by Elton Gahr

Created on: May 18, 2009

There is something special about Fable for the X-box and though many people were disappointed that disappointment primarily came in the argument that the game was too short. And while it is true that this game is short the fact that it feels so short is in large part because it is such a fun and enjoyable game.

You begin the game as a child in a small village who is charged with gathering money to buy his sister a birthday gift. This section is a short tutorial that explains one of the main functions of the game, the choice between good and evil.

There are many games before and after Fable that have the choice of playing as good or evil but in a vast majority of those games the choices are made in specific places and leave little room for middle ground. Fable is not that way. Nearly every action you make is good or evil and those actions change your character.

It is not just the choice of good or evil that effects your character though. You play through the entire life of your hero and nearly everything is up to you and changes how your character looks and even acts. By being good you can earn a halo and are greeted with joy as you enter town. On the other hand acting evil give you male pattern baldness(Bet you didn't know that was a sign of evil) and eventually horns. Other choices include what you eat, that can make you skinny or fat, and the skills you learn.

The three main branches of skills are roughly that of warrior, thief and wizard, but there is no requirement you use any one of them exclusively. Instead, there are four different types of experience that you gain depending on how you defeat enemies. Fight enemies hand to hand and you will gain combat experience that allows you to improve hand to hand fighting, use arrows and get skill experience and magic gives you magic experience, all enemies also give you a small amount of generic experience that can be used to increase any of these.

The key element of Fable is the ability to tell your own story. You chose the type of hero you want to be. You can become a good man with a family, or you can kill shopkeepers so you can buy the stores at a reduced price. You can seek vengeance or justice, the choice is up to you. Yet this also leads to one of the games chief problems. You are free to make your character look different but there is very little freedom of movement. You must go along the same path no matter what choices you make and this makes many of them feel irrelevant.

In the end the biggest problem this game has is that it is short. If you truly want to defeat the game you can do it in a day, if you want to explore it can take three or four days, and while replaying it can be fun it still probably isn't worth buying. Instead, rent Fable on a weekend when you have plenty of time and you'll enjoy it greatly.

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