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FABLE: THE JOURNEY

For Xbox 360 Kinect

There’s something to be said about motion controls: They suck.

And I mean generally terribly so. The detection on modern motion devices, especially the Kinect, with its extremely dodgy detection, especially compared to the generally superior Playstation Move experience. Not only that, the games have generally been as @#&% as the detection. A truly amazing experience for the kinect has been a long time coming, and I think this is it. It’s a real RPG adventure with serious mechanics for the hardcore gamer who doesn’t want to be held down by a controller.

Now, my experience with the game started about an hour in, so forgive me if I miss a bit. Basically, you’re this character named Gabriel who gets these magic gauntlets… somehow… and must head to various shrines around the world of Albion to gather stones to make them powerful enough to defeat an ancient evil. It is quite literally the classic Hero’s Journey, which is incredibly appropriate. The game revolves around the interaction between Gabriel, his horse Saren, and the blind seer Theresa. And unlike most fable games, surprise surprise, the characters are extremely well developed! Gabriel is unwilling at first but slowly becomes a hero, Theresa is very witty and often a sarcastic counter to Gabriel’s attitude, and the rest of the small supporting cast is generally well built, except for the wandering fortune teller… Who everyone but me seemed to hate.  The fellows I played with said they found him INCREDIBLY annoying… But fortunately he only appears in two or three places and at least Theresa’s responses to him are very witty and I found them hilarious.

The gameplay revolves around your combat spells, which are in your right hand, and your manipulation spell, in your left. You start off with just a bolt offensive spell, but unlock three more over time, particularly the…

*SPOILERS AHEAD* (To see the spoiler, highlight it with your cursor.)

Shard spell. By the time you get this spell about 3/5 of the way through the game, the rest of it basically plays itself if you use it right. It’s a bit overpowered, but the enemies don’t quite scale up to the sometimes annoying difficulty of the rest of the game.

*SPOILERS OVER*

Now, avid readers may note I haven’t talked about something that plagues all motion games: Detection. 

Now, there’s a very good reason for that.

While the detection is BY FAR the best that I’ve seen in a game *For Kinect, and if you get it set up right you’ll be flinging spears and fireballs and tossing hobbes around like the prodigal son of Merlin, which is RIDICULOUSLY fun if you get into it, it still has a few problems in certain spots, but the detection is overall good, if a tad imprecise in places. I remember an optional challenge where you have to hit two targets with a fireball within about five seconds of each other. Now, when you consider that Fireball takes about three seconds to charge and if you miss you have to do it all over again and the detection can be occasionally dodgy (Especially with the left hand spell) it can get VERY frustrating in spots. But for every time the detection is dodgy, there’ll be a time you’re toasting horsemen with a series of fireballs left and right and everything is good again.

The game, overall, has a good bit of filler fluff in it, especially early on. The game is DEFINITELY strongest in its last act, where you’re taking on some massive bosses, putting all your spells to use, particularly the temptress, who I won’t spoil because this boss is… pretty freakin cool.

And I haven’t even gotten to the horse riding, which is a pretty darn cool mechanic, where you sit and take control of the reins of your carriage and steer yourself around hazards while admiring the often INCREDIBLE scenery (There was one moment late in the game where you watch a lighthouse tumble to the ground right in front of you as your horse blazes past in glorious detail.) This game is definitely deserving of the full 1080p treatment, and you WILL feel justified buying that HDTV now.

It looks great, the music and sound is fantastic as well, the gameplay is the most solid experience I have ever had on kinect, and the story of the journey and the fascinating interactactions between Gabriel and Theresa, the massive boss fights and the blast of a spellcasting…

This is the kinect experience that we have all been waiting for, and thank god it finally came.

This game earns a…

BUY IT ANY PRICE

Score, the highest available in my system

In closing, people have always been saying that the kinect is just Microsoft’s attempt to catch up to the Wii’s massive hardware sales, and that they really didn’t care enough to put anything good on the kinect. Well, that my friends and listeners, has finally changed for the better. Fable: THE JOURNEY is the game I think we’ve all been waiting for, and it deserves WAY more press than its been getting. If you’re a kinect owner, go out and get this one right now. I think you’ll enjoy it.

This has been Nevermore with IIWYM?, saying good luck on your own journey, and see you for my next review.


UPDATE: Fable:THE JOURNEY has just come out for Games on Demand on Xbox. Now, if you have Kinect, you have absolutely no excuse to not play this game. Go on and get it now!