Review: Fable Anniversary

G'day there guys and gals!

For the longest time, I've been a massive fan of the Fable franchise, right from the beginning. I may have had no knowledge at the time and simply borrowing a friend's game, but I have been a fan nonetheless, eagerly awaiting each new installment in the passing years. When I first heard rumours of a  return to the world of Fable, I was excited, already intending to purchase this game and return to my younger years of gaming, overflowing with nostalgia. Even with this fresh in mind and the game in my hands, I have been struggling to overlook the beauty and happiness this game provides for what faults I simply just cannot ignore or tolerate as I progress through the game.

Of course, the first few things you will notice is the graphics and new layout to the game. The graphics look absolutely superb in retrospect to the 2004 original release - each new detail in sunlight, shadows and eye eye movements and hair fibers blowing in a small winds look utterly stunning. These features are slightly faltered due to the camera angle issues, such as AI skeletons jerking and moving irregularly, heads tearing backwards into the character's neck to see a taller NPC and so on.
Pushing this aside, I want to make a mention of the menu. While it can be a little confusing to some, the navigation between the menu and character menus are simple and easy to navigate over time. However the odd glitch here and there will make some items recently found or unlocked unseen or the game won't keep up and fade out the graphic textures and selection boxes.
Gameplay and story are as great as ever, even improving the already sublime storyline from before. Magic, melee and range aren't overpowered as in Fable 3 but instead let players work for their upgrades and purchases for their new weaponry, clothing and more. Some players will even get lucky enough to find certain high-end weaponry simply by exploring the world. Voice acting is ripped directly from the original game and remastered clearly and definitely improved from the original game. While I'm still not a large fan of the voice acting in general, at least this time the words are more comprehensible.
Sound effects are really toned and sharp, hitting different objects, enemies or simply swinging your sword will be very noticeable as you progress through the game. It is a shame however as the limit of sound effects will generically loop eventually, especially so when battling Stone Giants.

Even with the remake's greatness, there are still so many bugs and glitches that I cannot hide. I have tried to ignore a lot of these, still trying to give this game the chance that it deserves, wanting the rush of nostalgia, but they are too great to ignore. More than seven times my console has frozen with or without the music still playing (Even after ejecting the disc!) by the simplistic things of gameplay. Entering a new area is common; the screen will stay black and only by ejecting the disc will work. The most frequent (And incredibly frustrating) is the in-map freezes. Entering a new part on the map (Such as running over to a nook in the in-game map you've never noticed before) may cause the game to freeze, sometimes with music still playing and will remain frozen until you completely unhook your Xbox 360 from the power point. Triple A titles such as these with these many bugs can be forgivable for a time, but even after several patches so far they continue to happen.

The achievement hunter community will be happy with the amount of hilarious and easy/hard achievements (even with the sneaky smartglass achievement) while the fans will be overjoyed to return to the wonderful world of Fable. But as of now, I would not recommend unknowns to play this game just yet. Set your mind off to Fable 2 or 3 or even The Journey before setting yourself to this title. Granted: it is an utterly fun game and an absolute joy to experience, but even it has caused an avid fan to rage quit more than once.

Out of 10, I give Fable Anniversary a 5.5/10

+Enjoyable gameplay/graphics
+Soundtrack and musical score will delight fans
+Skills are leveled and not overdone
-Still not a fan of the voice acting - flat and monotoned
-Guild Seal constantly flashes - constantly in the way of navigation
-Way too many bugs to ignore
-Game glitches and freezing consoles = not happy
-Doors/NPCs won't interact unless perfectly aligned
-Sound effects in combat will repeat

Fable Anniversary is out now for the standard price of $50