The tale of the tortoise and the hare is well-known to many of us. To try and win the race, there are two animals, two mindsets, and two speeds. This principle is used by Running Fable to create a racing game, however, there is a unique twist. Similar to the story, you earn more points for the things you do along the way than for the things you win. Things refer to traps.
When you have some extra boost, it can be better to take the longer, safer route.
You and up to nine other players or bots join to enter a trap-setting phase before each running race, which strongly reminds me of the trap set in the Rock of Ages games.
You are given a gridline map of the track you will be racing on and can place down a total of roughly 50 things. Others are traps that need to be laid; some are health and power boosters. You can make them visible or unstoppable, but keep in mind that you could also fall victim to your trap. It is usually a good idea to place nets, traps, cyclones, and clouds on corner cuts, but placing them next to or around pickups is also a wise choice.
The single-lap race starts when everyone has laid down their traps and lasts for around two minutes per round. You can choose to go across these areas as a turtle or a hare, similar to Running Wild from the PlayStation 1. They each have the same speed when running and can boost, jump, and perform a close-range attack. You’ll do this as usual while running and looking for power-ups. However, the assault is quite sloppy, and I noticed that it rarely connected correctly. The unique manoeuvre used by hares allows them to glide by rotating their ears. On their shell, tortoises may ride hoverboards.
Both techniques enable you to jump over water, which will drown you and force a respawn, as well as more challenging traversal alternatives like tiny bridges. It comes in handy when you see several traps up ahead and want to quickly avoid them.
The trap is timed and operates on a grid system similar to the Rock of Ages. Although it gives the game a distinctive flair, it is far too potent when it comes to scoring.
The racing itself is decent enough, but there are a lot of collision detection problems with the traps, which appear to be modular in a way that causes you to get caught in traps you don’t touch.
The scoring system is more peculiar, though. If you win the race, you receive 10 points. You receive two points for each player you successfully snare in a trap. Around 25 traps can be set up at once. Find the issue. This frequently indicates that you are more preoccupied with trap placement than real racing. By planting traps on corners, thin bridges, or just near power-ups, I was able to finish last or not finish at all and yet win the game. It simply cancels out the racing component and may use some rebalancing.
There are also only six tracks, and while they are all great in and of themselves, they do not feel particularly original or well-designed. There are only two fable characters in Running Fable. This makes it so that, other than the headwear that players obtain through in-game XP increases, there is no differentiation between players and thus conflicts become less personal. In the end, this meant that in approximately 30 minutes, Running Fable went from “this is a unique interesting concept” to “oh, this feels a bit too imbalanced.” Since no one else was playing, I couldn’t test the setup online, but it appeared simple to operate. The imbalance of races over traps is the biggest issue, though.
PREVIEW : Desert Revenant (PC)
