Despite what happened after I played Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furon, I thought I'd give the Fable series another go and yet again I'm disappointed. I could spend a while ranting about why this game did not meet my pretty reasonable expectations, but I'm going to be brief about it.
I'm not going to bother explaining what the series or this game in particular is about and get right to the main entree. No doubt you are already familiar with the game and do not need me patronizing you. So here I go.
This game is way too easy. Easy doesn't even begin to describe how mind bogglingly simple this game is. Not only can you fast travel instantly anywhere you've already explored, but there is also a bright yellow trail in the gameworld that tells you where to go for the next part of your active quest. This is exactly like having your hand held since it guides you everywhere you need to go.
Combat offers no challenge at all. You can simple bash the melee attack button for most enemies, that is until they start blocking once they're down to about 25% health, at which point you perform a simple block breaker and finish them off. Or you can keep spamming your magic, which you have infinite amounts of by the way. There is absolutely no mana bar or any kind of system to prevent you from using magic all the time. Even the "troll" the gigantic enemy is a pushover. You simply shoot its weak spots until it starts sending shockwaves at you which you can sidestep away from. Dying in combat is hardly penalized at all. You loose about the amount of experience a handful of enemies would drop, or one cheap potion from the stores will replenish.
NPC interations are absurd. At no point did I have to give any NPC an item to improve my relations with them since there is always an emotion you can use to win them over in about a minute. What's even more ridiculuous is once you start using emotions, NPCs from all over flock to you creating a massive crowd. Everyone in the crowd reacts to your emotions, even if they're meant for one character.
The main gimmick that this game promotes, the dog, is an incredible let down. Other than point out buried objects, I didn't need it at all. It barely helped in combat (not that it was help was needed), it never found treasure chests before me, and it was always getting lost or stuck in objects.
The good/evil aspect of the game which is the staple of the Fable series is yet again meaningless. There are little repercussions of going down either path, and you can easily switch from one to the other. Its especially frustrating how you don't get to choose what your good/evil character looks like and are stuck with how the game presents good/evil. Maybe I don't want horns. Maybe my evil character is the suave, good looking type.
There is an ad for the game which shows the same character dressed in a plethora of ways exhibiting how you can "be your own character" in the game. The game forces you to be pretty much one character, and you are occasionally given a meaningless choice. If you don't play the way the game wants you to, you don't do well. It's as easy as that.
I really don't want to think about this game any more so I'm going to stop. I was as brief as possible and could have gone on for quite some time about how truely unworth of praise this game is. Chances are if you disagree with me you're going to not read any of this and then leave comments that say, "u r a lozer. this gaem is sick! eye love fable!!!11!". And believe me, I have fun reading them.
Oh, did I mention that you can't access the best ranged weapon until AFTER you've completed the main story.
And did I mention that the menus are a total pain in the ass to use.
And did I mention that the ending is totally anti-climactic.
No comments:
Post a Comment