It is! It isn’t! That was the debate surrounding whether Lionhead’s new Kinect title, Fable: The Journey, was on-rails at E3 this year. After seeing it not once, but twice, here’s our verdict: we have no chuffin’ idea. Sure, it looks on-rails and in both presentations it pretty much played out in the same way, but if you listen to Lionhead and Microsoft Games Studio's figurehead, Peter Molyneux, then it isn’t. That’s where the problem lies though. Call me cynical, but ever since Molyneux said, and I quote, “I could name at least 10 features in games that I’ve made up to stop journalists going to sleep,” I can’t really take anything he says seriously or as gospel. Now, I don’t know what to believe when it comes to the musings of the iconic figure, so I’m sticking with what I can trust: my eyes. They’ve not let me down yet.

Fable: The Journey is the latest title out of Lionhead Studios and its first attempt at a Kinect title. It tells the story of your hero, who must carry a sick and weak Theresa – who many will know as the Zoë Wanamaker character from recent Fables – 300 miles to The Spire, with the corruption chasing you down every step of the way.

The multi-staged demo that we managed to get eyes-on with behind-closed-doors was very similar to what Microsoft took to its E3 press conference stage on the Monday before E3. The only real difference was that while the Microsoft press conference showing was bordering on the embarrassing, the behind-closed-doors – more relaxed demo – was only bordering on the tepid. Now I’m not sure whether that’s much of a compliment, but for us, after the press conference there was no winning us back. Turns out we were wrong, but only ever so slightly, there is hope now, but not much.

Fable: The Journey is all about freedom and magic, according to Molyneux, and the first stage of the demo saw our intrepid hero guiding a horse and carriage along a winding mountain path and then out into a much more open environment. To control the horse and carriage is a matter of just steering the horse with the reins as you would any horse in real life: leaning left and right to steer the corners, and flicking the reins to gain a little speed. It’s essentially a game of momentum and with rocks falling and the path winding left and right, players will have to avoid them and stay on track if they want to keep their speed up and escape the corruption that follows closely behind.

Molyneux refers to this section as the “travelling portion” of The Journey, which speaks for itself really, and as players dodge the various obstacles thrown at them, they must keep their momentum going and pick up magic along the way. Now this is where the confusion for most kicks in, with Molyneux telling the press that players can stop the cart – outside a mine for instance – and then go off the beaten path to explore. Unfortunately we didn’t see this with our own eyes, so for now, we’re sceptical about whether that’s even possible. We’ve been burnt too many times before, okay?

The second, more action-orientated aspect of the demo, saw our hero get off the horse and venture into a wooded area late at night. Again, this sequence was on-rails, just like the first one appeared to be. It’s here where the magical aspect of Molyneux’s spiel comes into fruition though and using a variety of hand gestures, the player must deal with an array of Fable enemies with the magic at hand – in this instance, mostly Hobbes of varying size and stature.

Now this is the aspect that I don’t think was given a fair demo on stage at Microsoft’s press conference, with it looking all too familiar to that shambolic Harry Potter showing at Gamescom last year. Fortunately, it’s nothing like that and at times actually borders on the clever. Players can use one hand to throw spells, use two hands at the same time, fire alternative shots with them, curve said spells with aftertouch, spread their hands apart to create a magic spear (although we suspect that the control of the throwing of said spear is minimal), power up spells by rubbing their hands together, thrust their hands outwards to use a push spell and even draw a circle to slow down time. Quite how long that’ll feel fun for though remains to be seen, you know, seeing as it’s on-rails and all. Or that’s what it looked like anyway. Twice. It just seems to lack the depth and variety that one would expect from a Fable title.

There are elements of Fable’s RPG systems in there, sure, but they’re barely noticeable, with Molyneux citing quest elements, branching mechanics, a morality system with consequences – where you draw life force from inhabitants of the land, choosing to just knock them out or killing them for more lifeforce – and even a levelling-up system was teased.

So who is The Journey aimed at then? Well, according to Molyneux, it’s aimed at a few different audiences. “Our job was to make a game that core people love and that people who are maybe too scared to play controller based games, can play,” said Molyneux. To us though, it’s pretty obvious that this isn’t aimed at the hardcore gamers as the gameplay doesn’t really seem to have the same depth that that audience would seek, but likewise, we can’t imagine that it’d win over even the most hardcore Fable fans either. I’m a Fable fan and I can’t say that at any point did the game intrigue me to the point where I would consider ever playing it. It seems like it’s very much a casual game where members of the same family can enjoy it, playing it from the comfort of their own couch, and sharing an experience together that’s maybe a little more mature than what Kinect currently offers now.

I generally think that the problem with Fable: The Journey though is that the gameplay itself just doesn’t look appealing in any way, shape or form. If I’m being completely honest, it looks like an attempt to prise a Kinect game out of a pre-existing franchise, essentially riding on the coattails of the franchise’s established name. Obviously it’s early doors for Lionhead’s Kinect game and for its latest Fable title, but for us, it’s doing very little to win us over at the moment.

Fable: The Journey is scheduled for a 2012 release.