Fable Heroes, is nothing like the previous Fable games, which will come as a disappointment to the Fable fan base. Fable Heroes is an XBLA game from Lionhead Studios. This time they bring us a fun, family and child friendly, hack and slash adventure through a world based in the Fable world of Albion.
I really like the artistic direction the game has taken. There are bright and vibrant colours everywhere, which are nice and crisp. Each level is different which has allowed the artists to flaunt their skills in different setting, from caves and woods, to snowy areas and deserts. To be short, the visuals of the game are lovely, but I did have some slowdown on very rare occassions at busy times on screen.
Fable fans will be familiar with the playable ‘puppets’ (4 characters to begin with but more available for unlock), enemies (beetles, hobbes, balverines and more) and levels available. Albion is laid out in a board game typed way where you move from tile to tile to different areas. One area I immediately recognised was Bowerstone market, while in cartoon form, I had flashback from when I played the area in Fable 2.
The game itself is based on a 4 player co-op experience, but you are able to play on your own with AI characters, or any number of people taking up the remaining 3 puppet slots. Coin collecting is a main focus; these allow you to upgrade the characters (which I’ll talk about shortly). The leader boards and level ranks are also based on the amount of coins you amass, with each level having a bronze, silver and gold rating. If you are the type to aspire to get the high scores, you’ll definitely be going back to levels, as it’s difficult to get the top gold amount without upgrading your character first. While playing co-operatively it turns into a more frantic collect the coin contest than if you are playing with AI only. At the end of each level the coins are banked along with any coins you have from previous levels.
There is a very quick learning curve, with no complicated attack combos to learn, it is simply light attack, flourish attack (heavy attack) and dodge. This leads to a lot of quick button mashing, especially when you get lost in a screen of enemies, and have no idea where you are. You also have an ‘area attack’ which costs 1 heart. You can 5 hearts worth of life so you need to use the area attack sparingly.
As you work your way through each level there are ‘power up chests’ to open, with a variety of random effects over a period of time – giant hero, tiny hero, slow times, superspeed, doppelganger, stealth and more . But watch out for the ‘Son of Chesty’, as the chest comes to life and start attacking. There are also ‘good’ and ‘evil’ boxes dotted around the place. Playing solo I chose the good box more often than not, which dishes out one of the power up’s for a random character. The evil options tend to be more fun when playing with others. Having a quick game of ‘zap tag’ or reversing the controls of a friend can be quite entertaining
There is no story line to Fable Heroes. Just play level by level beating off enemies until you reach the end. At the end of each level you are given two choices, one leads to a boss, another leads to a mini-game, which range from races, to kicking chickens into a goal. You’ll have to go through each level twice to unlock both of the endings to play again on the world map. And once you complete the Albion world, you unlock Dark Albion, so you can play through it all again in a more difficult environment, with different enemies on each level.
As previously mentioned you can upgrade your character. This is where the upgrade board comes in. Each character has a certain amount of rolls of a dice (based on the amount of coins earned on the previous level). You roll the dice and land on a square, each square has different upgrades, (damage, speed, special moves, appearance and a few more) which you spend your coins on to beef up your character. If you are playing solo, you take charge of the rolls of the AI characters. While this method is endearing at first, it comes to a point where you can’t upgrade your character due to the dice roll always leading you to a square that you have already fully upgraded. Because of this I had around 100K stored up that I couldn’t spend on anything. There is a square on the map board that allows you to share coins with friends though.
While a big part of me was expecting to dislike this game, all in all I did enjoy Fable Heroes. While there are no doubt people shouting ‘this isn’t a Fable game’ which, in a way I guess is true, you need to look at the game for what it is. It’s a fun little pick up and play game which kids and big kids (like myself) can enjoy. It introduces RPG level up elements in a fun little way, and utilises the Albion world well. If you are looking, or expecting a typical Fable game, and won’t accept anything else then look away. If you want a fun XBLA hack and slash game, based in familiar territory, that is family friendly, I would happily recommend this game to you. 7/10