Download Fable

Ever since I first stumbled over Fable on Mobygames, I have been wanting to play it. The game looked stunning with hand-drawn scenes full of details, and a promising story. So when I finally got my hands on the game, I was actually afraid that my hopes were too high. However, three encounters and numerous scenes into the game, all worries were swept away. Not only does Fable look amazing, it packs a solid background story and dialogues as well. And all is done with attention to details and, above all, with lots of humour!

You play the role of a young boy named Quickthorpe, who is chosen to venture out in the world and restore peace to the world of Balkhane. The whole thing began aeons ago, when a race known as the Mecubarz visited the planet. These beings enslaved the people of Balkhane, until that fateful day when the Balkhanians had had enough. Four powerful mages, under the rule of Ishmael, was chosen to defeat the Mecubarz and free Balkhane. However, things didn't go as planned; Ishmael disappearend and has never been heard from again, and the four mages was transformed into hideous monsters doomed to forever terrorize their beloved Balkhane. In additions the Mecubars divided the entire planet into four seperate realms. Now it is up to Quickthorpe to defeat the monsters, and by this lift the curse and unite the four realms.

The story begins in the capitol city in The Frozen Land, where Quickthorpe is given his mission. His first task will be to kill the Ice Giant, and if you think the game starts out easy, then you're in for a surprise (and most likely a quick death). There are a lot of different locations to explore and people to meet, and when you consider all the items and puzzles, the first part could be an entire adventure game on its own. But as soon as you have defeated the Ice Giant, (and collected one out of four gems that is essential to lift the curse), a huge eagle flies you to the next world; The Land of Mists.

Personally, I think the second world is the most scenic and beautiful of all the realms. There are just so many details and small animations placed into each scenes. I often found myself taking breaks from the actual gaming just to be able to look at and to be amazed by the different locations. One incredibly nice thing in the game is that whenever you look at something, a smaller window pops up and gives you a closer look at the item or creature. And usually this closeup views it from another angle, so that you might notice something you didn't spot the first time.

The interface is mousebased, and you swap between the different actions by rightclicking. In order to get access to your inventory, you simply click on yourself. The only problem you might experience is when you want to use an item. Just pay attention to the command that is written at the bottom of the screen whenever you interact with items. For instance, in order to give something to a person in the game, you'll first need to enter your inventory, then TAKE the item in question, then right click the item over the person until you get the option to GIVE the item. I'm sure you'll figure the rest out quickly by yourself.

The game is a DOS game, and will therefore not play in Windows XP. The best would, naturally, to play the game is pure DOS, but DOSBox is a nice alternative. However, if you use DOSBox, then the mouse can seem a bit slow at times, and you might have to click a couple of times before the click is registered. But if you ask me, Fable is definately worth a couple of ineffective clicks.

- When the game starts for the first time, there will be no visible dialogues. This is because the game is meant to include speech. So, in order to show the dialogues as text you need to press Enter to get into the Game Options. Then just restart the game, and you'll see the dialogue from the first scene.
- The music has been removed from the archive, but the sounds are included (including the sounds of the scenery animations, like climbing squirrels and screeching birds).
- Both the into and the outro are included in the archive. We are proud to be the only site that offers these videos. Please enjoy.

- The game will freeze in DOSBox, unless you enhance the cycles to 6000+ (CTRL+F12)!