Fable: The Lost Chapters
Return to Albion and start all over again
Tags: Fable: The Lost Chapters Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Nov 25th, 2005
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fable: The Lost Chapters (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Role-Playing (Action) | No | ||
Readers are directed to visit the original three part review of the original Fable in order to gain the necessary background for this review if they have not played the game.
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I do not think I can accurately convey my anger at Microsoft for the release of Fable: The Lost Chapters. It was understood that certain things had to be cut from Fable in order for it to make it out the door (such as the online component) but what was delivered was a decent action RPG that (mostly) delivered on its promise. When the PC version was announced (so much for being an Xbox exclusive) and that it would have extra content that wasn’t in the original, it felt like a slap in the face. Not only was one of the few Xbox exclusive RPGs getting ported, it would be in essence, better.
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Then the Xbox version of Fable: The Lost Chapters was announced. Now Xbox owners would be able to get to play the game PC gamers got to play – which wasn’t the point of having an exclusive game in the first place. There’s more game and for a cheaper price with The Lost Chapters, but ultimately, it’s still Fable, the same game that debuted on the Xbox last year. The much touted extra content is all really at the back end of the game – not incorporated into the game. This makes it feel as if instead of incorporating the stuff that was taken out during development and weaving it back in that this stuff was simply tacked on.
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Fable saves won’t work, since this is a different game, so players of the original will have to slog through the original quest again in order to get to the new stuff. Granted, the original wasn’t a lengthy game (it was possible to get through in approximately 12 hours) but many spent the extra time to fully explore the land of Albion, the game’s setting, and created a customized character that actually represents something. This was one of Fable’s strong points – the evolution of the character, how it ages, gets married, appearance, etc. This is all tossed away as The Lost Chapters forces players to start all over again.
Even though there is a new area to explore, it still only adds a couple more hours to the main game. Sure, the game is only $20, but for players that slogged through Fable both as good and evil, that $20 is not going to be well spent because the dollar to new gameplay ratio is appalling.
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One of the things that was wrong with Fable still carries over into The Lost Chapters – that of character interaction. There is no real dialogue, no choices to be made during a conversation. A “will you” or “not” accept a task sort of affair that is out of step with the rest of the game’s depth. There are some new gestures that are gained in The Lost Chapters, but nothing alters how the game plays.
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Fable: The Lost Chapters is still a short game. It looks good, it sounds great, the story is well done, and the gameplay is decent. The morality is still questionable in execution and ultimately the game is still the same. Players of the original may want to take a pass. All others should at least play through it in order to see what could be the direction of a lot of RPGs in the future.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Slightly longer game + Budget price |
8.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Still short - Still uneven morally - Most of the new stuff is at the end - Saves don't carry over - It's the game Xbox owners should have gotten in the first place |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| If you haven't played Fable, then you need to pick up Fable: The Lost Chapters. If you already have Fable, think long and hard about how much enjoyment you got out of playing it before going through again. | |
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Tags: Fable: The Lost Chapters
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Nov 25th, 2005 and is filed under Reviews, Xbox Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
