MGP's official review: Fable Anniversary.

Welcome back to Albion, Hero!

Posted by Bytyqi   10th February 2014
I've tried to keep this review spoiler free, but some content may still serve as spoilers to some. You have been warned.



I'm not gonna lie. When I heard that the original Fable was being remade and would be launching on the Xbox 360, I freaked out (or fell off my chair, can't remember). Fable is the series that started my love for Xbox. I got into gaming relatively "late" in my life. Although I occasionally enjoyed 10 minutes of Resident Evil 2 on the PSOne (That's how long it took to scare me to death and for me to turn off the console) I've never really been into gaming other than that.

My first console that I paid attention to was the original Xbox. Games such as FIFA and Sudeki were the first games that I played. I like my console, and I was happy with the choices of games that I had. Until that day when I saw it on the internet.... It was so brilliant, so flawless. It was Fable.

At first I had no idea what it was. I had heard of it, but much like any other game I quickly misjudged it. But there was something about that that made me stop and actually decide to take a look at it. Very soon this game would become the reason I continued to love video games and the ultimate reason to why I picked up the Xbox 360 when Fable II was released.

Fable Anniversary was released 10 years after the release of the original version of it. Although the very first version did not contain "The Lost Chapters" DLC, Fable Anniversary does. A stunningly beautiful game with in-game dialogues only Lionhead can come up with.



You play as a young boy, that after a disaster sets his goal to hunt down those responsible for their actions. After 10 minutes of gameplay and countless of cut scenes that takes my breath away every time, he is picked up by Maze who has no doubt that this still very young boy can change the history of Albion, once and for all.

What's fascinating about Fable Anniversary is that pretty much everything is the same as it was 10 years ago, when it was originally released. Lionhead didn't touch anything in the plot, they simply enhanced the graphics, remastering the entire game, and best thing of all, they added a bunch of achievements (You'll find more of this further down).

This game is unique because of the fact that the game suits everyone. It has something in it for everyone. Are you a kid? You'll find jokes to make you laugh. Maybe you're a teenager? Then you'll enjoy a well made game with tons of stuff to do. What if you're an adult? You may relate to the story that is being told as you wander the paths of Albion.

It's completely up to you how you want to play. In most cases you're given choices of how you want to deal with a situation. Slay the enemy for all that he's done or perhaps you see regretfulness in his eyes and decide to spare him? The game can be over very quickly by completing main missions, but if you want to fully experience the power and awesomeness of this game, then you'll surely find a ton of side-quests, regions to visit, upgrade skills, collectibles to collect (this does thankfully reward you!) and Demon Doors that may open if you're clever (or the opposite) enough. I like collecting stuff. Although some stuff in-game may not reward you, it can still be a satisfaction to see a full set of a certain type of item.

Even though there are a tons of stuff for you to do that excludes combat, fighting against enemies is needed for you to proceed further into the story. We have Physical combat, Ranged combat and Magic combat (usually referred to as Will). Depending on how you decide to defeat your enemies, you'll be given Experience for that. These can later be spent on upgrades that makes you less vulnerable to enemy attacks, stronger against your foes but also upgrades such as a bigger health bar.



The guys behind this masterpiece are located in Guildford, United Kingdom, so it comes as no surprise that the games contains a lot of British humour. Characters and object you interact with will make you laugh at some point. Examine a tombstone, for instance, and you may read lines such as: "You're standing on my head." or "You've travelled to the future and this is your grave. Just kidding.". Even characters may make you chuckle upon speaking to them.

Lionhead Studios could save "The Lost Chapters" DLC and release it later on and charge people for it, but they didn't. They let us have the entire cake (Read: The cake is NOT a lie) for a pretty cheap pricetag.

They've also made sure to leave a ton of Easter Eggs behind in the game. If you're a hardcore gamer, you may at some points in the game stop and say to yourself: "Hey! I recognize this reference/object!". If you examine a certain tombstone, you may read "It's too dangerous to go out alone. Take this." - If you then proceed to dig on that spot, you get a toy sword. Ringing any bells? Even an achievement is named "What Are Ya Sellin'?" and once it's unlocked it tells you "Is that all, stranger? Come back anytime". A typical Resident Evil 4 reference. Anniversary is full of them.

Unlike Fable II and Fable III, you may not play as a female character. This because the original Fable: The Lost Chapters didn't allow it, and since Lionhead didn't touch any features, they decided to leave it to a male character only. If it's to any comfort, there's a ton of features to add to your character. You may dress in heaps of outfits and wield a bunch of weapons. A stick won't do much, but give it some time and you'll see yourself weilding the best weapons in the game. Either through honest purchases or by stealing. Haircuts, facial hair and tattoos are also fully customisable giving you the option to either display your true self, or just a badass character.

If you still can't find any joy in doing any of the activities I wrote about earlier, you'll also have mission-related hobbies that you can take part in. If you're up for some childish games, then why not take part in the Chicken Kicking Competition, or perhaps you want some more action and decide to take part in the Fist Fights Competition. A ton of features will lie in the world of Albion just awaiting your arrival.

Xbox 360 Smartglass is an application that can be downloaded to your smartphone. This app is very helpful to use with Fable Anniversary. If will give the user a dozen features for them to use, that otherwise would go unnoticed. There's even an achievement for connecting Fable to Smartglass!



Let me start off this section by saying that the achievement list for this game is the most unique and most beautiful I've ever seen. You may notice that every achievement image is designed as a stamp. The explanation behind this is that the guy who designed them used to collect stamps when he was younger, and since achievements are a type of collectibles, he decided to design them this way. Fancy!

Something else that's cool is that you can see how much an achievement is worth once it's unlocked just by looking at its tile. Although I'm neutral of thoughts to this design, it may be helpful if you're viewing your Fable Anniversary achievements on your Xbox. You don't have to navigate through each and one of them to see how much they're worth.

We already know that the game gives you options and that the choices will affect you and the course of the game, but even some achievements let's you make choices. Fed up with the attitude the Demon Doors are giving you and find it impossible to crack them open? Use the Middle Finger expression on all of them, and you will receive the very same achievement you would've received if you gained access to them! Of course, we've learned that there would be consequences so choose wisely, Hero.



To end this review I want to say that despite the fact that some remakes aren't as good as they first would seem to be, I must admit that Fable Anniversary is everything I was hoping to to be, and even more than that. I know I've only given Fable good feedback in this review, but it's my favourite series and I didn't notice any quirks with it.

I did however find the menus a bit hard to get used to. You have to use RT, LT, RB, LB and the LS to navigate and many times I find myself using the wrong one. Nevertheless a great game that truly deserves all the hype and feedback it has been given.

The replay value of Anniversary is high since you may choose different choices throughout your questing and you may also choose to be good/bad on your second playthrough to fully experience the gem that the folks over at Lionhead Studios presented to us 10 years ago, and now, 10 years later, sharpened and polished it back to a brightly shining diamond.
cloelea

cloelea 12 Feb 2014 10:52:46

gr8 review
SweDew

SweDew 14 Feb 2014 19:26:52

Great Review.
cloelea

cloelea 15 Feb 2014 00:23:04

would've love to see your rating increments in the end though on what you rate fables gameplay, graphics, sound, value and overall rating though but hey
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