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Molyneux Talks Fable 2
Eurogamer has some details from a discussion with Peter Molyneux, on the upcoming Fable 2 and the as-yet-unnamed 'Project Dmitri.' The site comments on Molyneux's obvious enthusiasm for his work, and manages to get a few tidbits of information from the designer on these in-production titles. From the article: "I think it's exactly what Lionhead stands for - it's uniqueness, it's originality and it's taking something and doing something with it that no-one's done before. And that's really what the core of what the whole of Fable is. Fable 2 should be everything you expect, then 10 times more that you don't expect — and that doesn't just apply to this one feature ... I almost said it then! — that applies to the whole game."
Fable 2 should be everything you expect, then 10 times more that you don't expect - and that doesn't just apply to this one feature... I almost said it then! - that applies to the whole game.
Good to see that Molyneux has learned his lesson about over-promising!
Horrible at content! Yes, the lionhead games are unique and different and some of the gameplay features are very fun, however that all means squat if the game you make doesnt have the content to make it worthwhile. For example Fable was a very fun game, but its also the shortest RPG i've EVER played, totaling all of 8 hours of gameplay. I expect 8 hours from a FPS but from a RPG I expect to get at least 30 hours of normal gameplay out of it before i've finished the main story. So go ahead and make your new and innovative features Lionhead, but while your at it make sure you add in some content this time around and if you find you are not up for the job hand the engine over to someone whose proven themselves able to do such a job; Bioware for instance. Just my $0.02.
"To face death, that's nothing much. But to feel really stupid when you die, well, that would be insufferable."
I'd like to see a game that let's you play through the original and let you use your orginal charecter, even if he is god-like. Kind of like with Baldur's Gate.
Another thing I'd like to see is weapons that make a difference. In Fable you used the katana or the hammer because they did the most damage. That was basically it. Adding powers to weapons was nice too.
The game was far too short. I tried to complete as much of the game as possible, but that didn't seem worth it. Another gripe I had was the 'attractiveness' attribute. I didn't like the fact that if I thought my charecter looked cool in white leather, and he was a good guy that every person in town asked you to marry them. It got so annoying I had to slaughter whole cities for some peace and quiet!
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Lionhead's problem, and Molyneux's especially, is that they hype their games as if they were something entire new and unique. They're not. Black & White was an updated Populous game, only really short. Fable was similar to a Baldur's Gate/Zelda hybrid, only really short. They've got good ideas, but they spend so long fleshing them out that they end up chopping up half the game and the only thing left is a very short adventure for the amount of enjoyment people are supposed to have. 4 real worlds in B&W for a "play god and have complete customized control" game? 10 hours for a "create a unique character that exists in a unique world" game?
If Fable developed the story at half the rate it did, focused less on the characters reaching their more-or-less finished state, and gave the user some in-depth exploration, it would've been tons better. But, more than likely, Fable 2 will suffer the same fate as B&W 2 did -- it'll fix a lot of things wrong with the first game while presenting a bunch more problems that make the game plain unfun.
- Theme Park was a blast but NPC pathfinding was weak so areas of your park would get trashy and puke-riddin, and guests would get lost behind fences.
- Black and White had awesome potential as a "hands-on" (pun intended) god game with a cool creature that developed a unique personality, but the game lost its sandbox appeal in lieu of an average RTS with a counter-intuitive interface for that genre.
- Fable (for PC) was very pretty, had great voice acting and tons of personality, but was short and basically a world full of several simplistic minigames.
- The Movies was a surprisingly fun tycoon game and making your own movie was really nifty and amusing, but there just weren't enough scene emotes and the post-production editing suite was too bubbly and dumbed-down.
I'll definitely check out Fable 2 but I just can't look forward to Molyneux's games with the same starry-eyed enthusiasm anymore. His games are wonderful the first time around, but unfortunately when you go back for a replay the first thing you notice is the most annoying bug you encountered last time.Regardless, Molyneux is a risktaker and an innovator and the gaming world has a lot to thank him for. It's tough to do something right the first time around, and many successors have built empires atop his various foundations over the past couple of decades.
Unique? Innovative? Most of everything in Fable had already been done better by Bioware with several of their past games. Changing your character's looks depending on if you're good or evil? KotOR. Good/evil storyline? Just about all of their games. The rest was done better a few months later by GTA: San Andreas - superior in-depth character customization, better sandbox, better action, etc. I bet by the time Fable had come out, the stage of development San Andreas was in still topped all of Fable's features.