Molyneux Talks Fable 2

Eurogamer has some details from a discussion with Peter Molyneux, on the upcoming Fable 2 and the as-yet-unnamed 'Project Dmitri.' The site comments on Molyneux's obvious enthusiasm for his work, and manages to get a few tidbits of information from the designer on these in-production titles. From the article: "I think it's exactly what Lionhead stands for - it's uniqueness, it's originality and it's taking something and doing something with it that no-one's done before. And that's really what the core of what the whole of Fable is. Fable 2 should be everything you expect, then 10 times more that you don't expect — and that doesn't just apply to this one feature ... I almost said it then! — that applies to the whole game."

Fable

[bahwi]

Fable was a cool, fun, good looking game. It was just, well, short. I mean, one sitting to finish it. I don't think I even hit 10 horus, whereas I'm almost halfway done with Suikoden 6 and at about 45 hours(I goof off a lot in that game).

But Fable was fun, I just didn't want to repeat it b/c of the "Hero Academy" BS, which should be shortened, eliminated, or given a skip-thru, at some point, it's too obvious and too much of the same things.

But it was fun, just, you know, short.

Good at innovation...

[Exsam]

Horrible at content! Yes, the lionhead games are unique and different and some of the gameplay features are very fun, however that all means squat if the game you make doesnt have the content to make it worthwhile. For example Fable was a very fun game, but its also the shortest RPG i've EVER played, totaling all of 8 hours of gameplay. I expect 8 hours from a FPS but from a RPG I expect to get at least 30 hours of normal gameplay out of it before i've finished the main story. So go ahead and make your new and innovative features Lionhead, but while your at it make sure you add in some content this time around and if you find you are not up for the job hand the engine over to someone whose proven themselves able to do such a job; Bioware for instance. Just my $0.02.

Re:Fable

[EggyToast]

It doesn't help that it was initially hyped as being a hyper-sandbox, where everything you do is unique. Really the only unique thing was character customization, which triggered different scripted events. I know lots of people who would try to make a character a certain extreme way, only to get sick of dealing with the same thing over and over again (constant marriage requests, or the inability to enter any town at all, all with the same time-consuming results).

Lionhead's problem, and Molyneux's especially, is that they hype their games as if they were something entire new and unique. They're not. Black & White was an updated Populous game, only really short. Fable was similar to a Baldur's Gate/Zelda hybrid, only really short. They've got good ideas, but they spend so long fleshing them out that they end up chopping up half the game and the only thing left is a very short adventure for the amount of enjoyment people are supposed to have. 4 real worlds in B&W for a "play god and have complete customized control" game? 10 hours for a "create a unique character that exists in a unique world" game?

If Fable developed the story at half the rate it did, focused less on the characters reaching their more-or-less finished state, and gave the user some in-depth exploration, it would've been tons better. But, more than likely, Fable 2 will suffer the same fate as B&W 2 did -- it'll fix a lot of things wrong with the first game while presenting a bunch more problems that make the game plain unfun.

He never learns

[Swordsmanus]

Unique? Innovative? Most of everything in Fable had already been done better by Bioware with several of their past games. Changing your character's looks depending on if you're good or evil? KotOR. Good/evil storyline? Just about all of their games. The rest was done better a few months later by GTA: San Andreas - superior in-depth character customization, better sandbox, better action, etc. I bet by the time Fable had come out, the stage of development San Andreas was in still topped all of Fable's features.

This time make it really about good vs evil

[SmallFurryCreature]

Evil, true evil is not just doing things that benefit you, but doing things that even may hurt you just because they hurt others. But good is even harder. The 3 childhood "quests" to start your character off do NOT have you do good for goodness sake. You do good for your own self advancement.

For those who haven't played it you get the main quest of buying your sister a present. Your father will reward any good deeds with a shiny gold piece and there just happens to be a salesman with a box of candy for sale.

The last quest is too simple, either protect some barrels or destroy them.

But in the end being good gets you no hazzle and 3 gold pieces. Being evil gets you hazzled and the same 3 gold pieces. You still end up spending your hard earned money on your sister, who at this point has done nothing to justify being given a gift. Yes she will be important later in the game but right now she is just sibling A apparently demanding you work your butt off to give her candy.

My problem with the game is that it just doesn't seem to reward evil and doesn't make you pay for being good. If the game would have just allowed you to pass the teddy of as a present allowing you to keep your money then being nasty would have been worthwhile. Who is going to join the mafia if they pay the same as the cops? On the other hand a truly decent cop would probably find life a lot harder to deal with as he lives in world were most people are in the grey area between good and evil.

Fable has none of this.

You also had precious little chance of influecing the story. No choices for instance on how the story of the side characters fate turned out. The PC version had an extended bit where you learned the fate of the original characters but I at least never felt as if I had been the one to set them on their path. Just side stories on a preset path.

For all the romance crap in the game, wich in the end was little more then spamming moves until you score enough points, you never get the chance to romance a named char. Evil? Incest. Good, get the black girl.

Fable just felt shallow. Yes, Planescape Torment and the Fallout series probably have spoiled me for life but even the bards tale was more of an RPG. Both these recent "RPG"'s light just seem to be more about hack&slash then about story and roleplaying.

Give us the lone hero, the troubled pragmatist worried about his soul, the evil maffia boss who own everything but has nothing. Give us STORY!

Oh and this time, make the weapons a bit more like their real world counterparts. Swords, katakana's and axes are not ALL the same weapon and should at minimum at least be swung differently.

When the list is made of the greatest RPG's in history, fable will be one of the also rans. Total mediocrity.

Anyone else want to join on a raid to capture the people behind Fallout and the entire Baldur Gate line of games and the people from troika (and some excellent bug squashers) and just put them in a dungeon and force them to make RPG's?