Fable (1996) PC

In Fable, an adventure game created by Simbiosis Software studio, we meet Quickthorpe, an inconspicuous young man delegated to perform a dangerous mission. The elders of the village of Balkhane, where our hero lived in peace and quiet, send him into the world with the task of finding four magical crystals, in which the mighty Mecubars enchanted the four seasons, and then scattered them around the farthest corners of the fantastic land.

Communication with the program takes place in Fable using the "point & click" interface, which is modelled on the solutions used in the early nineties by the company Sierra On-Line. The game does not have any additional icons, all orders are selected automatically after hovering the cursor over the point of interest to us. The user selects the appropriate command only in situations involving manipulation of objects (viewing, lifting, using and moving). The commands are then changed by the right mouse button.

A map, which is activated each time you leave a given location, was supposed to help you on your journey through the vast land. Unfortunately, the authors rushed too fast with this feature, making Fable extremely annoying. If the way to the destination goes through another location, the Quickthorpe closes the map and heads to it first, forcing us to walk the entire section, to one of the edges of the screen. There is no question of any facilitation of movement in the land - regardless of the circumstances, the boy will always land in the locations he passes, which does not speed up the journey in any way.

A great advantage of the program is a great visual setting in high resolution mode. The authors put a lot of work into creating the drawings, thanks to which the backgrounds look dazzling. The cartoon character of the graphics is also characteristic of all NPCs. It is true that the creators could do the animation of movement better, but still what we see on the screen is very nice. From time to time we will also see film interludes. Unfortunately, the window, in which cut-scenes are displayed, is not characterized by large size, which makes it difficult to admire them. The sound is at a high level. This applies both to the music and to the issues raised by the protagonists.

Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions regarding this description.

Last updated on 10 December 2007