Fable! Meh.

Finished Fable (the XBox RPG) this past weekend, after a two or three week hiatus. My overall impression?

Meh.

It wasn't a bad game, but it wasn't that great, either. It's hard to say exactly what it was lacking, I just ended up not caring for it. It had a lot of cool elements, but a lot of lame ones too. Why would you get everything on cards? Do today's youth only relate to card-based systems, having been weened on Magic and Pokémon? And why do I have to pick up "experience orbs" when I kill something? Who the hell else is going to pick that up?

The plot was a little too linear as well, and the side details - while interesting - didn't really add to the game. My character got married and bought a house for his wife at one point. Cool, but what purpose did it serve? I never went back to see what the wife was up to, but that didn't diminish the climax of the game. I could have gotten tattoos or different haircuts, but again, who cares? On an on-line RPG that would be interesting, but when I'm the only one looking at the game? The guys at Penny Arcade had that point pretty well pegged.

I think Morrowind spoiled me. I knew not to expect Morrowind when I bought Fable, but still, I think I expected more. Maybe due to the hype, though I tried to ignore that. Hard to say. In the end, I don't regret having bought and played the game, but I could have lived without it. On the other hand, I like to think that playing Morrowind and Knights of the Old Republic were experiences that I would have been the poorer for had I not done them.