Fable: The Journey – Review
Fable an amazing franchise which is exclusive to the xbox (360) consoles just released it’s first Kinect game, which is also a sidestory of the main series. Will this game be as loveable as it’s predecessors or will this be just another Kinect title that’s neglectable.
Story:
Fable: The journey revolves around a young man named Gabriel, which is pretty much the ‘modern yet medieval’ teenager. He’s a man/boy who’s head is filled with amazing adventures and tales about the heroes of the past. You start out the game in the proximity of your ‘tribe/clan’ (or whatever you’d like to call it) which is about to move to a different location. Gabriel however is still in the middle of experiencing the adventures… inside his head and straggles behind the herd of people. The leader of the pack named Katlan comes back for Gabriel to make him join up again, only to fall asleep behind the medieval wheel and fall behind yet again. When suddenly waking up Gabriel desperately tries to fall back in line but disaster strikes right before he wants to cross the bridge to catch up. This forces him to take the long way around through treacherous areas. This is pretty much where the real adventure starts. Only short after his spree of bad luck (or simple negligence) he comes across an old woman who seems to be in serious danger. First hesitant to save her, he then decides to do so and run for his life from something called the corruptor. For those who played previous fable games will instantly recognize the mysterious woman to be Theresa a mystic who can be quite the rude person if she wants to be.
To keep myself from spoiling too much the rest of the game will pretty much revolve around Gabriel becoming the hero he’d always wanted to be, by mastering the powers of the mysterious gloves Theresa tricks him to wear (and can’t take off). The characters in Fable games tend to be likeable from the start which makes the game very appealing and the positive thing is that even after that first look at the characters the game offers us a lot more depth to what happened to them or what made the characters who they are. Most of the time they tend to have a sad past but this will probably end of in you liking them even more.
Overall put – It’s a game worth buying for story value.
Graphics:
Graphically this Fable game adds another notch on the ‘likeable’ scale. We are treated to a beautiful world and characters that simply look appealing and have their typical Fable charm. Everything is very detailed yet has it’s own cartoonish look to make everything seem a bit lighter than it would be when using too realistic models of characters. There isn’t really much the say except that it’s a beautiful game which tends to lack the option to really explore those lovely environments. Maybe one day we’ll be able to roam free through the lands of Fable with these great graphics.
Sound:
Fable: The Journey provides us with decent voice-acting that is able to create a smile on our face more than once during the playthrough. The dialogues are sometimes a little predictable yet don’t lose any of their wit. Except for some boss fights, where the dialogue tends to repeat quite a lot, you will not be bored watching cutscenes in Fable: The Journey. The music does not lack in quality either, you will know when tension is in the air and when you’re able to enjoy the fairly wide, yet unexplorable, world of Fable.
Gameplay:
I have to be honest the first 30 minutes of the game, I was under the impression I was playing a game called ‘My little pony’ instead of Fable: The Journey. You will start out by learning the basic controls which you will be using for a big part in the game, which is keeping your horse happy, healthy and learning to control it when you’re trying to get from point A to point B. This will pretty much involve stretching out your hands to brush your horse, to heal wounds or to provide it with apples and such which you just picked. Driving around on your not so impressive chariot of heroism can be quite tricky from time to time. To simply explain it – imagine yourself driving around in a schoolbus with one of those giant steering wheels.
When you get used to these controls you will come to the part of the game in which you receive your powerful gloves that were left to you by 3 of the greatest hero the world had ever seen. Here you will learn how to use your destructive and constructive spells. By holding up your right hand you will be able to charge up a powerful orb created to destroy enemies by simply ‘throwing’ the ball at your screen. Doing the same motion with your left hand will cast another orb by which you can grab your enemies to create weaknesses or just toss them out of the way. Both spells can and will have to be used on objects aswell to clear obstacles and/or puzzles. All of these spells will upgrade during the course of the game by gaining experience or simply by unlocking key moments in the game. For example your normal destructive orb can eventually turn in to a fire ball which causes even more destruction. Or by buying skills that make your orbs bounce of enemies to hit more targets.
Overall for a Kinect game, everything works fairly well. Aiming at targets which are far way can be quite tricky and feels a little unmasterable but for the most part you will enjoy yourself flicking spells of doom and mayhem towards your cartoonish foes. Then again the fact that it’s a Kinect game limits the gameplay options a lot more than it would have on a normal Fable game. You are dropped in an amazingly detailed world but you lack the chance to really explore it. You are sometimes able to sidetrack a little to discover a hidden chest with some collectibles but that’s pretty much about it. For the rest of the game it’s pretty much steer your horse or fight your enemies and enjoy the ride.
The game also offers us an Arcade mode which simply consists out of battles which you already completed in the story mode to replay battles you loved or simply to compete to get a higher place on the online rankings. An attribution to the game but I doubt you’ll actually use it that much.
Conclusion:
What Fable: The Journey lacks in gameplay depth it makes up for in story value. It’s not really up to par with the other games in the series but it’s certainly a great title for your Kinect if it’s collecting dust. It works pretty much as it should work except for some annoyong horse steering but you’ll enjoy creating your own magic balls of doooooooom on your television!
Fable: The Journey - Review,
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