Fable: The Lost Chapters - Review
Added October 25th, 2005 by Sallizar
Introduction:
The videogame industry seems to have picked up a bad habit from its Hollywood friends. I’m sure we’ve all picked up a DVD release of a movie and thought “Maybe I should wait for the Director’s Cut/Special Edition that is bound to be released in a few months.'' It seems as if console gaming has caught on to this trend with two major re-releases these past couple of weeks: Ninja Gaiden: Black and Fable the Lost Chapters. I’ve been meaning to replay Fable as an evil doer, so, trusty controller in hand, I once again venture forth as the Hero of Albion.
Gameplay:
Fable the Lost Chapters is a “Director’s Cut” version of the original Fable. Released as a Platinum Hit, it attempts to flesh out the original game with the addition of new content. The focus of the game remains on creating a unique hero that either seeks to bring about peace and happiness to the land or a villain that leaves discord and destruction in his wake. The game mechanics and the morality system from the original game remain unchanged. It seems that Lionhead has followed the old axiom “If it ain’t broke, add stuff to it and repackage it to acquire more cash!” Kind of like when they add new flavors to Fruit Loops.
The videogame industry seems to have picked up a bad habit from its Hollywood friends. I’m sure we’ve all picked up a DVD release of a movie and thought “Maybe I should wait for the Director’s Cut/Special Edition that is bound to be released in a few months.'' It seems as if console gaming has caught on to this trend with two major re-releases these past couple of weeks: Ninja Gaiden: Black and Fable the Lost Chapters. I’ve been meaning to replay Fable as an evil doer, so, trusty controller in hand, I once again venture forth as the Hero of Albion.
Gameplay:
Fable the Lost Chapters is a “Director’s Cut” version of the original Fable. Released as a Platinum Hit, it attempts to flesh out the original game with the addition of new content. The focus of the game remains on creating a unique hero that either seeks to bring about peace and happiness to the land or a villain that leaves discord and destruction in his wake. The game mechanics and the morality system from the original game remain unchanged. It seems that Lionhead has followed the old axiom “If it ain’t broke, add stuff to it and repackage it to acquire more cash!” Kind of like when they add new flavors to Fruit Loops.
The original Fable was billed as the one RPG to rule them all. It didn’t quite fulfill that, but it is a great action RPG that helps fill a very empty genre on the Xbox. The story begins in the familiar “Oh no, bandits killed my family, I must have vengeance!” cliché that has caught us all hook, line, and sinker before. From there it is fairly straight forward without any really surprising twists or turns, but it’s enough plot to keep you interested. Besides embarking on the quests to advance the story there are various side quests that net you extra experience points and flesh out some of the supporting cast’s back stories.
All this is strung together by the game’s fairly basic, yet somehow compelling, combat system. Melee skills consist of basic hits, flourishes (power hits) and blocking. Archers can lock on and fire or enter 1st person mode to do some sniping. Using spells consists of pulling the right trigger to change the face buttons to your quick spells and hammering the appropriate buttons. On paper it sounds fairly basic, but the ease of switching from one mode to other is what makes every battle enjoyable. One can easily cull a group of enemies by firing a few volleys of arrows, move in for some hack and slash action then launch a launch a wave of fire in all directions to clear the mob that has by now surrounded the hero. That’s just one example of how I’ve approached combat. I played the game entirely differently when I reviewed the original, which just goes to show the phenomenal depth in what appears on the surface to be a fairly basic brawler.
“Excuse me sir, could you please drop off at for me?” Apparently, when the team at Lionhead added new outfits for the Lost Chapters they forgot the FedEx uniform. Most of the new quests involve going from point A to point B, dropping something off, killing the recipient if you’re playing as an evil hero, then running back to point A. It’s pretty standard fare for an RPG, but it just amounts to more busy work between the main story missions. Thankfully, these side quests are not just tacked on. You’ll bump into all sorts of new characters as you travel around Albion that will burden you with these new quests. It makes the world seem much larger and more active then the original release, and while they aren’t always the most exciting missions it does extend the gameplay.
Most of the new side quests result in obtaining new weapons and outfits that aren’t available in the original. This amounts to your hero carrying around a bunch of silly looking hats, a few shiny new blades and bows and sporting some new tattoos. Along with fighting new bosses and exploring new areas, you also get to peddle hallucinogens and run a whore house! Where’s the media outrage when you need it!
Graphics:
Not much has changed from the original Fable when it comes to graphics. Lionhead has created a very lifelike, lived in fantasy world that at times is breathtaking to behold. Character models are well designed and interesting, but you do seem to keep running into the same looking people in each and every town. Score another win for medieval aristocratic inbreeding. The new areas and items all blend into the game well and do not appear tacked on at the last minute. I have noticed significantly more frame rate slow downs, and even complete freeze ups, in this version than I did in the original. Luckily, I was only wandering around and not knee deep in enemies when the game decided it was time to be a slideshow. Overall, it’s a great looking game even a year later, but I’m docking it a few tenths of a point over the original because of the slow down issues.
All this is strung together by the game’s fairly basic, yet somehow compelling, combat system. Melee skills consist of basic hits, flourishes (power hits) and blocking. Archers can lock on and fire or enter 1st person mode to do some sniping. Using spells consists of pulling the right trigger to change the face buttons to your quick spells and hammering the appropriate buttons. On paper it sounds fairly basic, but the ease of switching from one mode to other is what makes every battle enjoyable. One can easily cull a group of enemies by firing a few volleys of arrows, move in for some hack and slash action then launch a launch a wave of fire in all directions to clear the mob that has by now surrounded the hero. That’s just one example of how I’ve approached combat. I played the game entirely differently when I reviewed the original, which just goes to show the phenomenal depth in what appears on the surface to be a fairly basic brawler.
“Excuse me sir, could you please drop off
