Lionhead mulled over the possibility of building old-style Fable combat into Fable: The Journey, but eventually decided against it as players have "encoded" ideas about how swords and pistols should handle, studio boss Peter Molyneux has revealed.
Controlled entirely with Kinect, The Journey sees players using magic and thrown weapons instead to demolish Hobbs and other critters on a horsebound tour of Albion.
"We could have done melee weapons, but the one thing I hate about melee weapons, and guns as well, is that the human brain is encoded to expect recoil from those things," Molyneux explained.
"Whenever I swing a sword and I hit something on screen, the visuals and the sound isn't enough. We could have done what Zelda did well on Twilight Princess, where it doesn't really matter what you do, what happens on-screen is the best thing. But I wanted people to feel powerful, to feel power, and that's all about you.
"The thing about magic is there's nothing encoded in your mind about how it should feel. So no guns, and no swords."
If you're worrying that combat will be one-dimensional as a consequence, don't. Magic isn't a case of fire and forget: you'll shape plasma balls with one or both hands, stretching them out to affect a wider area or squeezing them for more stopping power. Balls travel faster or slower depending on how quickly you move your arm.
Step this way for an account of the game's sumptuous, Unreal-powered art design. Molyneux reckons The Journey will "compel" you to buy Kinect, thanks to a robust degree of challenge and immersion. There's a preview in issue 76, on shelves now - buy a copy online here.
17 comments so far...
golliwoza on 11 Aug '11 said:
Sounds boring as hell and I still think it will be on the rails. Good job I havent bought Kinect yet, I will wait untill there is something much better.
OXM ETboy on 11 Aug '11 said:
It's absolutely not on-rails. There are more linear parts but you'll also have the chance to explore Hyrule-Field-esque plains - check out the issue for more.
Grummy on 11 Aug '11 said:
And thus, Fable was finally laid to rest. RIP Fable we will remember you fondly (for about 1 and half games).
golliwoza on 11 Aug '11 said:
I will pick up the latest shortly as im going on holiday sunday and I need something to read
.
Still I cant see how staying on the horse and only using magic fun, where's the variety? I would prefer a sword and I still think the first Fable is the best in the series. I tried Fable 2 and didnt like it and im not going to try Fable 3 as I have heard its pretty much the same or worse.
CunningSmile on 11 Aug '11 said:
From personal experience you only get 'recoil' on a sword if you've done something wrong with it. They just aren't designed to bounce but to cut. Assuming Molyneux is being honest about the reason for leaving swords out and it isn't a programming reason instead the problem could just be solved by educating the players. After all how many people knew guns had recoil before watching umpteen '80s action films?
msbhvn on 11 Aug '11 said:
Why is it that every person at Lionhead is always whining that they can't do this or they can't do that? One of their artists was trying to hide his ineptitude recently by criticising the Unreal Engine, which scores of developers have done unique things with.
Okay, Kinect isn't an established technology yet, and people are still working out what is and isn't possible, but constantly complaining that making games is hard isn't going to win them any fans.
If Lionhead are so out of their depth, maybe Microsoft should hand the Fable franchise over to someone who can actually do something worthwhile with it.
And Mr. Molyneux, mentioning stellar games like Zelda: Twilight Princess in a negative way only invites comparisons to your own mediocre output and trust me, you don't want that.
zxephin on 11 Aug '11 said:
Peter Molyneux has lost touch. No weapons because he feels we are encoded to feel recoil and if he cant make recoil happen then there isnt going to be any melee or even ranged weapons? That's a cop-out; an excuse trying to cover up a bad idea.
And it seems with each Fable game, he brings out more and more bad ideas. Its getting sad.
johnrambo1973 on 12 Aug '11 said:
This game will fail. Why becuase the guy hypes the game so much and then it cannot live up to it. I would not trust this guy to tell me what day it was. I would not go out and buy kinect for fable becuase i do not trust him at all. I have been burnt to many times. Fable 3 was a joke and all they wanted to do was milk you of microsoft points. We have a wii console and it just sits there and has not been on this year. Kinect will not take off due to the fact gamers don't really want it. I have a feeling star wars will be a short game when it comes out but i hope i am proved wrong. That is the only game i would buy kinect for but with all the other great games coming out i will not bother.
Flame Sky on 12 Aug '11 said:
Peter loves Zelda. I think its his main inspiration of the fable series. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgS2W3zVczk. I wont be getting journey because I have tryed using kinect and im not convinced it works yet.
GHOSTY05 on 12 Aug '11 said:
Firstly i have kinect and it is fantastic,yes there are not many games yet but with the likes of kinect sports 2, forza 4, and many more it wont be long before there is plenty to choose from.
My god have you seen the trailers for RYSE?
Those whining about not buying it because of fable, stop moaning and buy it because of kinect sports instead then or Virtua Tennis 4, Steel Batalion, Mass Effect 3
Once again Mr. Molyneux is telling us what he is taking out the game, what he cannot do, i have heard it all before and frankly a fable game on kinect should have swords, bows/arrows, he obviously cant get to grips with the tech so is making his excuses.
There are too many good games coming soon for me to care about the new 'able'.... wait Mr. Molyneux has taken the 'F' out of the title as he thinks it sounds better this way.
golliwoza on 12 Aug '11 said:
I agree that in the future there will be more to choose from but most people wont justify buying Kinect for gimmicks in some games such as ME3 (which tbh can be done with a headset I mean come on I did it in rainbow six vegas 2). Others such as kinect sports just dont appeal to the hardcore and untill kinect has bridged that gap in the market then people wont buy it mainly because it offers pointless party games like the wii or just gimmicks attatched to other games. I mean sure if your into sports games more or party/family games then im sure its a pretty good buy. That is the only reason why im not buying it at the moment and im sure others will agree.
I still dont understand why you cant use swords and stuff because from what I saw in that nightmare kinect game trailer is that you can use crowbars and stuff as well as swords or something so that makes me think why cant you use swords in fable the journey.
DLRAT on 12 Aug '11 said:
If this game isnt an absolute load of (plasma) balls when it comes out ill do a backflip. Fable one of my favourite games ever this silly man just needs re-trace his steps and stop destroying his own franchise, even a fable HD remix would be be more appealing. Fable becoming like Tony Hawks.
chocfang on 13 Aug '11 said:
WHY!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO FABLE!!! Fable was an awesome series till you released this &*() It looks terrible and its not really gonna be a hit. Not many casual Kinect gamers are going to want to play fable.
CunningSmile on 15 Aug '11 said:
I don't think it's a question of not being able to programme swords and guns, it's the fact he doesn't think it will work because there won't be recoil when you fire a gun.
Hands up all those who as small children refused to play cops and robbers in the play ground because their finger didn't recoil when they said bang. Anyone? No I didn't think so.
comabob on 7 Sep '11 said:
theres no recoil in child of eden...
and fable peaked with the 1st one.
GHOSTY05 on 11 Sep '11 said:
This Game will 'Recoil' off the Market faster than any melee combat!
SidTheSloth on 14 Sep '11 said:
Agree with many on here who say Fable peaked with the first, why did they ever do away with the heroes guild...!?
Pretty much everything in the first game was better, but this was before Lionhead seemed to become obsessed with co-op, celebrity casts and charging for items. I still like the humour in the game but they just seem to focus on the wrong bits for me - achievements for getting married/having a kid to/with another person over xbox live for example - wtf??
I dont really see how the journey is going to add anything to the fable series, instead i can only see it dragging its name further through the mud which is sad because it was one of my favourite franchises (seems EA/Bioware are copying this trend with dragon age too unfortunately).
Im interested to see how the kinect stuff works but part of me thinks microsoft dropped the ball (if you can say that when you consider how many units have been sold) by not including the extra processor in the kinect like they originally planned, this would surely have helped developers by keeping the full xbox cpu available for the game, letting the kinect handle its own end.
My final thought on this too after having played with all three devices (kinect/wii/move) is that none of them are definitive, and by insisting that 'you' are the controller i think the kinect is restricted further. Now if there were something controller/wandish and it had full motion sensing then i think itd have far more possibilities...