太空游侠 2：统治者 Space Rangers 2: Dominators p.348

我认为人们还能记得《神鬼寓言》是真是太好了，一些人真的非常热衷于这款游戏。对我来说，再次回顾《神鬼寓言》其实体验很差。我最多只能说它是支离破碎的。我认为游戏情节不够吸引人，机制并不是特别有趣，节奏完全不对，教程也很糟糕。我认为战斗在一段时间后变得过于‘同质化’。这一连串问题气得我咬牙切齿。

I do think though, that innovation is a scary thing these days because it costs so much to make a game. I mean, it costs tens of millions of dollars, and when you've got crazy designers waving their arms around like me, saying 'Why don't we try not using a mini-map' or 'Why don't we try having interactive cutscenes' then people are going, 'Yeah, well, okay, you can try that, but it's gonna cost you twenty million to do'. That is very scary for a lot of people.

Peter Molyneux
《神鬼寓言》创造者

Peter Molyneux,
Fable's creator

这种互动反应，虽然大多是虚幻的，但也很有趣。当你完成任务凯旋归来，走进酒馆时受到欢呼和掌声，NPC 对你的行动进行评论，这是相当令人欣慰的。卓越的配乐和多彩的艺术风格更是锦上添花，给游戏带来了轻松愉快的基调。总的来说，它看起来还是不错的，而且游戏自身支持高清分辨率。

现在的眼光来看，这游戏的缺点是小而线性的地图。《神鬼寓言》没有提供巨大的开放世界，而是划分为相互联系的小区域，用载入画面做场景切换。另一个缺点是保存系统，它不能记录你在任务中的进度。

《神鬼寓言》提供了少得可怜的武器和护甲给玩家使用，它们得来相当简单并且不平衡。虽然这会使寻求挑战的玩家感到沮丧，但游戏试图通过提供大量的秘密宝藏和一个巧妙的“吹嘘系统^[3] ”来进行补偿，这一系统允许自信的英雄为任务增加额外的挑战，比如不使用武器完成任务。

This reactivity, while mostly illusory, can be fun. It's quite gratifying to come back from a quest and be cheered and applauded as you walk into a tavern, with NPCs commenting on how you acted. The excellent soundtrack and the colourful art style add a lot to this, giving a light-hearted tone to the game. Overall, it still looks good, and natively supports HD resolutions.

What haven't aged well are the small and linear areas. Instead of offering in a huge open world, Fable is divided into small interconnected areas, separated by a loading screen. Another flaw is the save system, which doesn't record your progress mid-quest.

Fable also offers very few weapons and armour to play with, and is quite easy and unbalanced. While that will frustrate players looking for a challenge, the game tries to compensate by offering plenty of secret treasures to find and a clever “boast system”, allowing confident heroes to add extra challenges to quests, such as completing them without using weapons.

《神鬼寓言》有一个非常小的 MOD 社区，但它提供了一些不错的新物品和调整平衡性的 MOD。你可以在www.fabletlcmod.com 找到它们。

Fable has a very small mod community, but it made some nice new items and rebalance mods. You can find them at www.fabletlcmod.com

游戏取得成功后，Lionhead 工作室被微软收购。《神鬼寓言 2》（2008）是一款非常惊艳的续作，理解并继承了这个系列的吸引力，并加入了更多有趣的选择空间。例如可以生孩子、可供游玩的女性角色、职业、更广阔的世界，甚至还有合作玩法。这是系列中最棒的一作，但仍然是 Xbox 360 独占游戏。

《神鬼寓言 3》（2010）回到了 PC 平台，但再次争议缠身。游戏的核心玩法与《神鬼寓言 2》相似，但本作经历了过度宣传、特性被砍、附加结局，和“取消游戏内置菜单”这一奇怪的决定：如果你想更换武器，你需要进入口袋次元空间（pocket dimension），走到存放武器的地方，再拾起它。本作并不算是一款烂游戏，但却让很多系列粉丝感到失望。粉丝们抨击微软对本作的开发干预。

抛开所有的炒作和承诺，《神鬼寓言》系列一直知道它们是什么：易上手、精炼、轻松的 RPG。它们是该类型游戏的极佳入门作品，或者是下午慵懒游戏时光的安慰剂，同时也为有经验的玩家提供了一些隐藏要素和可选挑战。

After the game's success, Lionhead Studios was acquired by Microsoft. Fable II (2008) was an amazing follow up that understood the appeal of the series and added more interesting choices, the option to have children, playable female characters, jobs, a more expansive world and even co-op play. It's the best game in the series, but remains an Xbox 360 exclusive.

Fable III (2010) returned to PCs but was again tainted by controversy. The core gameplay is similar to Fable II, but it suffered from over-hyping, cut features, a tacked-on ending and the bizarre choice to remove in-game menus – if you want to change your weapon, you must travel to a pocket dimension, walk to where the weapon is kept and then grab it. It's not a terrible game, but was a disappointment to many fans, who lashed out to Microsoft's interference in its development.

Beyond all the hype and promises, the Fable series always knew what they were: accessible, polished and lighthearted RPGs. They serve as great introductions to the genre or "comfort food" for a lazy afternoon of gaming, while also offering a few secrets and optional challenges for experienced players.

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³ 译者注：boast system，玩家可以在接任务的时候向 NPC 吹嘘，为任务立下额外挑战，并能获得更多奖励，执行任务时额外挑战不完成也可以，只是没有额外奖励。