Fable the Journey Review

Separated from your tribe, you are on the hunt to find your way back to them. On the journey you find someone in distress, it’s Theresa and she is being chased by the darkness and it is your job to save her and take her to the tower. You and your fellow steed will help her on your expedition, fighting new and old enemies, finding new adventures and admiring the sites of Albion at its greatest.

Set 50 years after Fable III, this new kinect instalment is sure to challenge other games on the market. It’s not your typical exercise and dance game, this is where the fun begins. Using relatively easy movements throughout the game you are not required to stand and can therefore enjoy the game in a much smaller environment. There are two sets of movements, one for use when riding your horse and the other for when your character is exploring the environment. Although there are a fair few things to remember the actions are extremely simple to do and over time become natural.

As you ride along on your journey you will find the occasional “optional stop” on your way, be it to tend to your horse or do a little exploring to find a chest they do help to break up the long ride. Tending to your horse has high importance, without her you are sure to travel nowhere, sometimes you need to heal wounds, pull out arrows or thorns or even just calm her down. Its different having a horse as a companion but it is easier to feel close to her than the dog previously.

As well as these stops you will come across other things as well, such as coloured orbs on the trail. These orbs add up in the top left hand corner to allow you to upgrade your horse and gauntlets. Upgrading will help improve your chances on your journey. Alongside this you will also find enemies which you will need to defeat and doors in which you will need to use your powers to open.

In the main menu you can look at collectable cards which you will find in chests throughout the map. As well as this there is Arcade mode which allows you the player to repeat battles that took place throughout the game as well as compete on leader boards with your friends. Its goal is to complete it in as quick a time as possible without being hit and by killing enemies in various ways.

Graphics 4.5/5

As with all Fable games the graphics are spectacular, scenes are well designed lovely to look at and at times you find yourself concentrating more on the sights around you than on the task at hand, but thankfully when trotting along this doesn’t pose a problem. The only reason I had to take something off the score was because of the jumpiness sometimes throughout the game.

Sound 5/5

Would we expect anything less than this from Fable? I think not. The voices as in the previous games are well done and the background music is just as we would expect. I don’t think I would ever be able to fault such creativity.

Game play 3/5

Although the storey is enjoyable and the game is great fun to play because of its individuality there are flaws with the game that were felt to bring down the ease of play. The lack of response from the kinect movements and the confusion it made between different actions at time became annoying.

I would have much like to have been able to explore more instead of being on a horse or going the way the character has to go, I missed the exploration from the other fable games. Yes there are the optional stops, but it didn’t quite seem enough compared to what you may be used to.

Closing comments

If you’re looking for a game with exploration and variety, this is probably not the best game for you, but this does not mean it is a bad game at all. It was thoroughly enjoyable and a great game to play. It would be great to introduce to the younger generations as well as it is not as dark as the previous ones. It is defiantly worth the purchase I would say, and as long as you calibrate it properly then I am sure you will not have as much trouble as I did.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.