Playground Games Really ‘Get’ The Britishness Of Fable

Highlights

Fable’s British humor and cultural roots are key components of its charm and distinctiveness compared to other RPGs.
Playground Games’ reboot of Fable stays true to the series’ tradition with British voice actors, references to hero perception, and iconic humor.
The Fable reboot looks promising with its return to the original game’s world, focus on fame and morality, and nods to British comedy legends.

Anyone who has played a Fable game understands how thoroughly British the experience is. I’m not a Briton, but Ireland’s proximity to our British neighbours has resulted in significant cultural exchange. Conceived by southerner Peter Molyneux and his now-defunct studio Lionhead, Fable has always been centred around adapting the cultural context and humour of Britain and the British.

This is immediately apparent when you listen to the various accents of Albion. The majority of NPCs, especially around the cultural metropolis of Bowestone, speak in thick Brummie (Birmingham) timbre. “Chicken chaser, you chase chickens?” is a line that’s been burned into my temporal lobe. You’ll also hear Scouse (Liverpool) and various accents of the midlands as you wander Albion.

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Fable is classic British comedy, raunchy but not grotesque, completely unserious, and also slapstick. The majority of characters are completely incompetent, morally inconsistent and prone to wild changes in emotion. It’s good fun, while also being very compelling to play and experience. It’s very distinct from American humour. If there was going to be a Fable without Lionhead, a British studio would have to be the one behind it.

I was somewhat sceptical when Playground Games were tipped to develop the Fable reboot. Yes, they are British, but a studio that has exclusively worked on the Forza Horizon series for the last 12 years seemed an odd choice to take over a systems-heavy third-person RPG. Yet, I’ve been very impressed with what we’ve seen so far.

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The use of two British sitcom heavyweights in both Fable trailers was an astute decision. Richard Ayoade (IT Crowd) and Matt King (Peep Show) played the farming giant and Humphrey in their respective trailers. It seems trivial, but these nods to British comedy have filled me with confidence that the tone of Fable is going to be respected in the reboot. Playground isn’t adjusting the DNA of the series to make it more appealing to non-British audiences, and that’s very gratifying for me.

I believe every voiced character we’ve seen so far has been British, another tradition of Fable. From what we’ve seen of the gameplay, I’m also satisfied. We’ve seen references to the public’s perception of our hero, whether that be positive or negative. The ideas of fame, infamy, good and evil have always been core systems in Fable, and it’s good to see them respected. The game also looked beautiful, exactly how I’d expect Fable to look with modern visual technology.

Technology-wise, we’re returning to the world we saw in the original Fable. I couldn’t pick out any firearms in the trailers, or any evidence of the industrial revolution we saw in Fable 3. I’m curious if this will be a full reboot, or are we going to see any evidence of canon from the original trilogy? I’d be satisfied with either, Fable has always been more about the vibe and pseudo-life simulation systems than its narrative elements.

I’m very excited to see the finished product, and now very confident that Playground Games was the right choice to revive this beloved franchise. I can’t wait to chase (and kick) chickens in the near future.