SimplyMe15 Reviews

The Hobbit (I) (2003 Video Game)

Surprisingly high quality platformer.

[8/10 · 15 February 2010]

When this game was announced, I couldn't help but sigh. Here we go, I thought, a cheap and rushed game released only due to the popularity of the recent Lord of the Rings films. As such, I didn't choose to buy it but when I was given it as a gift a was extremely pleasantly surprised.

The game has all the typical features of a platformer, you know jumping from this bit to that, but also has innovation with clever puzzles and (considering this game is primarily marketed at a younger audience) challenging fights, particularly at boss level.

The graphics at the time were so-so which means that nowadays they are at best...charmingly quaint, but it doesn't really detract from the game. The levels themselves are so well-designed one doesn't notice the imperfections. The chapter of the game called 'gathering of the clouds' is particularly magnificent, with a grand open arena to explore lots of different ways.

Where the game is let down however is combat and because there's quite a lot of it, it's a real shame. In essence you have three attacks - melee, jump then melee or throw rocks. As you can imagine, this gets somewhat repetitive after a couple of hours.

I think the very best thing about the game though is the outstanding voice-acting. Having read the book a few times, I think they got the characters just about right. Sure, some characters like the goblins and the trolls have cartoonish monster voices, but both the book and the game are for a younger audience. And inevitably, some of the dwarfs sound suspiciously similar to one another, but it never really matters.

All in all, 'The Hobbit' is truly a very under-rated, high quality, old school platformer.

Fable (2004 Video Game)

Absolutely excellent

[9/10 · 11 December 2008]

Fable is excellent.

The sheer number of choices in this game are incredible, hundreds of weapons, items of clothing and spells etc. not to mention Lionhead's much publicised 'morality' system. This morality system gives the gamer the choice to play out the game as a saint saving villages, giving beggars gold and generally being an all round good egg or being a downright scallywag! The game never runs out of nasty little sins you can commit, from beating up children and robbing shops, to kicking chickens all around the towns! This choices system, whilst a little black and white is fantastic, adding a real element of playagainability as you try and find out just a little more about Albion every time you play.

Albion itself is beautiful and while the graphics look a little outdated today, they still function well, with the design of the locations making up for their lack of detail.

However where this game really comes into it's own is in humour. There are hundreds of little easter eggs and fun things you can see and do around time. Sometimes you can just stand round the various settlements and await choice quotes from the townsfolk, I recommend youtube-ing fable one for some hilarious videos from the world of Albion.

So your asking yourself, why only 9 stars? Well, to be honest the story is a little generic and the fight scenes can become a little monotonous, but all in all Fable is, along with KOTOR and Halo, one of the flagships of the Xbox and should be settling in a place within everyones collection. Including yours!