Today, I'm going to tackle Fable: The Lost Chapters. (Fable: The Lost Chapters being the game that Lionhead wanted to release when Fable was released back in September of 2004, but due to time constraints, they had to chop it down. TLC gave us bug fixes and extra content at 1/5th the cost. As such, both Lionhead and I consider the TLC "expansion" the true first game, and I will be referring to this as "Fable 1".)
Now, when we talk about Fable 1, we must consider what it isn't, and what it is. Those of us who followed this game in the gaming magazines and websites know that Peter Molyneux excitedly talked about what he wanted for this game in the media, and was unable to keep to these "promises" due to technology and time constraints.
What this game isn't:
- A free roaming RPG. You have to play an Elder Scrolls game for that.
- A game where NPCs emulate your appearance.
- A game with family development (though you see this in the next two games)
- A game where your choices affect the world around you (though you see this in the next two games)
- A game with multiplayer (though you see this in the next two games)
- Overhyped by its own developer (though most of it was excitement about the ideas he had)
- A by the numbers action RPG
- Funny
- Fun
Fable 1 is a game where you play as a descendant of William Black, whom I spoke about in my last blog entry. As such, he is able to control all three Hero disciplines. It is also very cliched when it comes to its setup. It starts with our protagonist daydreaming about being a Hero, and being woken from his father and told "Hey, it's your sister's birthday! You got her a gift, right? NO? Well, for each good deed you do, I'll give you a gold piece. Use that to buy her a present." And this is is where you are introduced to movement, interacting with characters and objects, the basics of the combat system, the alignment system, and the game's sense of humor. In short, it's very British. :)
After you get your sister's gift, you go and meet her playing in the field at the edge of town. (Before you go and see her, you should go inside your house and read her diary. You learn that she's got the gift of prophesy, even at a young age.) After giving her your gift, you are just about to head back home with her when you witness a villager being murdered by bandits. Your sister screams for you to hide, you do so, and you witness the "your home is burned, your family killed cliche" cutscene, are saved by Maze of the Guild of Heroes, and go into the second phase of the opening: becoming a member of the Guild, and learning the intricacies of the combat system. It is here you get your first melee weapon, your first ranged weapon, your first spell, and the all important Guild Seal, which is crucial to the next two games; it is implied that the Guild Seal that the Fable 2 and 3 Heroes get is the one that the Fable 1 Hero gets.
Upon graduating your training, you're taught how to level up, and the game truly opens at this point. Since this game's protagonist is a member of William Black's bloodline, you can build your Hero any way you want. Want a ranged based character? A melee fighter? A mage? A hybrid of two? Completely possible, though it's very easy to build a Hero that's maxed out on all three disciplines.
The game starts you slowly; once you get past the opening, the neophyte Hero takes on minor quests (like killing the Wasp Queen), and slowly moves in difficulty and notoriety until you finally are allowed to fight in the Arena. It's here where you are taking on quests and creatures that normal people have nightmares about, and you continue like this until you become a legend.
The story unfolds slowly as well; after the Wasp quest, Maze meets you, reminds you of your desire for revenge, and tells you that your sister may still be alive. After a few more quests, you are told to meet Maze in Oakvale, and are told "meet the Blind Seeress" at Twinblade's quest. You do so, find out she's your sister, and move forward to the Arena after a few quests. At the Arena, you are introduced to Jack of Blades, the game's villain, and are told that your mother lives after winning. You meet your sister shortly after, and head off to break your mother out of prison. Once you break her out after being imprisoned for a year, the game heads toward the original game's ending. It is here where you chose to either kill your sister and keep the Sword of Aeons, or toss it away (though future games say you tossed it away, since your sister shows up in every game after this one). After this, you make a time jump, and are awakened from a year long boredom to find that Jack survived your battle, and is stronger than he was before. You do a few more quests, and face down Jack in his ultimate form. And this is where the game gives your its final morality choice, though I won't reveal it.
Which gives me a good segue into the morality system. In addition to its role as training and housing for the Heroes of Albion, the Guild also acts as a job broker for Heroes. If anyone has any needs for a Hero, they create a Quest Card and the Guild has them set out for the Heroes, so long as they have enough renown. The Guild works as a contract broker, leaving the morality of the Quest to the Heroes who take them. Which means you can be as good or as evil as you want, and your appearance reflects this. If you are good, your hair lightens and you eventually gain a halo. But if you are evil, your start losing your hair, you grow horns, and gain other unsavory additions to your appearance.
This game is LOADED with mini games. You've got the pub games; coin golf, card pairs, cart sorting, spot the addition, shove ha'penny and blackjack. I have no idea the rules for any of these besides blackjack, because I don't play them. You've also got the fist fighter's gang, where you fight do something you can't do in any game after this; fight a group of guys with your fists (and feet if you manage to get a flourish) for money, renown, and when you get to the one in Knothole Glade, a trophy. There's chicken kickin', which is self explanatory. And finally, you've got the fishing competition.
Now, I briefly mentioned type of fighter you can be, so I will go into it here. This game has 5 tiers of weapons; Iron, Steel, Obsidian, Master and Legendary. You have two types of melee and ranged weapons; one or two handed weapons, and longbows and crossbows. Furthermore, you have different types of melee weapons within those types; longsword, katana, cleaver, mace, and axe (the two handed weapons forgo the katana and cleaver, and pick up a great hammer in their place). So you see, you have quite a few options for your playstyle.
As for magic, there are three schools of magic, with a half a dozen spells within each school, give or take. Some are far more useful than others, which is why I'm going to go into my preferred spell load out here.
Now, I tend to build a hybrid of all three character types, so my load out is built for that, but I'll first discuss my recommendations for melee and ranged based character. First, the melee; you're going to want Heal Life, Assassin's Rush and Multi-strike to three, then Slow Time, Berserk and Enflame to 3. From there, bring all that you can to 4 (Heal Life and Berserk are dependent on your alignment; Heal Life can only be mastered by good Heroes, and Berserk for evil.) For ranged, you want Heal Life, Enflame and Multi-arrow to 3, then Ghost Sword, Slow Time and Force Push to 3, then all to 4. Once you master all the spells, go with whatever you wish, though there are a few spells to avoid no matter how you play; Summon, which you don't get XP from the kills your ghosts make, Drain Life, which is time consuming and plants you in the spot, and Turncoat, which is the same as Drain Life.
As for my loadout, I go with Heal Life, Assassin's Rush and Multi-Arrow to 2, then Slow Time, Enflame and Berserk to 2, then bring them all to 4 (depending on alignment, of course), before hitting Ghost Sword, Multi-strike and Physical Shield to round it out. I mandate Heal Life on all my builds, because there are three mandatory escort missions in the game, and since enemies can attack your escort, and Heal Life heals both you and allies, it's pretty much a necessity. I also have Enflame on all builds, because it is great crowd control; it has both knock down and heavy damage. And Slow Time is self explanatory; slows everything around you, allowing you to move and attack freely.
With all this said, though, this game does something that feels strange to come back to after playing Fable 2 and 3; you've got to draw your weapon before you can use it. If you don't, you're hitting people with your fists. More than once early on, I would want to hit something with my sword, only to swing my fists at it. (Same with my bow, though I'd roll or block, since the gun button from the next two games is the block button in this game.) So if you're coming back to this game after playing the next two, make sure you refamiliarize yourself with the controls while you're still weak.
Now, even beyond combat, this game is all about customizing your character. There are dozens of hairstyles, beards and tattoos to modify your base appearance, and clothing that boosts your good or evil alignments, or neutral ones that boost neither. You've got villager clothes, leather armor, chainmail and heavy plate, and you've got will user clothes, and dresses if you choose to cross-dress. The TLC part gives you a slew of hats, and two new armor sets. And you can mix and match your clothes any way you want.
This game has an epic story, but never takes itself too seriously; it has a TON of humor. For example, the book quest. Hearing Mr. Gout read some of those books to his students is hilarious. And there's this game's obsession with chickens; too funny. And there's a LOT of other stuff that I don't want to mention, since it would spoil the fun for you.
This game is fun, though watch out if you play it on the Xbox 360; the emulation isn't perfect, and it crashes randomly. I have played this game through 4 times for this review (1 each for the spell load out that I recommended for melee and ranged only, and 1 each way I normally play for good and evil), and it has always crashed at random intervals. So my tip in this situation is save often; after every quest and whenever you enter a new area between quests.
And for those who don't want to worry about the intermittent crashing, there's good news. Lionhead has announced that they are working on Fable Anniversary, a HD remake of Fable: The Lost Chapters, with updated graphics, achievements, faster load times, and the option to use a control scheme more in line with Fable 2 and 3. This game is expected to drop in February 2014 (though it says December 2013 through pre-order on Amazon), so look forward to it if you're interested in the game.
You can pick this game up for 10 bucks new for Xbox, 15 for PC, and you'll enjoy yourself thoroughly.
For now though, look forward to my Fable 2 review, and happy gaming!
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