Fable For XBox

Author's Rating:

Pros: adventurous, excellent combat, funny, interactions with NPC's, good storyline

Cons: lack of character choice, missions restricted to good and not evil

The Bottom Line: 
For all my complaints, it's great. One could spend hours getting sidetracked without doing a quest. I love being able to roam around and interact with almost everything.

Author's Review
Fable was the only reason I bought the XBox. I really enjoyed playing, but I wish there was a bit more to it.

I had not heard about the game before it was released (as the other reviewers did) so I had very few expectations beyond the written contents on the back of the case. I was in a used game store when I came across it, and it sounded very promising. The impression I got from the reading was that it was a game where I could have adventures and completely create my own character. I was so excited about it that my fiance didn't mind me plunking down a few hundred dollars for the system.

Just the sort of game that I love.

So imagine my disappointment when I discovered that I could not have a female hero! As a female gamer in her late 20's, I have seen my share of male dominated entertainment and I think we need to more recognition as a legitimate part of the gaming economy. Most of the games I have purchased for myself over the past few years have allowed me to make the choice of gender, or at least toggle characters as I saw fit.

Other than that, I found the game to be very amusing. That alone is worth the money. You can interact with NPC's in a variety of ways, such as giving presents and giving them the finger, and you can even take out your aggressions on them by beating them up(you even get experience points if you should umm.. happen to kill them).

The quests are interesting and challenging, but only if you decide to be good. If you choose to become evil, there are no set tasks for your wrongdoings and you still have to do the helpful, good missions. That is a bit odd to me. I have one character that I made the most vicious I possibly could, complete with nasty scars and tatoos. I slaughtered all innocent people I could come across. I was so evil, evilness actually radiated from my aura and I devil horns developed. But I still had to save a village from a blood thirsty white wolverine. That's no fun. Why couldn't I join forces with the bad guy and experience a whole new facet of the game?

There is so much to do, it has been necessary to play several games because I missed so much. I still think there is stuff I missed.

I would recommend the game to anyone with a bit of time on their hands who likes to experiment. It really is a great game, it just has a few flaws in my opinion. Other people obviously disagree, but that is what this website is for.