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Regular readers will know I love Shenmue – it’s my all-time favourite game.
And one of the things I love most about it is the way it embeds you in a living, breathing world. Characters follow routines: they wake up for work in the morning; they head for dinner at the end of their shift. I’ve always been obsessed with this concept.
Of course, Shenmue and its sequel are over 25 years old, and there were limits to what SEGA could do on the Dreamcast.
Fable appears to be picking up that mantle and delivering a life sim on the scale of which I’ve never seen before.
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This 30-minute gameplay demo, presumably showing the release at its very best, illustrates exactly what I mean. Throughout the demo, you encounter different characters, hire them for your businesses, impress them, and have an impact on their moral view.
For some reason I can’t embed the video, so you’ll need to click through the link and watch it on YouTube. Sorry about that, it’s not my fault.
Anyway, some characters may be drawn-in by your flashy clothes and kind demeanour; others may think you’re out-of-touch with the common person. It’s all really compelling and unique.
One other thing that appeals to me here is how there are management mechanics ticking away in the background. You can buy businesses, rent out homes to tenants, and so on – it reminds me a little bit of building up a criminal empire in GTA Online.
Regardless of what you’re doing, you’ll be accumulating passive income, which you can then invest into more businesses or new clothes.
I suppose there’s a danger here that, once you’ve explored the key systems presented, this could get a bit formulaic and repetitive. But the demo is really impressive, and like I said, I’m smitten with the concepts on display.
My only real question is whether GTA 6 is going to deliver a lot of these same systems sooner, in a more grounded world that appeals to me more – I’ve never been one for fantasy, after all. I guess I won’t know that until Rockstar decides to show more of its game later this summer.
Either way, Fable’s coming to the PS5 on 23rd February, and I’m really excited to play it.