Fable Reviews

After several years of development time, the hyped Xbox RPG Fable has finally reached the hands of review sites. The first review is over at IGN Xbox with an overall score of 9.3/10:
Fable opens a door for you, lets you see this wondrous treasure that the idea of an open world, competing heroes, and NPC interactions can offer -- but it doesn't let you through. There's a lot of great notions in the game that aren't fully realized. As I played, I kept thinking, "Why didn't they do this or that," but in the end I still had a blast playing Fable and to me that makes all the difference.

Fable's freedom is allowing you to play how you want, to make your own choices as to how you will reach the climactic battle at the end of your adventure. You will be a hero, but you can be noble like Galahad, a rogue like Robin Hood, or a tyrant like Genghis Kahn. There's not a lot to the main story, but the path to reach its conclusion is full of extras, including secrets, a bevy of collected stats (including how many times you've gotten wasted), and a giant sandbox world to mess around in. It's very difficult to enter this world without thinking about the promises made (but not kept), all of the things that once had everyone so desperately hyped for Fable, but if you can go in with an open mind, I think you'll find a game that will become one of your treasured Xbox favorites.

And the second is at TeamXbox with an overall score of 9.1/10:
Fable isn't very difficult which also hurts its longevity. While you can trade and purchase items there really isn't much need being that most things you'll require can be readily found during quests or when battling enemies. Health and Will potions are overly abundant and I only came close to dying once or twice. To further ensure that you won't bite the big one, there are plenty of Resurrection Phials to be found that will automatically fully restore your health bar if it reaches zero.

There is a lot of variation to the game, everything from the way that you complete quests, a multitude of mini-games, a deep expression and economy system, and a good amount of secrets. This game design of Fable will ultimately make it an attractive experience for various types of gamers, but it still has been scaled back tremendously from what we had originally been told. Does this make it a better overall game for the mass market? Possibly. Perhaps with so many years of Fable updates and information, we were expecting something that no game could possibly be; perfect. With that being said, Fable is still one of the must-have games of 2004. My advice. try to rid your mind of any previous expectations and simply take in the entire experience. You'll be a better gamer for it.