Fable
is a
third person perspective graphical adventure in which you
control the character of Quickthorpe in his quest for four fabled
jewels. The story unfolds as you progress through the game and the
background is presented in the introduction.
Long
ago, it
seems, your world was taken over by a race of space
travellers known as the Mecubarz who appeared as luminous orbs. Over
time your people came to resent their enslavement and an attempt was
made to overthrow them by Ismael and four companions, but this went
horribly wrong. In their retribution the Mecubarz sundered the world
into four separate and unchanging domains -- Ice, Mist, Water and Fire.
Ismael disappeared and his co-conspirators were transformed into
powerful, but evil, creatures each destined to rule over a particular
domain. The Mecubarz then departed leaving a specific jewel of power
with each of the rulers.
"Fable is a decent point-and-click adventure from Telstar that
unfortunately got very little notice due to lack of fanfare, limited
distribution, and the general slump in adventure game genre."
Ever
since I
first stumbled over Fable
on Mobygames, I have
been wanting to play it. The game looked stunning with hand-drawn
scenes full of details, and a promising story. So when I finally got my
hands on the game, I was actually afraid that my hopes were too high.
However, three encounters and numerous scenes into the game, all
worries were swept away. Not only does Fable look amazing, it packs a
solid background story and dialouges as well. And all is done with
attention to details and, above all, with lots of humour!
You play
the role of a young boy named
Quickthorpe, who is chosen
to venture out in the world and restore peace to the world of Balkhane.
The whole thing began aeons ago, when a race known as the Mecubarz
visited the planet. These beings enslaved the people of Balkhane, until
that fateful day when the Balkhanians had had enough. Four powerful
mages, under the rule of Ishmael, was chosen to defeat the Mecubarz and
free Balkhane. However, things didn't go as planned; Ishmael
disappearend and has never been heard from again, and the four mages
was transformed into hideous monsters doomed to forever terrorize their
beloved Balkhane. In additions the Mecubars divided the entire planet
into four seperate realms. Now it is up to Quickthorpe to defeat the
monsters, and by this lift the curse and unite the four realms.
The story
begins in the capitol city in The
Frozen Land, where
Quickthorpe is given his mission. His first task will be to kill the
Ice Giant, and if you think the game starts out easy, then you're in
for a surprise (and most likely a quick death). There are a lot of
different locations to explore and people to meet, and when you
consider all the items and puzzles, the first part could be an entire
adventure game on its own. But as soon as you have defeated the Ice
Giant, (and collected one out of four gems that is essential to lift
the curse), a huge eagle flies you to the next world; The Land of
Mists.
Personally,
I think the second world is the
most scenic and
beautiful of all the realms. There are just so many details and small
animations placed into each scenes. I often found myself taking breaks
from the actual gaming just to be able to look at and to be amazed by
the different locations. One incredibly nice thing in the game is that
whenever you look at something, a smaller window pops up and gives you
a closer look at the item or creature. And usually this closeup views
it from another angle, so that you might notice something you didn't
spot the first time.
Suitable
for Windows
95/98/ME/2000/XP
£1
from each sale will be donated to UNICEF
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|
£1
from every sale of
this CD goes direct to the UNICEF Charity.
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