First of all, what is this game about? You're playing a boy which sees his living world torn apart by a bandit raid on his village. Family, friends? Killed, or so you think. You are rescued by the Heroes Guild though and they offer you a chance to train hard to become a true champion and perhaps some day find out who was behind the attack. The developers skipped the character creation part but that doesn't mean you can't shape the main character to your likings. While I am sure there isn't a way to change the boy into a girl you still have a lot of options to adjust your appearance and behaviour. During play you'll be able to find/buy style cards so you can let a barber get you that beard you always wanted. Get your hair cut, or get some tattoos, it's all possible here. All kinds of clothing and armor are available too and just as with the aforementioned appearance options it all has an influence on the way people behave when you're around. Two factors come into play here; attractiveness and scariness. The first will get people (women AND men) to love you, praise you and so on. The second factor impresses people and more or less forces them to give in. The first part of Fable is more like a tutorial, you're in the guild and learning all kinds of stuff while you grow up in seperated steps to a teenager. Afterwards the way of aging is continuously though.

The dual layer of Fable: The Lost Chapters can be found anywhere in the world. Quests mostly give you the chance to act like a real hero, or to take profit and become a villain. In the end your looks will even adapt to your alignment (with horns for the evil guy being the most eyecatching of course). Still, this remains an action roleplaying game with not that much emphasis on the roleplaying part if you ask me. Interaction with non-playing characters (NPC's) is done through emotes and can deliver some funny scenes (sneer, fart, joke all around you want) when NPC's react to it but it isn't deep at all. Dialogues are only quest-related and very passive until you get a simple 'Yes or No' choice. Killing creatures, clearing out monster-infested areas is the main focus. Quests too of course but be assured that these often involve the 'kill a lot of baddies' part too, combined with the usual 'Fetch this or that for me, will you?'. The way you undertake quests is different from time to time. In the Heroes Guild you are offered Quest Cards, with quests that continue the main story arc or sidequests. By just exploring the world you'll find people who need things too. Quests often feature certain boasts, if you complete some of them you'll get a bonus. Clear out a cave of Hobbes with f.e. only your fists and without wearing clothes and you'll get more money and fame.

Experience is gained by killing enemies and solving quests, the way you kill your foes determines how many points you receive for the Strength, Skill, Will attributes. Melee combat is Strength, ranged combat is Skill and spells are related to Will. My character is a swordfighter so he receives more points in Strength after each fight, points I can spend on Strength related stats like Toughness and Health. You also have a general experience points pool which you can use to improve all skills/spells related to the three attributes.

When playing back the intro I couldn't stop thinking about the introduction of the Stargate tv series, especially the theme sounded the same in a somehow shameful way. But once in-game the design and music are well performed and it'll get you in the right mood. There are some glitches in the graphics engine but it's not that worse that it can't be fixed. The game certainly has a graphical style of its own, it might not be as extreme as World of WarCraft but the design is unique, even weird at first. Like when you notice that nearly every character is wearing those heavy, supersized boots. Once the guild training is over and you get the freedom to venture out in the world you'll get more used to the looks of the game though and it generally gets fun. The interface has been well adapted to mouse and keyboard, it's only a pity that the inventory/skills/emotes menus are clumsy. A paperdoll inventory for example could have avoided a lot of unnecessary clickwork here. You might also frown when you're asked not to turn off you PC when the game is saving (like duh), areas are pretty small so you'll see a lot of loading screens. So not all console influences are quite gone. As for the new content, well, the creators have stated more than once you may expect more quests, areas, monsters, music and equipment. Considerably more than what the Xbox version included.