I'm not going to say that I am the greatest writer in the world, nor even - I suspect - at all competent. However, any child would know when a story is poorly paced. It doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel good, it doesn't feel well written. When you view the story, you think in your heart, "This is not how this story should be laid out. This should not happen here, this should not happen there, this should not be so short." It is easily possible to tell when a story has very, very bad pacing.
So, why the hell is Fable 3's pacing ****ed up so much?
When I first heard the plot, I thought to myself, "Hmm, Autarch, this sounds like a three arc storyline taking place in two countries. The hero starts out adventuring in his homeland (Arc 1: The Journey Begins), ventures to find allies in Aurora (Arc 2: Stranger in a Strange Land) and then returns home to be triumphant and sit on the throne as king to plan out a fight with the Aurorans he's ****ed off or something (Arc 3: Return of the King)." This was before I knew we weren't fighting the Aurorans, but I digress.
Anyhow, the storyline is set up like this. It was a perfect set up for a rather massive three arc storyline. I could see it planned out in my head so vividly it was beautiful. A typical classic "growing up" story with a neat twist at the end.
And, instead, we got this poorly planned, poorly paced, utterly moronically designed plot. Instead of three fully grown arcs, we got one fully grown arc and two malformed and sickly runts that were put down hilariously swiftly. Truly, how quickly was the Hero out of Aurora and onto the throne? And then how quickly off making important decisions off the throne and onto just a normal Fable game ending?
Don't get me started on the Nightcrawler and his utter lack of antagonism for an entire in-game year. What a good way to build suspense, drama, anticipation for the final battle with an ultimate evil... By having him do nothing! You'd already revealed his hand in the fight in Aurora, why the **** did you not include more skirmishes etc with shadows? They were your final enemies and, going through the storyline, I saw them TWICE. The Hero-King should be protecting his people as well as ruling over them, why were there not attacks by shadows? I DON'T GET IT.
We all know why this happened, of course. We all know why Aurora (a place we'd never seen before and would've loved to have explored) was about five areas of repeating terrain. We all know why mechanics were cut and the Hero was only on the throne for about an hour. We ALL know why the game seems so gammy handed and poorly paced.
It was ****ing rushed out within two years. I'm sure the writers did a brilliant job of writing the scripts and the plot. I'm sure the game designers had a perfect design in mind. And I'm sure that the developers would've been happy to work for a bit longer in order to iron out any flaws.
But, no, it was a two year job. Rush the game out, collect full price of money for something that should've been half of that and then release DLC to patch up the holes. There's only so much people can do in two years, and evidently it wasn't enough to fix Fable 3's terrible pacing issues. (Nor it's bugs or it's mechanics, but you know how it is.)
I'm not certain I'll buy the next Fable, if it's rushed in the same way. I'm not sure I'll buy any other Lionhead game, due to Molyneux's desire to change things for the sake of changing them and then not fixing the problems that are broken.
It annoys me that Fable 3 is a game that could've been given another year of development and polish and been one of the contenders for greatest game of all time but, due to greed and human stupidity, is now resigned to the depths of mediocrity on a rushed release cycle.
Autarch out.
So, why the hell is Fable 3's pacing ****ed up so much?
When I first heard the plot, I thought to myself, "Hmm, Autarch, this sounds like a three arc storyline taking place in two countries. The hero starts out adventuring in his homeland (Arc 1: The Journey Begins), ventures to find allies in Aurora (Arc 2: Stranger in a Strange Land) and then returns home to be triumphant and sit on the throne as king to plan out a fight with the Aurorans he's ****ed off or something (Arc 3: Return of the King)." This was before I knew we weren't fighting the Aurorans, but I digress.
Anyhow, the storyline is set up like this. It was a perfect set up for a rather massive three arc storyline. I could see it planned out in my head so vividly it was beautiful. A typical classic "growing up" story with a neat twist at the end.
And, instead, we got this poorly planned, poorly paced, utterly moronically designed plot. Instead of three fully grown arcs, we got one fully grown arc and two malformed and sickly runts that were put down hilariously swiftly. Truly, how quickly was the Hero out of Aurora and onto the throne? And then how quickly off making important decisions off the throne and onto just a normal Fable game ending?
Don't get me started on the Nightcrawler and his utter lack of antagonism for an entire in-game year. What a good way to build suspense, drama, anticipation for the final battle with an ultimate evil... By having him do nothing! You'd already revealed his hand in the fight in Aurora, why the **** did you not include more skirmishes etc with shadows? They were your final enemies and, going through the storyline, I saw them TWICE. The Hero-King should be protecting his people as well as ruling over them, why were there not attacks by shadows? I DON'T GET IT.
We all know why this happened, of course. We all know why Aurora (a place we'd never seen before and would've loved to have explored) was about five areas of repeating terrain. We all know why mechanics were cut and the Hero was only on the throne for about an hour. We ALL know why the game seems so gammy handed and poorly paced.
It was ****ing rushed out within two years. I'm sure the writers did a brilliant job of writing the scripts and the plot. I'm sure the game designers had a perfect design in mind. And I'm sure that the developers would've been happy to work for a bit longer in order to iron out any flaws.
But, no, it was a two year job. Rush the game out, collect full price of money for something that should've been half of that and then release DLC to patch up the holes. There's only so much people can do in two years, and evidently it wasn't enough to fix Fable 3's terrible pacing issues. (Nor it's bugs or it's mechanics, but you know how it is.)
I'm not certain I'll buy the next Fable, if it's rushed in the same way. I'm not sure I'll buy any other Lionhead game, due to Molyneux's desire to change things for the sake of changing them and then not fixing the problems that are broken.
It annoys me that Fable 3 is a game that could've been given another year of development and polish and been one of the contenders for greatest game of all time but, due to greed and human stupidity, is now resigned to the depths of mediocrity on a rushed release cycle.
Autarch out.