Fable Download (1996 Adventure Game)

A classical graphic adventure with hand drawn backgrounds. The hero Quickthorpe must travel through four fantasy worlds (each dedicated to a particular element) in search of four mystic gemstones in order to free his people.

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.

Fable is a decent point-and-click adventure from Telstar that unfortunately got very little notice due to lack of fanfare, limited distribution, and the general slump in adventure game genre. The plot is typical fantasy mumbo-jumbo: you control Quickthorpe, who is tasked with finding the four fabled jewels to restore his land to former peace. Gordon Aplin echos up my feelings about the game in his review at the Quandary:

"Overall, I thought that Fable had a lot of potential that was not quite fulfilled. The dialogue and the ending were, for me, disappointing, as was the lack of any real depth to the story. On the other hand, I still enjoyed the adventuring components, but then, I do like this style of graphic adventure. Experienced players may find it to be a bit too easy, but it's certainly entertaining enough to provide light relief between tougher games and offers a reasonable challenge to players new to the genre. I'd like to recommend it as suitable for all the family, but just remember that it does contain some rather immature and uninspired dialogue."

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

People who downloaded Fable have also downloaded:
Discworld, Discworld 2: Mortality Bytes, Discworld Noir, Fable: The Lost Chapters, Fable III, Gilbert Goodmate and the Mushroom of Phungoria, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist