Create a unique legend

“Fable”

••• (out of four)

For Xbox, $49.99

Rating: M (Mature)

I plead guilty. I stole a knickknack from a guy’s house. Now I must bear the consequences of this decision forever.

Such was my fate in “Fable,” an excellent new role-playing game for Xbox that asks you to mold a young boy into a walking legend. In game time, this transformation happens over the course of years, with every choice you make leaving its mark on your fledgling being.

The game keeps score, tallying your many decisions – good or bad.

I wanted to be pure. But, yeah, I stole some little item from a guy’s house. I didn’t mean to do it. I saw a table and I searched it. Next thing I knew, my character stuffed the thing in his pocket. A town guard saw me. He fined me $750 and attacked me when I couldn’t pay. I went from crumb-snatcher to violent fugitive in a manner of seconds.

I like that about “Fable.” It has all the elements of a role-playing title, but it does a better job than its brethren of mirroring life. The game isn’t perfect, but it’s darned creative, in a way that will make you want to play it again and again, crafting characters with varying degrees of purity or evil.

Bad guys can grow horns, draw flies and scare off children. Mister Goody Two-Shoes might have butterflies flitting about and light-colored eyes. Or, like me, you can be something in between.

The computer-controlled populace notices your changes. As you evolve – adding muscles, tattoos, hairstyle, clothing, reputation and more – passersby will make remarks like “There goes a hero” or “Please obey our laws” or even “You smell like rotten rat corpses!”

You even can flirt with women, get married, drink too much in a tavern, barter for goods, gamble and take on quests.

– Jim Schaefer, Knight Ridder