"His name is Jonny / Gosh he's so funny / And such a honey" - Jonny's exploits warrant a song - will yours?
Although having faith in any game where Peter Molyneux has been a driving factor is not difficult (he was after all responsible for the likes of Magic Carpet, Populous and Black & White - ok, maybe forget that last one), I always took Fable's premise with a pinch of salt. Bless you Peter, you've got the kind of ambition that keeps the videogame form rolling forward, but sometimes your imagination is blatantly years ahead of current technology. It's no surprise that Fable has been somewhat streamlined from the original, epic premise - but don't take that to mean that it's not an excellent game.
Fable reminds me of a passage in Roald Dahl's The Twits where he explains Mr. and Mrs. Twit's gradual descent from the young, beautiful people they were to the hideous twisted individuals they one day become. If you go through life with good intentions and a strong heart people around you will always find you attractive as you'll radiate that warmth to others. If you let the darkness take over, wallow in pity and hate and lash out at the world you'll project only a negative image to the world around you.
Fable is a story where you take control of a young lad in a land of magic and monsters. Throughout the game you'll age, and as you do, your appearance and reputation will depend on the kind of man you become. Eat too much and you'll become obese, exercise and you will bulge with muscle, stay out in the sun and you'll tan (not too long though unless you want to cultivate a faceful of wrinkles). Scars will stay with you as you age, and your dress sense, haircut and body art are completely your choice. It doesn't end there though - your character development goes beyond far beyond such basic physical attributes.
Like Black & White, the game gives you the choice to solve problems in numerous ways - some good, some evil. For example, an early encounter sees you stumbling across a boy, bigger than you, bullying a much smaller child. How do you react? You can swan past, ignoring the plight of the sobbing boy. You can stand up to the bigger kid and stop the bullying. You can join in the fun. Or you can simply beat them both up. The game provides you with dozens of choices as it progresses, and the moral choices you make have a large effect on your physical appearance. Make evil choices and your face will contort into a snarl, you'll sprout demon-like horns and your eyes will become as blood. Make altruistic choices and you'll gain benevolent features and an angelic aura will bathe you in light.
Your choices also affect your reputation, and your actions tend to have long-lasting consequences. The general public will come to revere, or detest you, and their reactions to you are one of the real pleasures in the game. So don't expect to get served ale in a town where you've slaughtered half of the populace (if you can evade the town's guards for long enough to reach the tavern that is). If you've been a good boy though, people will talk and sing of your exploits, and small children will dream of the day when they can be as brave as you are.
I would suggest that to make Fable a challenge it would be much harder to play on the side of good. Being evil is just too tempting and easy. As a child you'll encounter a small girl sobbing at the loss of her teddy bear. Now, I realise this is going to sound dreadful but I punched her square in the face, as will many people that play the game. Why? Because I could do it with the press of a button, there were no hurt feelings or punishment in real life, and because, you know, it was hella funny. It's harder to resist these childish, impulsive urges - but definitely more rewarding.
One of Fable's main disappointments is its inability to deal with that that makes up the moral meat of all of our lives - the grey areas. For example, I'd like to go the Batman approach - it should be possible to be a virtuous, good-hearted champion adored by small children everywhere, while punishing evil with a malevolent violence which makes the world tremble.
You've got to be pretty conceited to preach morality to others in the first place - but to do it en masse, through the form of a videogame? Now that takes some chutzpah.
Is a child accepting a gold piece to keep quiet about witnessing a man having an affair really wrong? Well, yes, probably. But is refusing to accept the money, and then seeking out his wife and blabbing all the details to her really right? Aren't we told as a child that telling tales is wrong and to mind our own business? What about telling her about her husband's actions after accepting the money to keep schtum anyway? The game says this is a good deed - but isn't breaking a promise, even a promise you probably shouldn't have made, a bad deed? Is it ok to beat a bully to a pulp? To quote The Simpsons, is stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving family wrong? What if they don't like bread - what if they like, I don't know, cigarettes?
It's a minefield, and one that Fable stumbles wantonly across with reckless abandon. However, it still works, albeit with a kind of simplistic, fairytale charm - and it leads to a situation in which no two Fable players' protagonists will be exactly the same.
But there's so much more to it. You can buy houses, and get married...or divorced. Or have a wife in every town, maybe even a husband if that's what you want. The amount of things you can get on with is staggering, but we mustn't forget the main quest, which you can take as much or as little time over as you please. Starting with a disturbing event in your childhood it soon becomes apparent that this affects much more than just those closest to you - that you are being called upon to save the world from a great darkness. The story is engaging, well told, and about halfway through the game, when the characters have had time to be fleshed out, it becomes gripping stuff.
There is plenty of fighting to get on with, and you can develop your skills in archery, swordsmanship, and magic - as much or as little as you want (though it's handy to have a balance). Combat is handled very well and there is a large range of impressive-looking monsters to slay and artifacts to unearth, while side-quests given by people who need help also come with rewards.
The main quest isn't particularly difficult, and will take many somewhere in the region of ten hours to complete - for this type of action adventure title that's surprisingly short, but in Fable, as in life, your destination is not the point. The journey is the worthier part, and if you choose to enjoy that journey you can spend as long as you like seeking out ways to do so. Shoot through the quests without distraction, and you'll have played a pretty decent action-RPG. Take your time, breathe in the atmosphere, live for a while in Fable's world of Albion, and you'll get a rich, memorable experience that while not everything that was promised, is still one of the most powerful in gaming today.