying branches, it's evident that the developers have paid lots of attention to detail. During some of the more sinister encounters, we found ourselves in inhospitable locations where ghostly apparitions and other-worldly demons lurked in the darkness.
Our travels through distant lands took place during day and night, since the world of Fable is as dynamic as the story—it even changes as you play! And, playing the game felt nothing like the forced "dungeon crawl" monotony of some RPGs of the past; instead, it's more like you have an alternate life, to be spent in a vital world all its own.
Boasting a healthy list of gameplay innovations, Fable is shaping up to be a promising addition to the growing list of RPGs for Xbox. We'll keep you posted with more peeks into the game as its release date draws nearer.
Article by Jim W. Gettys
