Microsoft seems eager to capitalize on the Fable brand lately. The announcement of a Kinect-only spin-off, Fable: The Journey was met with either trepidation or ire by many in the core gaming community. Now Fable Heroes has come along, spinning off to an entirely different genre: the beat-em-up. Reaction from fans and critics has been surprisingly harsh, but is the outcry well deserved? On one hand, Heroes pretty much fails to capitalize on the Fable games’ strengths: story, humor, and player choice. On the other, it still manages to provide a fairly decent co-op beat-em-up experience.
Let’s get the most disappointing element out of the way: Heroes has literally no story of any kind – no intro, mid-level cinematics, or anything. Now, brawlers aren’t frequently packed with drama, except for Guardian Heroes, of course. But even the aged classics like Double Dragon, Final Fight, and Streets of Rage all have intros and (usually) endings. Besides, Lionhead must have known that Heroes would be compared against Castle Crashers, the gold standard of modern beat-em-ups. That game managed to squeeze in enough narrative to keep things interesting regardless of its multiplayer focus, without the use of text or voice.
Story or no, Heroes seems to be aimed at the younger set. Instead of controlling human characters, players take on the role of wooden puppet versions of characters from the proper Fable games. At the start, you can only pick from four characters: Hero and Hammer (both melee types), Reaver - a gun user, and Garth the mage (also ranged type). Several more characters can be unlocked by beating the game or purchased in the post-level minigames. Playing Fable: the Journey when it comes out will also unlock a couple of exclusive characters (and gold can be transferred between the two games).
Heroes’ combat won’t win any awards for innovation, but it gets the job done. You’ll mostly rely on mashing the standard attack button (X) to deal damage. Strong attacks (Y button) are just plain too slow to be effective unless upgraded. Forget about chaining the two attack types; Heroes lacks even a rudimentary combo system. Area attacks (Right trigger) provide another assault option, though they cost health so I rarely used them. Annoyingly, you can’t walk through other players or enemies, but the roll button (B) makes getting away from Balverines and other unfriendlies relatively painless. Whenever a player dies, he or she gets to continue fighting as a ghost. Ghosts can’t pick up gold, and the game ends when no living players remain. Picking up hearts returns deceased players to life – usually a good thing, unless the departed is just dead weight.
Like Castle Crashers, each character levels up independently. Unlike that game, you’re never truly solo here; any empty spots in a single- or multiplayer game get filled by AI companions. Though the bots behave kind of mindlessly, they do make playing by yourself feel less lonely. Plus, whatever gold or upgrades a bot acquires actually count towards that character’s progress for the host player. In other words, even if you play alone, you’ll be leveling up four of your characters at once.
Instead of collecting XP from downed enemies, you literally grab the gold that spills out of them when they die. That gold can then be spent on character upgrades in a dice-rolling minigame at the end of the level. Gold is not shared by default, and it disappears after a few seconds anyway, making combat a mad scramble to get what you can while the getting’s good. Then again, killing enemies without getting hit increases your gold multiplier, so sitting out and behaving selfishly the whole time won’t necessarily profit you most in the end. Also, ranged characters simply can’t get to the gold as quickly as their compatriots - quite a handicap. Thankfully for those who don’t like competition mingling with their co-op, you can opt to share gold equally among all players by choosing the Family difficulty. I much prefer Family’s sharing rules but wish we could enable them independently of lowering the difficulty.
As for the dice-rolling minigame, each player gets one or more rolls per level. Most spots on the board offer three or four abilities to purchase such as increased damage or speed, with a few special tiles that let you move to other spots. It’s a more random and drawn-out method of unlocking upgrades than Castle Crashers, for better or worse. When you’re down to just a few final abilities, you may have to beat several levels before you land on the necessary spaces to max out your character. Playing minigames can speed up the process though. Some take less than a minute to complete, and you still get to roll the dice at the end.
The awkward child of a party game and brawler, Heroes lives or dies by its co-op features. Lucky for the game then, it does not disappoint. Any combination of four online and offline people can play together. Everyone but the host can drop in or out at any time, saving their own character progress and earning Achievements along the way. One minor caveat –choosing to Play Offline from the title screen prevents online players from being able to join that session. Better just to host private multiplayer games and let friends come as they may.
While Fable Heroes doesn’t skimp on the multiplayer options, looks are another story. The simplistic player puppets not only appear to have fallen from the fabled Ugly tree, but they’re devoid of the series’ trademark personality as well. Fable fans will enjoy revisiting the famous locations that make up the game’s levels, each of which packs a fair amount of detail and variety. However, the backgrounds’ coloring is just plain garish and doesn’t contrast properly with the characters, often leading to confusion. A camera that loves to zoom too far out and occasionally awkward camera angles create a similar effect.
Fable Heroes looks bad on paper since it lacks the series’ heart and does few things particularly well. But rolling the dice and kicking around a few hobbes with friends or family can still be pretty fun. In fact, Heroes’ simple gameplay and party game elements make it a prime candidate for playing with the kids and/or a significant other. Opening up the Fable franchise to casual audiences isn’t such a bad thing; let’s just hope Microsoft and Lionhead play more to the series’ strengths next time out.