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Fable: The Lost Chapters Mini Review
Chris Leyton
20/09/2005
The world of Albion returns with a handful of new quests for PC gamers to explore...
Ahhhh Fable, Lionheadās RPG in which every action has a consequence; where choices shape the central characterās life whether for good or evil; the ultimate RPG???
OK so upon its release almost a year ago Fable found itself with a fair share of criticism, some unjustified some warranted; largely the game found itself unable to live up to the sheer expectations surrounding the title, however Lionhead are back to make amendments.
Fable: The Lost Chapters on the PC features expanded content such as new quests, characters and items to collect, alongside greater customisation aspects and prettier visuals. As stated during out first Hands On with the title, new content is immediately evident right from the start, however itās not until the original quest is completed that the majority of the new content becomes available towards the harsh northern wastelands.
Itās worth noting at this stage that The Lost Chapters isnāt a vast upgrade to the existing game, with literally a handful of new Gold Quests and an equal dose of Side quests throughout. Certainly those who criticised the lack of content featured in the original will likely find themselves disappointed once more, but then again Fable is unlikely to ever appeal to its harshest critics.
The new content ties in seamlessly with the old, providing an epilogue of sorts to the original adventure. One major balancing hiccup regarding evil players gaining the mightiest weapon in all of Albion at the end of Fable has been avoided, with the introduction of Avoās Tear for those who decided to be good and decline the Sword of Aeons ā“ thus good and evil players alike are free to explore The Lost Chapters with an identical weapon, albeit toned down from its original iteration.
Sadly the action based nature of the game hasnāt survived the translation to mouse/keyboard as well as we could have hoped. The fundamental character/camera movement and basic combat works well; it just all begins to get a little messy when the vast amount of keys comes into play. Utilising magic spells requires the combination of the left shift button and two mouse buttons, which results in a lot of cycling later in the game when youāve amassed a significant repertoire. Blocking and evade manoeuvres are made much more complex then they were on the Xbox joypad, which makes conflicts against some of the larger foes slightly more cumbersome. More importantly the auto-targeting system is largely useless simply because switching targets efficiently is virtually impossible, leaving the best way to progress simply to save up for a big weapon and focus on physical attacks.
One particularly welcome addition is the increase in mapped commands allowing up to eight gestures, items and actions to be mapped to hotkeys. New gestures such as a Russian Cossack dance have been included, while the game features a couple of new āchargeā magic attacks that are significantly more epic then anything featured in the original. Throughout the course of the original game thereās a smattering of things to distract your attention, such as the Chicken Kicking competition in Oakvale or the Fishing competition.
Watching the simulated world act around you is still an appealing experience, however one that many will still criticise as somewhat shallow. Interacting with citizens via the gesture commands is fun for awhile however begins to grate with time; there is however a surprising amount of depth to the gameās trading system and many other aspects such as purchasing houses, marriage and other such matters. Personally I love the detail to which Lionhead have gone; kids run to school in the mornings while workers carry stock to the various shops; guards come around to light street lamps at night ā“ the perfect opportunity for the rogue hero to perform a few burglaries!
Finally the optimised load times are significantly quicker on the PC; although the game still has a disjointed feel when it comes to exploring the world of Albion the sense of detachment from the Xbox version has been lessened by this significantly.
Whether or not Fable: The Lost Chapters is worth a purchase very much depends on whether you played it the first time around. On the PC itās still an appealing prospect (despite its misgivings) although given the slightly more serious offerings on the format itās unlikely to appeal to the true RPG fanatic.
Weāve yet to see the Xbox version, however we suspect that the decision to pick this version up will depend on just how much of a Fable fanatic you consider yourself to be. Thereās not a great deal of new content, but then again at £19.99 thereās likely to be a number of fans who desperately want more Fable and at this price you canāt really complain.
Anonymous
Date Added:Sun 4th Mar 2007 00:16
Anonymous
Date Added:Wed 13th Dec 2006 03:43