[REVIEW] Game : Fable The Lost Chapters


I really enjoyed Fable The Lost Chapters. The graphics are colorful and pretty, and I love the mini in-game games, as well as the fishing and digging for silver keys and other rewards. I would've loved to play as a female of course, but the male hero wasn't that bad.

Often in RPG's you get the classic mob fights and tedious trekking throughout the worlds you discover. I thought that Fable TLC had a pretty good way of covering that (the cullis gates) so there was no boring backtracking, and compared to a game like Dungeon Siege that got on my nerves with all the massive mob fighting, Fable TLC disperses those fights through the story, not sneaking up on the main character. There are a few mob fights (like at the first arrival at the Death Circle) but they're pretty manageable.

The interaction system was pretty funny. It was actually a real fun time to get to interact with other people and get their interest, and to see what and how your actions influenced the general perception. As I'm a goody two shoes, the reactions were mostly positive and a lot of people fell in love with me. I have to try a more evil character to see what kind of reaction he gets. Anyway, it wasn't that difficult to marry, get a house and get some renown. The quests were not that difficult to morally choose from and would've made for a perfect middle road, not too evil and not too good. I can think of only two or three quests (that really were about killing/massacring people) that were outright evil.

My biggest beef with RPG's is, and Fable TLC is no exception, is the part where you have to escort NPC's. No matter what kind of fancy system you think of, they will ALWAYS get in the way of a fight. Fable TLC has the expressions of "Wait" and "Follow" but no matter how often I told my rescued hostage to "Wait", he still kept getting into the melee and injured. Fortunately not enough to die (thank you healing spells) but it's still bloody annoying. I haven't encountered a RPG yet who has fixed this problem (not that I have much experience) and I don't know if it's a matter of AI or not, but when I had to bring back the chief's son, the kid didn't respond to any "Wait" command and was right in the middle of every attack. Bonus annoyance is that NPC's keep repeating what they are saying ("Get me out of here!") and as a hero, you don't need the hassle of stupid people who have been taking hostage in the first place running in front of you and screaming into your ear. XDDDD

All in all, Fable TLC is a nice RPG for the not as hardened type like me. There are hours of simply fun game time to be spend and just to discover the world and experiment with all the expressions and social interactions (though getting married is not all that cracked up to be). Thanks to a few nifty quests and actions you can get a 'legendary weapon' quite early in the game, but as someone who always misses out on that kind of knowledge, I managed to get through it with a more regular weapon (obsidian katana with augmentations). There's a lot to do and a lot to steal ^^ and in general, Fable TLC is fun, though I can understand that real hardcore RPG gamers might be disappointed at the final boss battle...which even I managed to win in one first try (and I'm usually the one who gets stomped on flat).

7,5/10