Fable: The Lost Chapters Review

"Chicken chaser… He chases chickens!" Well of course he does. In fact he could be Assassin, Ranger, Druid or even Avatar for all he likes. He can grow horns or have an angel ring over his head. Be the ultimate hero. Simply a trader could even suffice. Oh, wait a second that "he" is just …You!

A boy in the days of old. Dreaming in day of glory and war. As fire and blood renders his village nothing but torn. By a wizard he was saved to become a Hero with a bow, magic and sword. Vowing for vengeance he set to save the world. As the path of evil and good begins to unfold. For greatness he is destined to be, that is how the story began to be.

As you can see Fable does have its way of telling things. Don't expect poetry though. But most definitely the way of telling the story itself is immersive.  As you see the painted glass, statues and the walls telling the story moving from one phase to another. For I have mentioned it, you begin as a little boy at the Heroes Guild - a place where all Heroes gather. A place that helps children to uncover the power within themselves. After going through the childhood phase (which is demonstrated in a tutorial) you are given a choice to enter your teen age. In your teens pretty much the same thing applies, until you are given the choice of becoming an adult. That is then when you start getting your freedom. To be more precise that is when the true story begins to unfold.

What is a Hero without fighting talents? Fighting in Fable is extraordinary, following the same system as in Devil May Cry. There is this counter called Combat Multiplier. Hitting enemies with successive hits without being hit yourself will result in higher multipliers. Making such a process easy is the three types of combat available. Will spells, archery, and finally the traditional sword melee combat. You are given the freedom to use whatever you want to aid you in killing your foes.

You can use one of them solely or combine any of them. Aside from the various spells that range from the standard fireball, lightning strike and the devastating divine fury, there is a special hit for melee combat users called a Flourish. Flourish will allow you to hit an enemy even if he is in defensive stand. It is an unblockable hit, unlocked once your weapon glows bluish after hitting opponents without being hit for a short time. Not to leave the ranged users without any special effects they added a zoom in for Bows as well as a hood shot. Aiming at an opponent's head and shooting a strong arrow will behead them.

As you can see from the start Fable isn't your average RPG. In facts it excels in many ways; one of them is the ability to choose a path whether it is evil, good or just neutral. Do a lot of bad deeds, killing innocent people, stealing, killing guards and just taking the evil side of a quest (quests are available in both flavours, helping the bandits kill the trader or help the guards defend the traders killing the bandits). Of course as you save people, help them around and take the good side of quests you will become more renowned as a good hero (Renown is the like glory points which will increase as people know you more and you take up harder quests). Neutral however is somewhat the harder issue, as balancing between good and bad deeds needs mastering a little.

After being imported over from the Xbox, the game had a revamp in graphics. The eye candy is very pleasing and you won't help but notice the marvellous environments and beautiful scenes in those medieval places. The sounds are nothing but the best, helping you really to delve deeper into the world of Fable. Changing the theme to somewhat threatening once you are discovered by an enemy or enter a fight.  Though sounds tend to repeat as they are assigned by areas, they are quite long tracks that will rarely bore you.  The game received an update of content when it was imported from the Xbox. Not only music and graphics, but also in story as well.

The AI looks good with enemies finding alternative paths to get to you. However, it was impressive how the higher ranks in bandits for example, stand aside and sometimes lend a hand while the other common thugs try to take you down.

Fable is one of those few games that does please you and offer you a Utopia of a game. Almost no flaws have annoyed me. The variety is well preserved as in every RPG. However, don't let yourself go around by the name Chicken Chaser or Piemaster while you are a 60 year old hero married to 15 girls and a man.