Review: Fable: The Journey

Colorful characters are encountered along the way that assist in your travels. These characters range from mildly amusing to surprisingly developed. One of the most emotional relationships in the game is with your horse Seren. As she’s with you every step of the way, willing to march into danger at your command, a surprising bond is quickly formed. Camps are periodically reached where, among other things, Seren can be feed, healed and cleaned. Touches like these really go along way to ensure she’s not rendered a lifeless form of transportation.

Choosing to be good or evil was usually straightforward. Several of the main quests had an optional way to end them depending on the outcome, typically spare the foe for good points and kill them for evil. There were a couple quests where there were two available quests but they were the same event, the choice was just to determine what side the player was on which actually was a cool way of making it feel like you were choosing a side. A more fun way to rack up the evil points was to just go on a Grand Theft Auto style rampage in town and kill a bunch of guards and civilians, but again no killing children since they take away your weapons in the towns with kids. This can actually cause some problems, since you may want to go to town but end up having a massive bounty in several towns that doesn't expire for a few days.

While creating a sprawling adventure game online guide controlled only by body movements may seem impossible, the world has been carefully sculpted around the concept. Nearly the entire game is on-rails, with player-controlled progress limited to traveling via horse and carriage. Movement of Seren is controlled by grabbing onto the reins. Once holding on, jerking both hands up in a cracking motion makes the horse go faster, while pulling your hands up towards your body stops her. To move left or right, you pull the hand of the intended direction towards you while extending the opposite arm. Intensity is based on how fast and dramatic the gestures are. Instead of simply darting to the next area, however, players must pay attention to not run into obstacles while scoping out any side-areas, where treasure chests or revealing NPCs can be found.

While Molyneux’s inventive mindset gave rise to the "god game" genre (a genre loved by many a PC gamer), he’s also earned himself a number of negative connotations with how he promotes his games. It’s become a running joke that Molyneux tends to hype up any project he invests in to absurdly high levels, only to have the games miss their mark in one way or another. Fable became one of the most noteworthy examples of this "Molyneux Paradigm." During the game’s development, Fable was regarded by Molyneux and Lionhead as a paramount innovation in role-playing games. Using more open-ended role-playing elements like morality and personal alignments was pitched as this rejuvenation of the role-playing idea, a way to give players more options in creating an avatar and playing to their liking. Molyneux himself even referred to Fable as what would be "the best game ever" during the development.


Peter Jackson's take on The Hobbit didn't quite live up to the standards set by the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but an adaptation of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor could be a great addition to the movie canon. The game takes place after the events of The Hobbit but before The Lord of the Rings , and focuses on a Ranger called Talion, who is killed by Sauron's forces but is saved when a wraith merges with his body, turning Talion into an undead warrior with some very unique abilities. Enraged by the slaughter of his family, Talion proceeds to single-handedly wreak havoc on Sauron's army of Orcs, playing an unsung role in preventing the fall of Middle-ea

If there ever was a game designer that should not talk about his games prior to their release date, it's Peter Molyneux. When discussing his projects, Molyneux has a childlike sense of excitement where he will enthusiastically share details on his grand ambitions for the title. This is actually quite refreshing in itself, because who doesn't enjoy hearing someone passionately discuss their creative projects? The problem with this occurs when the game in question is actually released. The game itself could be good, even great if it were simply judged for what it is, but disappointment is going to happen when a title fails to deliver on lofty promises no matter how good it may otherwise. The most memorable example of Molyneux creating hype that the game couldn't live up to was 2004's Xbox exclusive action RPG Fable.

Besides combat and travel, there are plenty of other motion-based opportunities throughout Albion. Activities like corralling chickens, lighting lanterns and moving obstacles may seem mundane, but serve to enrich the experience, making sure there’s always a fresh task to keep players interested. Most of these secondary actions have their own unique movements to avoid redundancies. Not content to let your arms have all the fun, there will be times where multiple paths can be selected from by bending your torso left or right. With all the different movements, it’s clear Lionhead was content on utilizing the full potential of motion-control.