The Fabled play-test: A boss goes down

Polemos’ Cavan ‘Caveman’ Roe has a great time in the dark and difficult fantasy world of in-development action RPG The Fabled.

This week I finally got access to The Fabled’s closed alpha and this is a game that really does embody the souls-like, or crypto-soul genre as described by Fabled studio CEO Luc-Michael Mascioli.

The game is a difficult, skill-based action RPG with a dark fantasy feel. Players will find themselves diving, slashing and blocking attacks to kill skeletons, ghouls and massive creatures. 

Game-maker Octavian Studios rewards your skill with abyssal tokens and epic gear that will make the greatest foe kneel before you. 

This game is still in early development on the ambitious Xenum multi-chain, an ecosystem that allows game developers to deploy on more than one blockchain at once. It is attempting to be a one-stop shop for gaming studios and connect a game between all the layer-two solutions. 

Players start The Fabled as a warrior with just a sword and some armor potions to their name, and have to have to run around searching for glowing loot nodes (as in the image below) to get more weapons.

These loot nodes are randomly generated on the map and range in colour and loot rarity. You can also find them after you defeat an enemy. Make sure to wait a second or two after any defeat because the drop is sometimes delayed. 

There are several styles of combat, ranging from bows to giant broadswords. Each battle can be optimized with the correct gear to defeat your foes. 

But make sure to watch your stamina. It is used to attack but also dodge, so if you go swing all over the place you will quickly run out of it and then be a sitting duck when your opponent counters.

Once you get a few crit chance and multiplication items, the heavy swords seem to clear the easiest. You can one-shot most mobs, but once again be careful with stamina because one heavy attack could drain you completely. 

Once you have collected a decent amount of weapons, make sure to swap things out and try different combinations. The inventory system is simple but has a good selection (see image below).

Make sure to check out each item. They can greatly improve your gameplay, but watch out for the cons. There are items that will give you a huge attack speed buff, but then reduce the damage. So make sure you are considering your whole character when creating a load-out. 

Once you know what the best items are, go to the vendor and sell all your old gear. You may even be able to purchase a new hero that will give you increased base stats to play with. 

Once you are fully equipped and ready to explore deeper into this realm you will find massive creatures. Some like the slenderman in the image below gave me goosebumps when I first played.

The Fabled’s artists really make you feel alone and scared in this desolate landscape.

The Fabled was a really fresh game to play with a high difficulty single-player mode. I sweated that boss fight for several hours and will be dropping a full length gameplay video in the near future.

I have now played more than 70 web3 games and read over 130 whitepapers and almost all of them have simple and often boring single-player gameplay. The Fabled brings fun and difficulty back to gaming and I love learning the new ways studios are incorporating web3 to make entertaining and immersive games. 

To play and earn in The Fabled, you buy energy crystals to travel into the realm. I can’t wait to get my hands on some and check out the next region.

If you are interested in playing the closed alpha, hop in their Discord and attend the game nights. After some time levelling up, I’m sure you will find yourself in the abyss dying, over and over again. 

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