Although gaming is a creative industry, perhaps more hypocritical than any other, attributing the success of any product to a single individual is hard to compare with Peter Molyneux. fable series.
Frankly, Molyneux was a gaming executive with a fair amount of power before his unsustainable stigma forced him to leave Lionhead Studios in order to get away and fiddle with cubes or NFTs or whatever he was peddling now. Has absolute power over his own major studio, to the point that entire game features come out of him inventing them in media interviews to “keep reporters from sleeping”. And, the organizational strength within Microsoft’s multi-studio hierarchy, which some see as key to keeping Lionhead independent. After his departure, the studio will slowly but surely collapse, mired in the Microsoft-licensed real-time service Fable game, which never made it to the ground.
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As Wes brilliantly reported at Eurog amer in 2019, it’s a sad end for one of the UK’s best and most popular games studios. And, I think just as tragic, this will be the end of Molyneux as a major player. Even though he fell out of favor for peddling too many bullshit carts that ended up with some frankly shoddy treatment of unsuspecting contest winners, I hope he’s still a big deal: making his crazy RPGs, Conduct his ridiculous interview. Back then the industry felt more exciting.
Still, he screwed up, and that’s it. But Lionhead’s legacy lies in an abiding desire for a new Fable game, and that desire is currently being fulfilled by the good folks at Playground Games, the beloved Forza Horizon factory and one of Xbox Game Studios’ best properties. We’ve heard from various job postings that Playground has put together a great team for this new chapter of Fable, and in my opinion, there’s no doubt they’ll be able to deliver a decent open world action character in Fable style Play the game.
But I do wonder if it could actually be a fable game.
For me, the quintessential Fable game is the second one, Fable 2. It represents Lionhead’s all-out moment, and delivers on most of the original game’s promises—though much-loved—but failing to deliver. Fable 2’s Albion isn’t a seamless open world like you’d see in The Elder Scrolls games, but its areas feel expansive, each with its own unique Characteristics. The NPC simulation stuff felt really revolutionary at the time because you could have really meaningful interactions with non-story characters in an unscripted environment. Of course, it gives you a dog: Powered by a full core of the Xbox 360’s triple-core CPU, Fable 2’s dog behaves like a real companion that learns from your actions as a player, producing real connect. So much so that (spoiler alert) when the dog was shot at the end, many players – myself included – cried as if they had lost an actual pet.
This is the culmination of all the expertise of Lionhead and Molyneux.Sophisticated AI Companions and Pythonesque Humor black and whiteEmergency NPC Actions Moviethe first unapologetic British fableArguably, this is exactly the game the studio has been building throughout its existence. In my opinion, this is undoubtedly the best game Molyneux has ever made as a creative director.
Playground’s journey to become the series’ new custodian doesn’t bear much resemblance to Lionhead’s story. Of course, it certainly helps that it’s a British company, and they’ve arguably created some of the best open world, er, playgrounds we’ve seen in the Forza Horizon series – the most mind-blowing ever. Enjoyable creative driving game idea. I love them even though they made me drive in Edinburgh which is something I used to have to do in real life and it sucks. cough cough.
But one wonders if “Fable” would be “Fable” without the behind-the-scenes drama: the unhinged director rushing to invent half of the game during a press conference. The frantic simulation aspect doesn’t push the narrative forward, it just serves to ground the player in the world. You can almost taste that board push and pull in the air of Albion as you jog through the wilderness, interacting with the world through one-button combat, endless binary choices, and farts.
The Fable game was the product of a group of talented people operating at a certain time and place in the industry at a certain time and place, and it looks very different now. Long ago, when the Xbox was king, Molyneux was a favored courtier. We know what happened after Lionhead’s executive talent fled, and Microsoft began dictating what Fable should be: a complete breakdown. die. The glorious moment was gone.
So, I’m conflicted. I have a lot of respect for the people at Playground who made five of my favorite driving games. Even Edinburgh is included. And, like I said, I don’t doubt their ability to make a good fantasy RPG.They must have been busy bringing in suitable talent. Like every other Xbox fan, I really want Fable to return. The truly fantastic third game builds on a state of the world that needs a follow-up, and given its importance to first-party remixes at the height of the Xbox, it feels as if Fable is absolutely necessary for the platform’s fight back. In a sense, Fable 4’s mission is to take us back to 2008, but also to modernize the series for a new generation of players.
But without Molyneux, without the old team, without the push and pull, without the conflict, without the unhinged craziness injected into the old game, it’s hard not to listen to that nagging and tormenting feeling, no matter how good the new game Fable is, it could be Allegory.
Having said that, as long as you can still kick chicken, it’s probably good enough for most people.
