Overview
The Fabled is a souls like action RPG game that takes a lot of inspiration from great works of arts, like Demon's Souls and the Dark Souls franchise from From Software, and gives web3 the best taste of that. Because of this, I will be using the different games in the Dark Souls franchise as a comparison for this game throughout the review. The Fabled brings you into a dark and eerie atmosphere filled with all kinds of monsters and enemy types that I can only explain as my sleep paralysis demon. The graphics are stunning, running the game on just the “high” setting and you get sucked into the world the game throws you into.
Gameplay
The first thing that players will notice and be greeted by upon loading the game up already sends chills down your spine for absolutely no reason. You spawn in the middle of a massive cave. The best way that I can describe the map is if your character has traveled to the bottom of the Mariana Trench and all the water is gone. You are surrounded by massive walls of rocks that seem to look like the river of Styx with the faces of lost souls inscribed into them. Little droplets of snow fall from the sky, and it is very foggy adding to the atmosphere of the game.
The Fabled's mechanics are a mixed bag. Dodging is fluid and on par with the Dark Souls games. However, some attack animations feel clunky and sometimes attack an extra time even if the player didn't click the corresponding button. Swinging a sword seems more of a task for the player rather than something they are used to doing.
Not only that, but unfortunately there are only really 2-3 different attacks that come from each weapon that you use which can get pretty boring pretty fast. The game also suffers from issues with ranged combat, where arrows sometimes hit to the left or right of where players are aiming. Additionally, the game suffers from stamina management issues, with players having very little stamina in the beginning and almost every action costing stamina.
Despite these issues, The Fabled makes up for them with a vast and wonderful world to explore, filled with a variety of items to discover, such as weapons, amulets, and rings. Players start with a rough long sword but can potentially obtain much more powerful weapons such as Bloodweep, an epic item that does +25 DMG and boosts attack speed by .05. The game also features a wide range of enemy types, each unique and challenging to beat. However, the game's AI is lacking, with enemies sometimes detecting players from a certain distance away instead of actually seeing them.
There are some issues with the items in The Fabled, to be more specific, the potions that the game provides you with. It seems like out of the three potions that you are given, the armor potion, the stamina potion, and the health potion, only the health potion works as intended. There seemed to be no boost to the stats of armor when using the armor potion, and stamina would regain at the same time as it would without using the stamina potion. From a perspective of a Dark Souls player, the game only really needs an armor potion and health potion, the stamina potion seems to be a decent idea, but when it requires stamina to use there really is no point in using the buff.
Review
Overall, The Fabled is a well-thought-out game that follows in the footsteps of Dark Souls but falls short in some areas. The game's beautiful world design and enemy types keep players entertained, but the game's mechanics, especially stamina management, need improvement. The Fabled is a challenging game that can be addicting once players get the hang of it. With some simple changes, The Fabled has the potential to become one of the best games in the space and keep players coming back for more countless amounts of time, and it is really exciting to see how they improve the game moving forward.
