Welcome to a new edition of Modern Gaming and this time around I will write for Retro Gamer about one of my favorite games. To begin, I go by the name of Brave Little Engine (don't ask as its going be a long story). Yes, Retro asked me to do a review from the modern era so we'll be checking out one of my favorite RPGs called Fable. Originally, Fable got released on Xbox and PC in 2004 and saw development from the defunct Lionhead Studio under Microsoft. I remember the day fondly upon beating Fable for Xbox as it was Thanksgiving in the early afternoon. It's one of the first few games I have completed and a memorable one. A sense of awe came upon me while watching the credits roll down with that heroic music playing and till this day sounds amazing. I never experienced a game like it before; I mean choosing my path to become good or evil?! It felt so open to me that it made putting the game down really hard. Nostalgia aside let me get more into detail of this rough little gem. Of course, this is the re-release as Fable: The Lost Chapters for PC which adds more to the original experience. It includes new items, extra equipment, story, quests, monsters, chests and even another final boss which I have completed as well. Gameplay It's an action RPG where you fight enemies through an open environment in a third person perspective. In most situations, you will be fighting a decent number of them at once. These enemies ranges from wasps to werewolves, and many other creatures of fantasy mythos. You have a main weapon and an off-hand; you can use a sword and a shield, two-handed weapons, war hammers, great swords, staves, daggers, bows and maces as the standard weaponry in these fantasy games. Combat/Combat modifiers: Combat is self-explanatory; you block with a shield, swing with a sword and dodge attacks, use magic and ECT. It still feels pretty good to fight in a more traditional way. The attacks have a good feel to them, and the pace is great for each blow that felt spot on. The zoom feature is also helpful as it lets you aim with the bow. Casting magic spells can make you feel awesome as it can feel very impactful when facing a group of baddies. The lock on is a bit odd as I don’t know if that’s just me, but switching between enemies still is fast and accurate. When attacking several foes in succession, your modifier will go up, the more modifiers the player has the more exp they will get. You will do this a lot to grind, but it helps fight large groups of enemies with the player bouncing between them to keep up the streak. I found this very fun, a nice little challenge trying to push the gamer in me to get a higher number. Another plus comes from the bonus experience which helps in many ways. You have Mana (known as will), and health which can both be replenished with potions that are actually crafted or bought at stores. Every time you defeat an enemy, little green orbs of experience pop out that get picked up automatically. These get used to level up or increase stat points. You will be doing missions from the Heroes Guild and is the main meat of the game. Each quest offers money, items, and experience as a reward. Another thing is that good or bad points depend on which side of the quest you'll do. Stealth: When it comes to stealth, the options of hiding and avoiding enemies and NPCs, stealing or just being a well-rounded creep is at your disposal. Stealing is very useful in the gameplay since this mechanic can get potions, money, armor, weapons, tattoos, hair styles and beards. It's really easy, as long as no one sees you're stealing then this is a breeze. Get yourself in just the right position and you could steal even with them staring right at you. The gameplay mechanic obviously is not much of a challenge, and it's no different in most games of its kind. Unfortunately, the stealth command is really lacking as the only features include stealing and sneaking. If you get caught, a guard will approach the player and ask for a fee. However, when refusing, the game will force you to fight your way to the next warp pad. The Guards will always keep spawning which eventually they will get tougher. In gaming tradition the change of armor color will tell them apart. When reaching a high level it doesn’t really matter how many come they are easy to kill. At the lower to mid levels they will be a hassle so either get to the Warp pad or death is the only way out. Alignment: With the alignment mechanic, the actions the hero does along the journey affects how the world sees you. The more nice things you do will reward with “good” points as the people will be adore and trusted as the hero. Get enough evil points will turn the hero into a villain and become the most hated and distrusted person people will fear. That also affects your Renown, which impacts the player's path as a hero or villain. The feature will increase throughout the main objective with completing quests. Your physical appearance even changes such as when at max evil, devil horns protrude from your head. The skin becomes pale, it bursts with black cracks and your eyes glow a bloody red. When you’re max at good, the hair becomes white, the eyes glow blue and a halo appears above the hero's head. There are also temples which become great places to grind either of the alignments. Avo is the good temple and donating money to the sacunory gives you good points so more funds leads to extra experience. Skorm is the evil temple as it’s unique trait is only accepting sacrifices and asking you to lure victims into this vile place. By performing these sacrifices will in turn award evil points from their deaths. The follow and stay commands are a bit janky in several instances. I had issues with them getting stuck on a terrain or would just stop following after a bit. I remember making two to follow once which got me extra evil points. Don’t even feel bad about the victims because they are really full of stupidity. To come across this dumb by following an evil-looking guy into the dark dangerous marsh at night are asking for trouble. Quests: The Guild will give you missions as soon as the graduation cut scene ends. There are these Golden quests which will progress the story. The silver ones are the typical run of the mill adventures that don’t have much relevance to the main quest. For the bronze quests they act as optional adventures to take on. Each mission gives the player items, exp and money, but the Golden quests have bigger rewards. The main missions will sometimes give the option to pick a side, a bad or good version. A girl named Whisper, who trained within the Guild alongside the Hero, will usually take the other side just trying to outdo you. I find it funny how a girl whose father is a renown hero will do low, and petty things just to show you up. All the errands are pretty interesting, even the bronze quests have cool stories and locations. They did a really good job with the quest system as its simple, but simplicity can feel too good. Kind of like Skyrim, the side quests are their own thing, something interesting and fun to explore. There is also boasting. There will be a platform right outside the Guild to stand on and that gives the option to boast on how awesome, and badass you are. There is some boasting like “don’t use potions, killing everything under 30 seconds, or don’t get hit”. These small challenges give the character bonus rewards after completing the quests. If you fail, then normal rewards are still offered…and the people will boo you. I tried this a couple of times, but it never really engaged me or compelled myself to take part in them. It is optional after all, but those bonuses could be nice so maybe on my next play through I will give them more of a try. You can also get trophies for killing fearsome creatures, like the first ‘boss’ was a big wasp. The reward is getting a big Wasp head so it can act as a constant reminder of how much you hate bees! (Please don’t hate the bees? ). Also for boasting, showing the heads of things you killed makes people happy apparently. Story The plot might still come from an old game, but still I will not spoil that much of the story. The jest of it is you are a young farm boy living with your family in a small town. One day bandits attack the small town killing almost everyone including the boy’s parents; and taking his sister away. He is left crying in the wreckage, until a curious mage appears and takes him from the horrors to somewhere safe. The boy gets brought to a guild named The Heroes' Guild that teaches to inspire youths on how to become “Heroes”. He grows up in this guild, learning how to use a weapon with a vast array of skills and magic. It's all with the intention of becoming strong enough to get revenge for his family and find his lost sister. Eventually, he graduates, becomes an official Guild Member and off he goes into the world to make a name for himself. Marriage/Sexuality: Find someone you fancy? Get married of course! Flirt with them using expressions and jesters to get their attention and then give them a gift. You can give outfits, perfume, roses, and chocolate until you buy that wedding ring and propose. It obviously could take a bit, but just keep the gift giving. Your spouse will buy stuff for you and gift it and the player can do the same for their soul mate that makes them very happy. Sex as well, again gives gifts and eventually they will glow green. They will also say something about going to bed and wanting you to join them. There is no cut-scene for the sex just a black screen and very, very suggestive talking and moaning. In all honesty, the marriage lacks something; it’s just kind of there. Nothing changes aside from now having a spouse; you could leave that person behind without a care in the world. Go to the next town then knock up the next person and marry them. Marriage is a cute little thing to do I guess, but it needed more depth. If there were more compelling ways to make my spouse happy, and not just put out, and give gifts, could've made things interesting. You can also be straight, bisexual or homosexual to really anyone in the game. It tracks things like sex, orientation, marital status and attractiveness. For the homosexual option, the men in this game don’t look great but not unattractive either. They are not well-known for their handsome knight looks but more like the balding middle-aged man type. It's the first game where I could choose the sexuality. I didn’t even know that was an option until figuring that you could flirt with some of the male NPCs. It definitely made this an interesting concept to explore this, but you can’t have children. In fact, I don't recall a game that gave the players this option and not even other WRPGs like Elder Scrolls gave such a feature. Attractiveness/Scariness: Certain armor, hair styles, tattoos and effects on the body say how attractive, or scary you come off. If you wear lighter colored cloths or armor than people will see the hero as a nice, good person like a noble, gaining attractive points. Of course, being helpful to others adds to it. Now, dress in black clothes, or armor will cause people to fear or distrust you which gains scary points. Some tattoos also abide by this rule so be wary of which ones you pick. Killing and doing all kinds of evil deeds also count if the player seeks the villain path. The armor is this game is kind of ridiculous looking, but in a good way. Even equipment like big boots, large scary helmets and huge ass gauntlets can all look good when it fits. Scars make your more attractive as well, but older age, and obesity does not. Just stay fit and healthy, and you will be the sexiest man in Albion. Stats/Leveling: Physical (red) increases your strength, Will (blue) enhances magic and Skill (yellow) will make your ranged/stealth grow. Any physical attacks, magic, or hits from a bow you deliver will give you exp points towards those skills. These attributes increases the Strength stat which allows for wielding heavy weapons and armors and hammers and great axes for the big burly things. There is Health which increases your life gauge, Toughness that adds to your defense (physical and magical) and Physique boosts how much melee damage is often dealt. The physique also makes the Hero look big and muscular when gaining more points. There is a general exp which is green, as stated above which is useful to level up all the other statuses as well. Let’s say you have 900 red exp, but the next state increases, or gives ability a 1000 points. You can use some green exp to provide an extra boost and in this case 100 more points. There are physical spells that can cast like shield, berserk and heal life. The shield protects from hits, Berserk increases speed and strength, and heal life drains Mana for more health. For those of you who are very stealthy out there instead of smashing the enemies. Mainly focus around bows, and stealth like sneaking around. Speed increases your melee and ranged attack rates and Accuracy is for racking points in damage with bows and crossbows. The feature Guile allows merchants to give you deals on buying and selling items (lower prices, increased profit). Mana and spells for all! There are a decent number of spells from your typical fire and lightning to conjuring magic arrows and magic swords. There are in addition, Magical shields that block both physical and ranged/magic attacks. Let's not forget the spells that slow down time, one that allows you to force push and of course, healing and many others. Another thing when putting enough points into Will can give you misty white hair and runes that cover your body. The runes and tattoos will even glow blue providing an awesome appearance. I immensely enjoy the magic; the spells are effective and flashy. You absolutely do feel like a powerful force to reckon with. The spells can keep things away with a force push, protect yourself with a barrier and shoot lighting at them until they become dust. Miscellanies Houses: Interested in buying your own place? Houses become purchasable around Albion, at least one in each town/city. Purchasing a home is relatively easy, just make enough money to buy one, find a pleasant town that has a house opening and bingo sold! The residences are typically for storing trophies, and a place where the spouse also stays, progressive right? You can get more furniture, or upgrade your homestead via the second sign outside that appears after making your purchase. Doing this increases the house’s value if you want to sell it, or rent the place out for more money. I like buying a house in the hometown of Oakvale since it’s a nice little town. I feel that story wise the Hero wants to protect his property this time. His home went to ruin before, now you can save it and the children from a life he experienced. Demon Doors: Demon Doors are found scattered through most of the game, even in the Guild right by the waterfall. These talking stone doors demand specific things or to appease their wants. For example, if you are not a good enough person then the doors can’t let the player enter (aligning the hero with the good side). In another case, one door was often impossible to enter because I wasn’t fat enough and told me to come back when gaining weight. Its true that you will have to become obese to get in as I have never been in there once. Some also require battling a certain number of enemies in a given time, or receiving a high combat modifier (hitting in a chain). They have chests inside them that have weapons, tattoos, outfits and armor that you can only get from within. Chests/Silver Key Silver Keys and chests are scattered around the world, but finding these are very important if you want the loot. These chests require the silver keys to open with each one having a number on it that ranges from 5-30 which is how many you need to unlock them. These chests have high level items, legendary weapons and augmentations. Fishing Not the most exciting of tasks, but fishing can get sliver keys and in some cases get armor and weapons. The Fishing Competitions is a cute little, mini game with good prizes for each place. 3rd place is a new fishing rod called the Champions Rod, 2nd place is a silver key and 1st place is the Fisherman’s Hat. A hat so stylish all the girls and boys will be turning their heads and double taking. Such a grand prize indeed! As usual, the person with the biggest fish wins. Conclusion Fable has marked my way into the gaming world and I have a very special place for this in my heart. It introduced me to that feeling of completing a very good game for the first time. Between a good story, great gameplay, a believable world and a compelling aesthetic are the reasons its my favorite. The sense of open adventure to do bad or good, paving a path you decide; that’s pretty awesome for a kid. Just writing about the first Fable got me to play it again, another adventure in the world of Albion. Of course, this game isn't perfect as the first entry has its problems, and who knows maybe it’s not quite for you. The game deserves recognition because its one of the best games I ever played and always will. I have to mention this game's soundtrack and the classic fantasy music works so well for the Main Theme song. Every time I hear the Oakvale theme, goose bumps move across my skin and I can still hear the song even now just by writing about it. It just so magical, pretty much all the songs are in the entire OST. Danny Elfman is a genius; I love that man's talent for mystical fantasy music! If you don’t know who Danny Elfman is then just listen to The Nightmare before Christmas soundtrack. Score I based the score on gameplay, aesthetic, story, content and soundtrack. Gameplay: 8/10 (Fast and exciting combat, powerful magic. All mixed in with interesting rewarding quests, cool weapons and armor and a path to make your own) Aesthetic and Graphics: 7/10 (Very good, but with obvious aging) Story: 8/10 (Not the most in depth story line, but a great one, nonetheless) Content: 8/10 (All the extra-TLC adds to this game as it's pretty big with a lot to do) Soundtrack: 9/10 (Just Awesome). I really recommend giving Fable a shot, and it really is good fun. It will scratch that itch for those classic fantasy RPG fans. It’s just ten dollars on Steam and worth every penny and if not more. Total 9/10
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Brave Little eNGINEBrave has nearly 25 years of gaming experience from his time picking up an Super NES controller for the first time to gaming on his PS4 and WiiU. He has played from the usual classics to some of the best the modern era has to offer. ArchivesCategoriesThe social media icon images and Vector Designs by Vecteezy, Medium and Onextrapixel
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