Fable: The Lost Chapters

The choices we make influence us and those around us. They shape us and make us who we are. It is very rare however for a game to play upon a person's moral choices like Fable does.

On the surface Fable is your typical real time RPG. You have your generic hero that sets off in the world to find out about himself, meeting many people and adventures along the way. Also, like many RPGs, you can customize how your character looks and plays by choosing different stats. However, Fable takes it a step further. The game takes into account the morals behind your decisions. It keeps tab of each thing you do that is considered either good or evil. This tally affects things such as your appearance, a few of the spells you have at your disposal, and the way other people in the game react to you.

For example, you can rack up "scariness." The higher this is for your character, the more people will cower and run away from you when you come by. "Attractiveness" also plays a part if you ever want to woo a lady into becoming your wife.

Then there's the core idea of good and evil. Choosing evil deeds will make your face pale, your eyes darker and more threatening, and if you do enough evil, horns will even appear on your forehead. On the other end of the spectrum, good makes you look cleaner and more heroic.

The gameplay itself it quite fun. You run around the world free to pillage, break, kill, save, steal, and flirt as you please. If you follow the storyline strictly, the game is said to be short, only 6-8 hours long. However if you let yourself become immersed in the side quests and little nuances of the game (such as trading between traders for profit), the game can easily eat up many many more hours than that.

Overall the game is solid and the freedom makes for great re-playability. I myself have just touched the surface of the game, but hope to delve deeper into its many hidden treasures.