Fable Series Review (Xbox)

Fable puts its best foot forward to illuminate an underdog in a kingdom smitten with conflict and inner turmoil—a world where tyrants and magical beings coexist in a fantastical realm of chaos and wonder, moral dilemmas and creative possibilities. It’s here, within the pulsating heart of Albion, where our feeble-minded protagonist begins a journey of discovery and redemption, where triumphs are often met with provoking questions and choices, and the citizens reflect heavily upon the breadcrumbs that you squander and flaunt, whether it’s for their own benefit or for your self-inflated ego. Fable doesn’t just react to your ideals; it suffers the consequences and, if you so desire, rejoice in your accomplishments. It’s deciding who to be in Albion, that’s the tough part.

And So Our Story Begins…

A choice-driven RPG at heart, Fable grants you the opportunity to forge your own journey through the vast corridors of Albion, not as a morally ambiguous protagonist with rich elemental powers, but as the hero-in-training who has the ability to split the limits and shape the land through judgments and actions. It isn’t built with a one-track linear system in mind; it is, to some degree, a bottomless open-world RPG that allows you the freedom to explore and interact as you see fit. Although fully equipped with rich campaigns and time-spanning episodic events, Fable allows you access to a bottomless pool of role-playing activities and entrepreneurial ventures, character development suites and faction quests. To put it simply, Fable doesn’t make a habit of forcing you to follow the lines; it encourages you to traipse the scenic route and build your own interwoven trail.

Fable has always been one for keeping to its promise of being an open-ended experience that can keep even the most impractical heroes entwined with the world of Albion for years. It doesn’t matter if you gloss over the primary quests and develop your hero for the grand finale, for each chapter in the series encourages you to “play the part” and be who you want to be—an expert blacksmith with a steady income; a landlord with a portfolio boasting half of Albion’s market; a family figure with a handful of children; a lovable hero with a passionate heart for the folks of Bowerstone; a rebellious highwayman with an unshakable desire to quell innocent people with a stern attitude. The point is, with countless corridors to explore, Fable ensures that you always have a new adventure to embark on.

While Fable wasn’t the first to spearhead the morality system, it was one to breathe life into it with its own take on the signature good versus evil schematic. For instance, if you were to make a bad decision that would make an impact on the economy, then your anti-hero would gradually become more sinister in their appearance—a horn and a ghostly complexion, for example. Likewise, if you were to make a morally correct decision, then you would be rewarded with the love of the citizens and a twinkle in your eye. And it wasn’t just your appearance that would change over the course of your journey, either; Albion would react to your presence, and your children, if you chose to conceive them, would also inherit your characteristics. And honestly, that’s something that Fable was able to perfect: a world that reacted to everything. You were the focal point, and you were the primary attraction of the world.

Albion, Reforged

Although there is some debate over whether or not Fable dwindled in quality after the release of the third installment, the series as a whole has, in all fairness, been consistent with its honor system and world-building style. The first and second installment, for example, allowed you to be the hero or villain in a storybook setting, whereas the third chapter allowed you to act on your ideas from the throne, which also gave you permission to shape Albion with spoils from the royal treasury, and so on and so forth. The point is, even though each journey put you in a different position on the social ladder, you always had the influence and infrastructure to forge Albion with your ideologies. And that’s something that I’ll happily take to the grave: the fact that Fable has always been the perfect storyteller.

While the combat hasn’t ever been great in Fable, each chapter has been more than capable of finding vast ways to alter the experience, primarily through its Strength, Will, and Skill facets—areas that can be explored and tailored with experience points and the rewards from completed quests. It’s still a little on the easy side, and at no point has Fable ever gone out of its way to include difficulty spikes or perilous victory conditions. More to the point, the fact that you cannot “die” means that you cannot lose, bar, perhaps, a few handfuls of XP in the wake of a brief collapse. But, again, Fable isn’t a combat-oriented series; it’s a role-playing saga that favors world-building and choices, heritage and evergreen opportunities.

Of course, if you are looking to slip into a challenging RPG that demands you to master the art of combat, then you might be better suited for another realm outside of Albion. If it’s a beginner-friendly storybook fantasy that tickles your fancy, however, then you should definitely consider taking the plunge into Fable.

Verdict

Fable remains a true work of art in the world of RPGs, with its timeless appeal and vast creative possibilities offering a seemingly endless variety of adventures and world-altering choices to explore. It is, to some extent, a series that still feels ahead of its time, despite being in the bottomless depths of a cluttered pit of alternate RPGs. With thanks to its in-depth morality system and character development, organic world building and engrossing entrepreneurial activities, the series continues to shine as bright as ever as a true force to be reckoned with within the community.

Although you won’t find a lot of combat-driven stories to venture into in Fable, you will be pleasantly pleased with just how many avenues each segment in the saga has to offer you on a silver platter. For better or worse, Fable thrives on your imagination and ability to weave your own expeditions. If that sounds like a voyage that you could quite easily make, then you won’t find a shortage of tales to etch into the cornerstone here.