Fable games have always been well known for their freedom of choice. Letting you run free in an expansive, medievally inspired kingdom, you could do anything, from taking over the land, to starting a family, running a shop, busking for money, or even turning yourself into a sort of freelance super-hero, writing any perceived "wrongs" you saw. So when Fable: The Journey was announced for Kinect, with a demo that seemed to suggest the game would be making the majority of the decisions for you, trundling you through the levels on a pre-determined path, while you waved your hands around to cast spells, it's fair to say a lot of people were disappointed.
Blow up goblins, with your hands.
As the dust begins to settle, however, it's starting to seem as though people's concerns were somewhat premature, as the head of the game's developers, Lionhead Studios, Peter Molyneux, has gone on the record with OXM to admit he made a "grave error" with the Fable: The Journey demo at E3.
"I made an horrendous mistake on the press demo on taking out the navigation allowing players to move. I'll state on record now that Fable: The Journey is definitely not on rails."Games news blog VG 24/7 also got an interesting first look at the game, and a chat with Molyneux, who was keen to point out that the E3 demo was not at all representative of the game, which sounds like it'll stay true to its Fable routes.
Said Molyneux: "We begged for eight minutes, we only got four, and it was really hard to get across what Fable: The Journey actually was. We only had time to show a little bit of navigation and little bit of magic. A lot of people have written since that it's Fable on rails - it's NOT on rails. That is a definitive statement. Part of making a Fable experience is to give you a sense of freedom. We absolutely want that. You're free to travel through Albion, taking 300-mile journeys, there are paths and hamlets and caves to explores - it's not on rails"Marrying the free-roaming, do anything goodness of Fable with the hands-free controls of Kinect? A fully explorable world, where you move around without a controller? Sounds like an interesting challenge - only time will tell how Fable: The Journey will turn out.
