This point-and-click graphic adventure from Sirtech was a bit of a disappointment to me. You play the cliche role of a person sent off to collect four jewels from the rulers of four kingdoms in order to save your hometown. This in itself is not a huge deal because just because a concept is cliche, doesn't mean it can't be done in a fresh and exciting way. Unfortunately this game isn't done in a fresh and exciting way. It isn't like the game is absolutely horrible in any specific way, it's just that it's so pedestrian in all ways that the game doesn't get together to form a really pleasurable gaming experience.
This point-and-click graphic adventure from Sirtech was a bit of a disappointment to me. You play the cliche role of a person sent off to collect four jewels from the rulers of four kingdoms in order to save your hometown. This in itself is not a huge deal because just because a concept is cliche, doesn't mean it can't be done in a fresh and exciting way. Unfortunately this game isn't done in a fresh and exciting way. It isn't like the game is absolutely horrible in any specific way, it's just that it's so pedestrian in all ways that the game doesn't get together to form a really pleasurable gaming experience.
About the only thing that I can say with confidence is excellent
are the illustrated backdrops. The entire game is just so colorful and vibrant that it made me really want to like this game. This isn't to say that the graphics as a whole are terrific though. Unfortunately they are not. The biggest flaw I could see would be the fact that while the backgrounds are great, the animations of the on-screen characters need some work. It is a bit too jerky for my tastes. Given the fact that poor animation can make a break a title such as this, it is a glaring problem. You just lose a lot of immersiveness when the animation is not up to par with the amazing backgrounds.
Story and sound are pretty standard fare although the ending of the game is bad. Like, really bad. I've heard that the UK version of the game had a couple worse endings but I don't see how it's possible. Even though the game will not take you very long to finish, when you get to the ending it feels as if it was all a waste of time. If the gameplay experience up to that point was superb then I could forgive such an oversight, but alas everything else is just so mediocre that the ending will really leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.
Overall I would give Fable a 5/10. Mediocre in almost all ways (save backdrops), if you are a big fan of point and click adventure games of the 90s then you will probably find something to enjoy here for a few hours. It's a short game with some decent humor that is marred by some glaring mishaps. I can't give a glowing recommendation to this game (or any good recommendation at all to people that aren't a fan on the genre.), and at the end of the day there are many better point-and-click games out there. But if you've got some time to kill one day and you've exhausted your gaming library, there are definitely worse games out there to try.
