thoughts * Fable 2 and Emotional Connections
I played a bit of Fable 2 last night and I was unimpressed. It really bothered me because I felt like the developers were really trying to get me to have an emotional connection with all these characters. The weird thing was, I just didn't feel it.
Comparing Fable 2 to Fallout 3, which is a game where I found myself caring a lot, I found several core issues with Fable 2's design.
Who are these people?
In Fable 2, the camera is pulled so far back that you can barely see any of the characters' faces, and even if you do, they aren't animated very well so they end up feeling very lifeless. In Fallout 3, the game is played in first-person, so you can see people up close.
Compare this Fable 2 conversation...
...with this one from Fallout 3
Obviously, good writing and voice work is key to having believable characters, but seeing emotion on characters' faces is really what creates that connection. Older game developers knew this too, which is why many early video game characters had large heads.
The characters are small onscreen, but their faces are very prominent.
Who am I?
Games need to make a distinction between playing as "yourself" and playing as another character. Fable 2 wants us to make meaningful, moral choices - but are we making these choices as ourselves, or as a specific character? It almost feels like the developers were trying to go for a "play as yourself" experience, because the main character doesn't have a name (everyone just calls you Little Sparrow) and doesn't ever speak (presumably, a character doesn't speak because you want players to "speak" in their own voice). At the same time, the experience feels detached because of how the camera angle is pulled so far back. Fallout 3 does a great job by zooming into characters' faces during important conversations, even when playing in 3rd person mode. Again, this has been done in adventure games before.
Really, that's the biggest problem with Fable 2 - it doesn't know what it is. Is it "Little Sparrow's epic adventure?" Or is it "My epic adventure in this magical world?" Most design choices seem to support the latter, but many key ones pull it back towards the former. And there's nothing wrong with making moral choices as someone else - GTA 4 does it really well. We just need to know who we are first.
Games need to make a distinction between playing as "yourself" and playing as another character. Fable 2 wants us to make meaningful, moral choices - but are we making these choices as ourselves, or as a specific character? It almost feels like the developers were trying to go for a "play as yourself" experience, because the main character doesn't have a name (everyone just calls you Little Sparrow) and doesn't ever speak (presumably, a character doesn't speak because you want players to "speak" in their own voice). At the same time, the experience feels detached because of how the camera angle is pulled so far back. Fallout 3 does a great job by zooming into characters' faces during important conversations, even when playing in 3rd person mode. Again, this has been done in adventure games before.
Really, that's the biggest problem with Fable 2 - it doesn't know what it is. Is it "Little Sparrow's epic adventure?" Or is it "My epic adventure in this magical world?" Most design choices seem to support the latter, but many key ones pull it back towards the former. And there's nothing wrong with making moral choices as someone else - GTA 4 does it really well. We just need to know who we are first.
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