It appears as though there are some rumors going around that Microsoft might be looking to reboot the Fable series. Most of the time I groan at the thought of a game series getting an actual reboot, but if there’s any one game out there deserving of it, it’s Fable.
I’m not talking an HD remaster, or even a remake. I mean a full on reboot of what Fable was supposed to be. While it was a good game in its own right, it was a victim of a bloated development cycle and the infamous Peter Molyneux Hype Machine. Molyneux was well known for his ambition, and most of the time he talked up features that, in reality, just couldn’t happen. Fable was to be a life simulator-RPG hybrid with not only an evolving world that changed according to your actions, but a hero that also evolved.
By the time Fable released on the original Xbox, it was a linear adventure game that barely resembled the ironically named Project Ego that had been hyped. It was a decent game but couldn’t hope to live up to the expectations that had been set, and a relatively short run-time didn’t do it any favors. It had a ton of charm and a fun art style, but the gamers couldn’t help but wonder what might have been.
It’s a bit of a coincidence that I’ve been playing Fable Anniversary, so the game is pretty fresh in my mind. Let’s talk about what, in the event of a true reboot, should be kept, lost, or fixed from the original Fable. Shall we get started?
Keep the jobs and real estate. As a staple of the Fable series, there’s always been other opportunities to make some money beside questing and selling loot. The menial jobs, like wood chopping, didn’t come along until Fable II, but there’s no reason why it couldn’t fit perfectly into a newly realized Albion. The real estate should return, with the ability to own houses in various towns to either live in or rent out.
Lose the segmented maps. One of the worst things about traversing the land of Albion is that the world is broken up into tiny segments that only take a minute or two to traverse, meaning a lot of time is spent looking at loading screens. Luckily, this was a limitation of the hardware back then, and shouldn’t even be a factor nowadays. With games like The Witcher 3 and Ghost Recon Wildlands sporting gigantic seamless maps, a wide open Albion is practically a given.
Tighten up the controls, and fix the combat. Fable doesn’t really have a set combat system, since every sequel took liberties in changing it up in a different way. This actually works to Fable’s advantage, as there isn’t really a Fable feel that a developer would have to worry they might screw up. This isn’t Killer Instinct, where one slight change in the wrong direction could make the entire game feel wrong. Fable’s combat was always pretty generic, and it leaves the door wide open for a new, polished combat system. It doesn’t have to be anything terribly complicated either. In fact, I think the system it originally had in place was functional, if not terribly flashy. With an improved block & parry system and a few different attack methonds, it could be quite good. An overall tightening up of the controls and camera would be nice, as well.
Keep the morality meter, renown, and relationships. Since Fable was originally intended to be a life simulator, removing these systems would remove part of what made Fable so intriguing. In Fable, your character’s morality played a huge role in the clothes you wore, the way you physically looked, and how other people reacted to you on the street. Your character’s renown was his fame, and the higher it got, the more peasants clapped and gathered as you walked by. Or, if you’re the despicably evil type, they’d scream and run. It was really fun to see the deeds you’ve done reflected in a noticeable (albeit somewhat limited) manner. Relationships played off of your character’s morality and clothing, both which affected the way others see you. In the first Fable this was limited to an “attractiveness” meter, but this could be altered in favor of some other method of social interaction. However…
Lose the character’s appearance being dependent on their play style. In Fable, I enjoyed using magic. What I didn’t enjoy, however, was my character looking like Emperor Palpatine. There was a constant evolution to the player’s character depending on how I played. If I played with a ton of melee combat, my character would start to show visible scars and signs of a hard life. If I used a ton of magic, my character’s skin would begin to glow with magical runes and symbols, and his face would show advanced aging. If I used only a bow and arrow… well I don’t know because playing with only a bow in Fable was practically impossible. These all sound cool on paper, but ask any Fable player if they like the look of their character, and the most likely answer will be “no.”
Fix the save system. Fable’s original save system was checkpoint based, with the option for a manual save, but the manual save only saved from the last checkpoint if you were mid-quest, and even then it was sketchy at best. More than once I had to reload old saves because of corruption, and once I even loaded a save that reset me back to an earlier point in the game, but keeping the items I already had. It was game breaking. There’s a simple fix to this though; Allow the player to save anywhere, at any time.
Keep the music and the sense of humor. Fable had a pretty good sense of humor, and it’s one that hasn’t really been attempted since. Games like The Witcher 3 have a bit of dry humor sprinkled here and there, but Fable took the Euro-jank aspect and cranked it up to eleven. Just because the game is being rebooted and re-imagined doesn’t mean they have to lose that Fable charm. The music soundtrack for Fable was also wonderfully done, and it would be a joy to hear updated versions of the more Tim Burton-esque pieces, as well as new fully orchestrated tracks.
Lose the fugly character models. The original Fable, and later Fable Anniversary, had a great art style and pleasing aesthetic, but that’s not to say the character models weren’t downright fucking hideous. The main character, as a child, looks like silly putty wrapped around a potato, and it doesn’t get much better the older he gets. The characters in the game are infamously ugly, something that was a design decision for the low polygon days of game development. But for Fable Anniversary, they upped the polygon count while keeping with the exaggerated and mis-proportioned character designs. It’s a bit disheartening for the folks of Albion when my Elephant Man of a hero has a maxed out attractiveness rating. That said…
Add a proper character editor. Fable is supposed to be my story. So why were we stuck with pre-designed characters for three games in a row? Sure, they were changeable to an extent, but why can’t I have the hero I want to play? There are some pretty amazing character creation modes out there. Saints Row II, Black Desert Online, and Dragon Age Inquisition are just a few off the top of my head that really let you dig into the minutia of a character to make them just how you want them. And in the case of Fable, shouldn’t that be the point?
Lose the emotes. Belching on someone was fun for about 15 seconds. There could still be a few actions such as flaunting trophies and flirting, but it should stop there. Also, don’t confine gift-giving to a button press. I don’t know how many times I gave away a valuable item to no one because I accidentally pressed the D-pad. Relationship sims are a dime a dozen nowadays, and there are plenty of examples of how to (and not to) go about it.
Fix the quest system, but keep the Hero’s Guild. Quest Cards were an alright means of following the story, but I think it could grow beyond that. Let the Hero’s Guild be a start-up, and as you venture out and build renown, you also increase the reputation of your guild, as your reputation grows, your money increases and your guild grows. As your guild grows, the more high-level quests you can accept. Perhaps you could even meet NPC’s out in the world that you can recruit to the Hero’s Guild to take jobs on your behalf.
Don’t worry about online play. The world of Albion is best left to explore solitarily. Introducing multiplayer, whether it’s just one to three other companions, or a wide open server full of people, it effectively changes the world design. Albion should be large, but dense, and all exploration should have a sense of wonder and peril. All tension and atmosphere flies out the window when playing with friends.
And last, but not least…
Have fun with it! Fable never took itself too seriously, and nor should it. The great thing about the game is that it was ridiculous. Go all out with the wearable outfits, usable weapons, silly quests, colorful characters, and fantastical locations. Support it consistently. Offer a large changing world. Make some areas truly difficult and others relaxing. Have seasonal events. If you must, monetize it by offering cosmetic items in a store, or cool skins. Albion could be a world we spend a lot of time in, if we’re given a reason to do so.
I’m a big believer that a single player game can mimic an MMO and be successful. Games like Stardew Valley have people (like my wife) absolutely captivated, with no online integration or characteristics whatsoever (at least not yet). There’s no reason, in this day and age, that a single player game cannot constantly evolve and grow like an MMO. I believe there is a place for a single player game to have constant small, free updates throughout the year, with one big annual expansion. I would like to think that Fable would be the game that pulls it off.
