12/10/2023 0 Comments Fable 4 kinectRather than a 15-30 hour epic with ample replayability and the choice to be good or evil like in the mainline Fables, The Journey is a straightforward 8-10 hour quest with two gameplay tenets: riding through Albion aboard your horse-drawn cart and the already-discussed on-foot spellcasting. You have no dog – only a horse – and the gameplay is completely on-rails. It’s not Fable 4, and that means it’s not an open-world adventure. Story-wise, as both the name and Kinect controls imply, The Journey is a spinoff. I recommend using the default calibration settings – which still require you to go through the same two-minute configuration process. You can recalibrate through the main menu, but woefully, you have to quit out of the campaign to do it. You’ll try to aim a spell at the center of the screen and it will instead go to the far left or right edge. Strangely, it seems as if the longer you play, the more likely you are to encounter a problem. The problem is that, as you’ve come to expect from Kinect, the motion-controller’s accuracy sometimes becomes unpredictable for no apparent reason – no matter how ideal your setup. Such are The Journey’s best-case scenarios, which are in effect about 75% of the time. The Troll, for example, tasks you with using the left-hand Tether to yank stalactites down to use as giant nails while avoiding flung boulders, and you’ll need to pierce the winged she-monster Corrupter in the neck with fireballs while dodging gargoyles. Boss fights are also a highlight, as the handful of screen-filling bad guys – while never particularly difficult – requires you to simultaneously juggle all of your abilities. I raised my right hand, said “Fireball” to conjure my most potent offensive attack, then flung my arm forward to send the projectile out, where it impacted the last wolf and exploded it in a glorious burst of flame. I turned my left shoulder towards the screen to block, sending it reeling backwards. I finished two of them off by quickly blasting them with rapid-fire bolts, and then the third one charged me. At the same time, I cocked my right arm back to charge my default magic ball attack spell, brought my hand back above my shoulder to switch to the Magic Shard (I could’ve also said “Magic Shard”), then flung the javelin-like projectile out to my right and waved my right hand back to the left to activate Aftertouch, sending the upgraded shard’s three barbs to each hit one of the three enemies. I grabbed one with my left hand and spun it, sending him into a dizzy, stunned state. (Tip: I recommend not investing any points in the Horse Upgrade skill you won’t need them and your precious points are better spent on buffing your spells and health.) During one section near the end, for instance, with the fully upgraded magic arsenal at my disposal and Kinect firing on all cylinders in my gaming space, I faced down a pack of fast-leaping Balverine wolves. It helps keep the game from growing repetitive and only makes you feel like more of a mighty mage. Better still, you’ll not only unlock two additional spells over the course of the campaign – a fireball and a magic shard – but you’ll also level them all up with Upgrade Points, adding extra shards and more damage to your attacks. A clever mechanic called Aftertouch even lets you throw spells out straight ahead of you and then wave your hand in a different direction in order to curve the magic projectile around corners and hit monsters cowering behind cover. It genuinely makes you feel like a spellcasting badass. Then you can finish them off with one of the three attack spells on your right hand. Even more fun is lassoing onto Hollow Men skeletons, because you can sadistically and systematically dismantle them pull left to yank the sword-holding arms out of their bony sockets, then right to literally disarm their shields by taking that arm off, and then up to pop their heads off until only an armless torso wanders over and tries to kick you. Grabbing the series’ classic Hobbes (think “dwarfish orcs”) and tossing them over ledges with your left hand Tether spell is hilariously delightful. The good news, particularly after the Hindenburg-level disaster that Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor was, is that yes, most of the time it works.
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