Fable [game rant]

[the_gneech]

A few days ago I picked up Fable at EBX and gave it a try over the weekend. Overall, I found it to be rather frustrating and high-maintenance for something that's supposed to be a fun pastime.

I'm not a fan of contemporary game platforms, it's probably worth mentioning. The itty-bitty kid-friendly controllers give me fits -- give me a mouse, a keyboard, and big honkin' flight-simulator-style joystick, please. It's not always a problem ... I did fine with Jade Empire for instance, but being on a platform is always a hurdle a game has to overcome in my book.

In Fable, however, the controller issue is a problem. You see, Fable follows the trend of RPGs lately of giving your character an Alignmentometer ... a trend which was kinda fun when it was new, but which I'm rapidly getting tired of. "Will you become a noble hero or a nefarious villain? Your actions in the game decide!" Yeah, yeah, all very well and good, except in Fable it's too damn easy to "be bad" by mistake. It's bad enough that there are ringer quests set up to trick you into doing evil acts, but the controls do their best to stick it to you, too.

The first time it happened was when I was in the archery training sequence. I went through my test, got all kinds of accolades, then accidentally hit the X button and shot the instructor! This, of course, sent my Morality Meter down the toilet, and all the bystanders started sneering about what a slimeball I was. (X was the "talk" button in some game I played recently; my brain thinks A is the attack button.)

Fine. Reload saved game.

Did I mention that the entire training sequence is one looooong quest that you have to do from start to finish without being able to save and come back to later? Yay, I get to start the training all over again.

So then I get through the archery test and go on to the magic test, the last bit of training, where you're supposed to use rapid-fire lightning strikes against targets by blasting one, using the auto-target button to switch to the next and blasting it, and so on. Can you guess what happened?

Yup, in the middle of the test, the auto-target button decided the instructor was a good target. Zap. Down into the toilet goes the Morality Meter again. Start over from the beginning.

Jeeze.

So I finally get through the training after however many tries, which at least opens up the ability to save your game. Now it's time to start taking on quests, but then I run into the Regenerating Maps problem. Every time you pass through a map, even if you just stepped off it and step back on, it's full of enemies again, usually bandits. And there's also usually innocents mixed in, who instead of running away from the bandits, stand there crying about it. Can you see what's going to happen here?

Target-shoot-dead bandit.
Target-shoot-dead bandit.
Target-shoot-hey, that's not a bandit you stupid game!!! Into the toilet goes the Morality Meter. Time to reload.

Who thought this was a good idea? And why are these @&$** peasants standing around when there are bandits running around killing people?

Don't even get me started on the Fart button. -.-

So, I dunno ... I like the concept of having the character evolve based on your actions and such, but the implementation of Fable is so irritating that I'm not sure it's worth the work to play the game. If there was a "no-PvP" setting I could turn on so it would stop targeting innocents, it would be a lot more fun. Oh, and Regenerating Maps and Alignmentometers suck. Stop putting them into games, designers!

-The Gneech

Comments

[m0nkeygrl.livejournal.com]

Also, you get more evil if you eat a crunchy chick. Yet somehow, kicking chickens does not make you more evil.

And there is one magic door that you have to kill someone in front of for it to open, BTW.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I found that door. Unless there's some really compelling reason to go through it, I figured I'd just steer clear. I'm not that curious about what's on the other side.

-The Gneech

[nekura-ca.livejournal.com]

My roommate played through it, and found that the prizes behind the doors were really useless for any character that could open the door. e.g. Uber mage item behind the archery door.

[rhanlav.livejournal.com]

There were a few good items behind some of the doors, like the one requiring you to get married to a noble woman. That weapon behind it really kicked butt. At least for where I was at, then.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Well, that's another problem with Alignmentometers, is that they tend to have some pretty skewed ideas about what makes "good" and "evil."

-TG

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Well ... I could happily be an archer with the second best bow in the game. ;)

-TG

[bauske.livejournal.com]

Aw, you gotta be a little bit evil. C'mon. It's fun!

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Being a mother is a necessity for that invention. It apparently offers a bow to necessity.

===|==============/ Level Head

[jamesbarrett.livejournal.com]

I haven't played many of that kind of game (at least I think), but I do dislike regenerating maps and auto targeting in general. Don't select for me, especially if there are innocents I might target. I'll click on the one I want, thank you very much. Even if that leads to greater frustration later.

Last night, I did some tests in IWD2 that took me forever to do. Cause they were so damn difficult I had to turn the difficulty to 0 for the last one and still reloaded about 12 more times after that. -Frisk

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Neverwinter Nights has the alignmentometer to a certain extent, and Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire (which are descendants of NWN) moreso.

The original Baldur's Gate had it too, so that paladins or rangers could lose their class abilities for drifting "off alignment." For the life of me, I've still never figured out what I supposedly did that was so bad the first time I tried to play BG and suddenly the Amnish soldiers started attacking me and my ranger lost his ranger abilities. I wasn't even robbing houses or any of the usual RPG "weird universe" stuff.

-The Gneech

[jamesbarrett.livejournal.com]

heh. it must have been my tendancy to play chaotic good anyway that kept me from even noticing that in those games then. -Frisk

[bauske.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I HATE regenerating maps! They're such a pain. I'm saddened to hear Fable has those.

And yeah, I agree with the citizens just standing around thing. On the opposite end of the spectrum, they could be flighty like the people in City of Heroes who, upon seeing a bad guy within 10 feet of themself, flee and run in a random direction for half a mile. It doesn't help that I find it far too amusing to see an entire row of people go running past me flailing their arms and legs in a wave of panic because some bad guy is just standing on a street corner. :p

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Oh, the bystanders will run from ME if I happen to accidentally wave a weapon around. But run from the bandits? Heck no! 'cause then how could they be in the way for me to accidentally killum?

-The Gneech

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Who thought this was a good idea? And why are these @&$** peasants standing around when there are bandits running around killing people?

You don't normally talk politics in such posts. ];-)

===|==============/ Level Head

[stilghar.livejournal.com]

The only times I've had problems with either NWN's or KotOR's alignment guages is when I wasn't watching carefully and picked the wrong response to a dialogue.

One thing that I did enjoy about BG/NWN and Fable, that was not present in KotOR, Jade Empire, or any imported Japanese RPG I've ever seen is the ability to attack random offensive people. I don't do it often, but I like having the option.

Apparently, according to BioWare, Evil people *must* always go out of their way to be as deliberately offensive as possible, and are incapable of either subltety or false courtesy.

Fable was enjoyable for me, but the thing that perhaps annoyed me the most about it was the tendency of the PC to age at roughly the same rate as a moderately long-lived mayfly - and he was the only person in the *entire* world who did so. This prompted me to download a trainer for the PC version that would allow me to remain young and hansome for more than fifteen minutes. Before the anti-cheating purists start howling for my head, I'd like to point out that I had by then beaten the X-Box version. :P

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

The PC version of the game was much better than you describe, I didn't have any of these technical issues.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

I wondered about that, actually. Thanks! I'll look into it.

-TG

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

This is why I never got anywhere in Kingdom Hearts. I couldn't get used to the controller scheme. I have to have a mouse and keyboard, thankyouverymuch.

The only games I can play with a gamepad are driving games.

cheers,
Phil

[the-lizard-rat.livejournal.com]

I've played the PC version of Fable, though my computer didn't handle it well.

I think it sucks just as badly as Gneech-san describes. I'd say avoid it, but that's just me. I like the idea of AlignmentOMeters, myself.

Lizard Rat out.
Unsatisfied Lupine in Albany NY

[hbar98.livejournal.com]

*droolz* Oblivion has taken me...must buy Oblivion...must buy...Wait a sec! That'll run like a dog on my system! *sobs*

[jamesbarrett.livejournal.com]

It doesn't even run on mine, but I had to have it anyway. Some day I'll have a system that will like it, and then think of all the cool things I can do! -Frisk

[stilghar.livejournal.com]

Assuming the operating system on such a machine doesn't reject the game.

[hbar98.livejournal.com]

*snort* Yeah, because MS is going to fall soon and Windows will be no more! Unless you were teasing jamesbarrett, in which case, *poke poke*

[hbar98.livejournal.com]

Oh, it would run. But I'm an "ooh, ahh" junkie, so running it on my ATi X850 would only want me to upgrage my system...

And this time I would have to get a new processor, RAM, motherboard, video card......

[nightfurson.livejournal.com]

Eh... it IS actually pretty easy to raise the Good alignment stats, though... I think you got points for it whenever you killed monsters and etc. As for not shooting the innocent, that just takes some getting used to.

Small note: It's fun to build the Good alignment until you get the Apologize expression, then turn evil and get away with small deeds by apologizing (To guards) for them.

Big tip: Raise your defense stat before health stats. Losing less health is better than having more health to start with, because you won't have to eat as much food to get back to full strength. The healing spell is nice, because you don't have to waste food every time you're hit on long trips.

Biggest complaint of mine: The game is really short. There's also character customization, but in the long run, my characters all look the same.

Biggest Favorite: To this day, no video game allows me to wreck up a town like fable does. It does have the namby pamby "Good" side, but it has the evil side most freaks look for, lol.

Merry gaming! It's interesting stuff once you get used to it... but then the game ends, lol.