Colorful characters are encountered along the way that assist in your travels. These characters range from mildly amusing to surprisingly developed. One of the most emotional relationships in the game is with your horse Seren. As she’s with you every step of the way, willing to march into danger at your command, a surprising bond is quickly formed. Camps are periodically reached where, among other things, Seren can be feed, healed and cleaned. Touches like these really go along way to ensure she’s not rendered a lifeless form of transportation.

The combat mechanics played a big part in creating an enjoyable game, but a lot of the fun came from just exploring the world and seeing what sort of trouble one could get into. The goal of the hero was to gain fame, which was measured by their renown which was acquired by completing quests and the reaction of the NPCs was determined by the character's alignment, which was also influenced by their actions. Good characters would seem to develop a bright aura around them and a halo, while evil characters would grow horns and attract pestilence. The NPC behaviors weren't quite as unique as early claims from Project Ego days would have you believe, but they did react based on those factors, though just about everyone gave the same reaction based on the hero's current renown and alignment.

If there ever was a game designer that should not talk about his games prior to their release date, it's Peter Molyneux. When discussing his projects, Molyneux has a childlike sense of excitement where he will enthusiastically share details on his grand ambitions for the title. This is actually quite refreshing in itself, because who doesn't enjoy hearing someone passionately discuss their creative projects? The problem with this occurs when the game in question is actually released. The game itself could be good, even great if it were simply judged for what it is, but disappointment is going to happen when a title fails to deliver on lofty promises no matter how good it may otherwise. The most memorable example of Molyneux creating hype that the game couldn't live up to was 2004's Xbox exclusive action RPG Fable.

Gameplay itself is a nice blend of action elements with those traditional to an RPG. On the offense, a melee weapon, long range weapon and magical will powers are always available, each assigned to a different face button. For defense, numerous gear combinations are available to ensure you’ll always be protected in the heat of battle. Plus you can block and roll. Enemies tend to rush you and offer quite a challenge for those unfamiliar with the proper strategies. Grinding isn’t a common occurrence, but going into battle well stocked with items is always necessary. While it’s not the deepest system, it’s still arguably the best one in the Fable series and remains enjoyable today.

This idea continues with microtransactions, something that Molyneux has been dead-set on improving. Trust me, I don’t like how microtransactions are being used today , but Molyneux has been working on ways to use them without letting them lean toward the realm of exploitation. He’s condemned the use of microtransactions in the mobile version of Dungeon Keeper , claiming they are not consumer-friendly, but he wants to find a way to make them palatable to an audience. That’s become something of another recurring trait of Molyneux: taking something universally disliked and trying to refine it so that it isn’t hated nearly as much.

With a sprawling, graphically intense world part of a near fifteen-hour campaign, Fable: The Journey breaks any conceptions of what a Kinect title can be. It’s not demo material or a novelty release, but an uncompromising Adventure Game strategy game that weaves an engrossing story while utilizing the full potential of motion control. It doesn’t always work flawlessly, but the sheer ambition alone makes it a must-own for Fable and Kinect fans alike.

And really, Peter Molyneux, for all his broken promises and enormous aspirations, is an innovator. He’s proven his enchantment with taking well-tread ideas and making them into something unexpected. Populous remains one of the most important games of all time, and that couldn’t have happened without some desire to step beyond the established setting. Fable to a lesser extent and certainly with the Milo demo, Peter Molyneux hasn’t made anything flat-out terrible in decades. But his tendency to get excited about his new ideas so much has led to a negative perception of who he is: many in the gaming community consider him a dreamer, not a doer. Quite frankly, I think that’s unfair to say. Some companies are perfectly content with what they’re doing in gaming, but Molyneux has proven time and again that he’s never satisfied with his creations. He’s always reaching further, even if his eagerness to progress has made him despise the past and ignore the present in awkwardly narrow-sighted ways.

While Molyneux’s inventive mindset gave rise to the "god game" genre (a genre loved by many a PC gamer), he’s also earned himself a number of negative connotations with how he promotes his games. It’s become a running joke that Molyneux tends to hype up any project he invests in to absurdly high levels, only to have the games miss their mark in one way or another. Fable became one of the most noteworthy examples of this "Molyneux Paradigm." During the game’s development, Fable was regarded by Molyneux and Lionhead as a paramount innovation in role-playing games. Using more open-ended role-playing elements like morality and personal alignments was pitched as this rejuvenation of the role-playing idea, a way to give players more options in creating an avatar and playing to their liking. Molyneux himself even referred to Fable as what would be "the best game ever" during the development.