Fable: All Good Things Must Come To An End....

...VERY VERY QUICKLY!!!! I beat Fable for the X-Box about ten minutes ago and figured I would post my thoughts on the game. For starters, the game was way too friggin' short. It took me less than eight hours of gameplay to finish the storyline. Despite the shortness of the main story you CAN continue once you beat the game. I first reported that you could not do this in my previous edit of this post. You can continue on after you finish the main story but you have to sit through all of the credits to do so. Be warned, the credits are almost half an hour long. Once the credits are over, your mission accomplished screen comes up and then you can go back to playing the game like normal. This makes me happy.

With the biggest gripe out of the way, on to the praise. There are a ton of great things that can be said about Fable. The graphics, humor, and character development are awesome. Other RPG makers should take note. I also enjoyed all of the possible side quests, NPC interactions, and the lore that went with the Fable world. Lionhead did an excellent job in thinking out this game...then again, when you delay a game as long as Fable was, that tends to be an upside. I will probably play through the game again and try getting married and having sex. Yes, you can have sex in Fable and the game actually keeps track of how many times you get laid. It also keeps track of how far you can boot a chicken too. You may think that is an obscure stat to keep track of but, you have absolutely no idea how many chickens felt the wrath of my size thirteen plate boot striking their egg laying asses. A lot.

If you have ever played Knights of the Old Republic, you will be familiar with the way that the moral system of Fable works. You do enough bad stuff and eventually you get small horns and people run from you in fear. On the other end of that spectrum, you do good stuff and people adore you. When I beat the game I was pretty deep into good territory...this will be remedied the second time around. :)

One thing that I will speculate on in the future of the Fable franchise. I am absolutely positive there will be a sequel for the game. There is just too much that can be carried on into a sequel for this game. And there is always room to improve on the general concept of the game. One thing that I can defintely see happening, is the likelyhood of Fable becoming a MMORPG. I think Fable has all of the elements of being an excellent MMORPG and I for one would play it. You have quests, PVP, and ownership and customization of all sorts of things. If done correctly, Fable would be a lot of fun with a few thousand other people to play against.

Overall, if I had to give Fable a rating, I would give it an 8.5. The shortness of the game kind of pissed me off. There is definitely a replayability factor to Fable and it is a compelling game. I haven't sat in front of a TV for that long in that short of a span of time since Super Mario Brothers 3 came out for the NES when I was 9. If you like RPGs take a look at Fable, odds are you won't be let down. Just be prepared for a short game.