  What sort of hero will you become? |
There you are, enjoying your youth, chasing chickens around your small village, running the occasional errand or getting into mischief. You finally get your sister something nice for her birthday when a band of raiders ride into town slaughtering everyone but somehow missing you. You are rescued from the destruction by the mysterious man known as Maze who takes you away to the Guild to begin your training to become the Hero of Albion so you can avenge your village.
Developed by Lionhead Studios, Fable: The Lost Chapters takes the award winning RPG formula they had in 2004's Fable for Xbox, and brings the game to the PC with new monsters, items, quests, towns, expressions and many other enhancements. Lionhead continues with the theme they have used in their other titles of allowing the player to choose through the nature of the game what their personae will be - either good or evil. Depending on how you act in the game will determine everything from the skills you aquire, to your appearance or morality. You can be a beatific, well-respected hero loved by all with a faint halo surrounding your head, or a demonic battle-scarred tattooed villain with horns, causing townsfolk to flee before you in terror.
As you progress through the game you will earn experience in four categories depending on how you solve the quests, which you can later exchange in the Guild for training rather than a more traditional level based experience game system. If you rely on your sword fighting, you will earn Strength experience. If you prefer to engage your opponents from afar with a bow, you earn Skill experience. Heroes who rely on their arcane spell casting earn Will experience. For solving quests you earn General experience, which can be spent enhancing any of the three main skill categories, and of course earn gold in payment which can be used to purchase new weapons, armour, potions, food, hairstyles or tattoos. One of the interesting features they have added for the PC version is the ability to create your own tattoos, outside of the game based on provided templates, and have the game make use of them.
The graphics are nicely done with a fairytale/fantasy feel to them. Its clear that Lionhead has taken the time to flesh out a rich environment with plenty of details from forests with small flowers to towns with believably furnished houses to snow-swept hills. The weapons and armour tend to have a slight anime feel to them, due in large part to them being oversized and fancifully adorned. Combined with the lush scenery is a very nice soundtrack which helps keep you in the moment of the game. Its amusing to hear the common townsfolk comment on you and your reputation, in a British lowerclass accent, as you pass by them.
It would have been nicer if the storyline was a little longer, but the ability to go back and replay the game, but choosing to be evil instead of good, or a spellcaster instead of a fighter, will allow you to enjoy this game for some time. Overall, Fable: The Lost Chapters is a game I would recommend to anyone who enjoys the fantasy RPG style of game.
Minimum Hardware Requirements
CPU: 1.4 GHz equivalent or higher processor
OS: Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP
Memory: 256mb
Diskspace: 3 gb
CD: 32x speed or faster CD-ROM drive
Video: 64 mb shader capable video card required
Audio: Sound card, speakers or headphones required for audio
Controls: mouse and keyboard
