Review of Fable: The Lost Chapters

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I had some free time this weekend, so I attempted to play a game that I had kicking around for a bit, but never spent any real time with - Fable: the Lost Chapters.

I played for about a half hour. My goals were lit up in green on an automap. So, to talk to the right people, I merely had to go from green dot to green dot. There was no real attempt at motivating me to talk to a bunch of characters. There was no real nod towards exploring anything. Green dots on a map.

I made it through the opening, and got to the point where I was about ready to complete the first quest, which was "give sweets to your sister." I like to stop games when I am not stuck, as it gets me going quickly when I take them back up. I was informed that the only saving the game would let me do was a "Hero Save." I could save experience and items, but my quest progress would be lost.

Well, fuck me rotten, I didn't want to have to do all that questing again.

So I kept playing. After giving the sweets to my character's sister, a cut-scene took place and the game crashed.

I had completely lost my progress when I started it back up again.

In my younger years, I would have gone on at length about how incompetent Lionhead Studios were. I just don't give a shit these days. I'll find the next game on the list next chance I get. Great.

[Lex]

Assassin's Creed reminds one somewhat of Fable; so much potential, but ultimately squandered. Instead of being a free-roaming, realtime adventure, which the engine can certainly handle (it can render all of Demascus in realtime), it feels disjointed and jarring because just as things get interesting and you are tearing over the rooftops of Jerusalem, "Fast forwarding memory..." will pop up and you have to sit, mind-numbed, through ten minutes of unskippable dialogue 6 load-zones away from where you just were.

The OMG THE FUTAR thing is just so painfully video game, this is a project that suffers utterly from the expectations of the medium. In fact, this game is summed up by the screen that appears at the beginning: "This game was created by a multicultural team of various religions and races." This game is terrified of offending anyone. Even the much-vaunted free-running simply involves holding down the right trigger and pushing in the direction you want to go. 10 minutes later, you'll be there, having climbed over every church steeple along the way. The animation is for the climbing is pleasing if a little slow-paced sometimes, but you don't have to DO anything! Where is the complex series of button presses that incredible leap of faith clearly deserved? Where is the keeping the pressure just right on the touch-sensitive buttons to stop me tumbling over that tightrope?
This game is afraid of offending people who don't like platformers, people who don't like the past without a zany sci-fi twist and people who don't know who Chaucer is.

[AArdvark]

I found Fable to be too talky for my gaming taste. I would like a decent game plot but nothing that takes away from the action. If you spend ten minutes clicking 'continue' then the game is too talky. Maybe two or three loading screens that explain things then BAM! You start chopping away like Paul Bunyan with a hangover. Of course Fable was meant to be an immersion game, Like those Bard's Tale games, which I never got into. These days I would like a half hour of mindless video violence then click on over and check my email. ( I play Mafia just to gun down everyone, baddies, police, bystanders, everyone. It makes me feel refreshed when I exit the game.)

Anyway, Fable has more quests than going to the DMV , so I don't play it anymore. I can't imagine what the hidden quests would amount to.


THE
GO EVERYWHERE
DO EVERYTHING
AARDVARK

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Assassin's Creed... This game is terrified of offending anyone.

You know what, some of the developers post on a few websites I sometimes read, and that doesn't surprise me. You can't make games in a politically correct black hole. Nobody is going to give a shit and someone is going to be offended anyway. Like me. *I* am offended, and I will never, ever play the game.

[Worm]

Now that I got my hands on Assassin's Creed I don't think offending people is where it needs it's improvement. It does some nice streamlining in the stealth genre, which is much needed.

I could give a fuck if lex thinks the "fast way for getting down from the place you climbed up to simply to advance your X/Y high places climbed up to counter" requires some dial-a-combo. That things are more intuitive is great.

However, random enemies like "guy who is invulnerable to grab" and "guy who is invulnerable to assassinate" really fuck it up. I can only hope that Saboteur's blend of art and a moral imperative (nazis were not only nazis but non-Christian) is mixed with more fun stealth gameplay. At least Assassin's Creed is apart from Splinter Cell's bullshit (like that FBI level), even if they couldn't managed to google up that "Nothing is real, everything is permitted" was something the Assassin's Master said on his deathbed.

Much in the same Fable wouldn't have been that great if it was the sandboxy shit that was promised. It's great because it's a basic RPG with a little alignment meter.