PC Review Reviews Gaming Fable: The Lost Chapters



Fighting plays a big part in Fable, both weapon and magic based. The more experience you gain (which can be spent at the Guild to upgrade, and acquire new abilities), the more power you have in all aspects of play. If you want to wield huge swords, then the more you use them, the better you will get. The same goes for if you want to make use of magic based, or ranged weapons based combat. A simple click of the mouse performs each action you wish, with a neat little lock-on feature included. Thankfully, controlling actions with your mouse and keyboard feels far better than using the Xbox controller, and you will find yourself side stepping and blocking attacks and countering yourself in no time at all.

As you will no doubt presume, the addition of the ‘The Lost Chapters’ sub heading means that this is not a mere port of the Xbox version of Fable. Instead there is now a wide range of additional features, encompassing additional quests (in both the main storyline and side quests), extra spells and extra weapons out there to find.

The style of RPG that Fable represents, viewed from a third person perspective behind your character, with a mouse and keyboard control system is not widely utilised on the PC. And because of this, it is hard to truly see where Fable stands in regards to the already available top RPG titles. While areas can feel a tad small compared to what us PC gamers are used to, the action based play has not really taken off in this particular genre on the PC. We are used to much more freedom in titles such as Baldur’s Gate, meaning that Fable has much in common with the sublime masterpiece of gaming design, Deus Ex.

Fable: The Lost Chapters ultimately fails thanks to the ambitions nature of its good versus evil ideology. While the ability to play through as either the saviour or as the ultimate villain is a delightful prospect, it is far too black and white to be as interesting as it could have been. However, this one major shortcoming can not hide the fact that this new updated Fable release is a wonderful action based RPG, with some glorious graphics and a whole wealth of additional features over the Xbox original. Ultimately this proves to be a delightful romp, playing as either the hero or the villain. Recommended, but you can not help but feel that it has not reached it's true potential.