Fable: The Journey is the latest release from the Fable franchise developed by Lionhead Studios and is a Kinect only offering. Labelled as a spin-off standalone title, how can they adapt and ensure that a usually in-depth whilst also ever changing game like Fable works using the often misused Kinect motion sensor?
Set in the world of Albion once more, it introduces you to a travelling tribe and most importantly the guy you will be controlling Gabriel. It’s clear from this part alone, but also backed up later, that he’s almost the daydreamer of the pack who is young and not very well prepared for any battles that may arise. Unfortunately for him after getting split up from the tribe there’s an encount with a blind woman who is in distress, later revealed as Theresa the Blind Seeress, and is being chased by the main evil “The Corruption”.
Against all odds, like all typical heroes he steps up to the plate and helps the woman escape to somewhere safe. Little does he realise it’s a slightly sneaky as she leads him to putting on magical gauntlets, necessary to fight the evil. The story shows him overcoming his fears and attempting to put an end to “The Corruption”, thus hopefully saving Albion. It’s up to you to make sure he manages it once you are placed in his shoes, even before the magical powers are given.
So now you have an idea of the story, what does the game actually allow you to do given the slightly limited Kinect. Well a large proportion involves driving the horse (Seren) and cart between destinations (on a fairly set track) which makes use of your arms to hold the reigns. I like that you can vary the speed of the horse with a simple arms movement because on a straight road it speeds up the journey, same when slowing down, the way you’d expect it to work in real life which means it’s easy to remember.
You have to be careful though; certain terrains at high speed or crashing into a tree will lower Seren’s health. Luckily there are frequent stops where it is possible to feed and heal Seren so as long as you’re moderately capable of steering you shouldn’t ever cause fatality to it. My main issue is the long treks do get rather monotonous however it is eased by witty banter or storytelling by Theresa.
I reckon you’re wondering how you will defeat these enemies, well once on foot (but not exclusively) you will encounter various baddies trying to attack you, my favourites being Hobbes the mini goblins. It introduces you to various spells to use, the simplest being bolt which is the main damage spell that I seemed to use and is a magical blue energy that hits enemies that you aim at. Push is a handy one to keep onrushing enemies at bay by giving them a magical shove and if it tethers on you can also chuck them to one side.
Personally I expected these to be quite inaccurate due to past Kinect experiences but during the learning process it calibrates to make sure it’s getting your practice spells on target. For me it was noticeable just how much difference that made, so maybe it didn’t send every single one to my chosen target but it was so infrequently inaccurate that it didn’t bother me. Excellent job on that front, they’ve obviously put thought into an area which can be overlooked, a simple calibration did the trick along with you attempting to hit the fake targets. As long as you’re in the exact same position for the next game session then it stays the same.
There is a chance to upgrade all your spells, health or even the horse’s health by gaining experience via different way. In the cart there can be various coloured orbs on your path that can only be collected at specific speeds e.g. Blue Orbs whilst trotting and Red Orbs whilst sprinting. Defeated enemies often drop orbs too.
The environments are beautifully crafted and the characters are well defined, during cutscenes it was like watching an animated film of high quality. Add to this the uniqueness in personalities found throughout the game, there’s great storytelling and quite a few jokes snuck in there. Take “Benny The Magnificent” for example, a supposed fortune teller who offers to decorate for you at a very good price. The story is the best part of the game by far, distracting you from what is essentially an iron clad path you are following and doesn’t offer much wiggle room.
Aside from the main story there is only one other mode and that’s Arcade mode, but unfortunately it’s just replaying certain action parts whilst trying to get a high score. I wasn’t overly fussed about this as I’m not a fan of repeating the same parts more than once.
I can easily say it’s one of the best Kinect games I’ve had the pleasure of playing, I really felt immersed in the Fable world. Not to mention the ability to do everything from a seated position means a more relaxing participation. Story is well worth it, gameplay has a few cracks but I don’t think you’ll find a better game of this genre available for Kinect. Don’t expect the variety you get from the Fable series though, it is completely different style but the story telling is better.
8/10