Almost all RPGs place artificial limits on the protagonist's actions. Crono can't just leave Marle behind. Ash can't steal other trainers' Pokemon. It's impossible to kill Sephiroth before the final confrontation. But what if those limitations didn't exist? In the tradition of games like Morrowind and Grand Theft Auto, Fable promises an experience without these limitations.

Peter Molyneux, lead director of Fable, has made a lot of promises over the last year, including one grandiose claim that it would be "the greatest RPG ever." This means that Fable is slated to include just about every gameplay feature or gimmick possible, drawing heavily on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. For better or worse, Lionhead is going to try to make Fable all things to all people.

The defining feature of Fable is the ability to do anything. Apparently, anything the player can see can be bought, regardless of usefulness. If someone wants to dress the hero in a dress, bog him down with tack hammers, and purchase every outhouse he comes across, then that player will be able to do so. Not only that, but every passer-by will be able to be courted or offended. While some of these options weren't yet evident in this demo, many were, as one player was delighting in dressing the protagonist up in a snazzy black dress that set off his demonic aura and forehead horns, frightening bystanders with his fiendish laughter. Peter Molyneux himself showed off a hero (if you can call him that), clad in Union Jack briefs, thrusting his pelvis at anyone who came near.

Every hero will be a Hero with a capital "H", from nearly the beginning of the game. After a short time as a child doing little good deeds or engaging in petty mischief (and learning the controls) the protagonist ends up in Hero School, learning the arts of swordplay, archery, and magic. Players can favor any of those three fighting styles, or split the difference. Combat seems simple enough, but the AI and scripting for NPCs wasn't working very well yet, so it remains to be seen how entertaining combat will be. It is known that most of the meaningful opponents will be characters instead of creatures, but this is a trivial difference, in practice.

One big decision that may be Fable's downfall is the scaling of difficulty. Foes will be scaled to the power of the protagonist; wherever he goes, any enemies he encounters won't be too weak or too strong. This is a good idea in theory, but, in practice, it discourages players from actually building up their characters. (Final Fantasy VIII had this problem, on top of being buggy besides.) This hasn't ever been done very well, and Fable is already an incredibly ambitious game in other ways.

Appearance will also reflect the character's history. One factor is alignment, in the Dungeons and Dragons sense: an extremely good character will have a halo and an accompanying swarm of butterflies, whereas an extremely evil character will have horns and glowing red eyes. This isn't anything new, as screenshots have already shown shifty-looking protagonists, but extreme actions will have extreme effects. Similarly, as experience is traded for stat increases, skill bonuses, and new spells (Fable doesn't use levels), the advances will be reflected in appearance. One demonstration had the hero's shoulders expanding slowly as experience was spent to raise his strength.

Will Fable be everything that Peter Molyneux has promised? That's...a very good question. While there are the tools to make it stand out from the competition, there are also some worrying points. It isn't yet clear why anyone would want to do many of the things possible; while it's amusing to wander around flipping people off or crossdress or whatever, completely unfocused games tend to be be difficult to really invest one's self in. (Just look at Morrowind for an example of that.) It remains to be seen if Fable really will be the "greatest RPG ever," or just another overambitious underperforming title from Lionhead.