If you can look past some of the things that Peter Molyneux has said through the course of the Fable franchises history, you’ll realise that the games are about stuffing around and seeing what you can get away with as much as it is about the story and character development. In keeping with the spirit of Fable, Louise’s husband was playing and demonstrating the game in the background… seemingly happy to hack any civilians that looked at his character funny. While wearing a chicken suit. And thrusting his hips… Yeah, fans of tomfoolery needn’t look anywhere else.
Napoleon probably would have appreciated some magical gauntlets.
Unlike the first two games that had you progressing from childhood up until late adulthood, we’re told that Fable III will pretty much throw you in the deep end within the first 20 minutes. As you may know by now, the Kingdom of Albion has moved into the Industrial Age and you start off playing a teenaged Prince/Princess. Very quickly, you will find that it’s up to you to overthrow the tyrant King and we’re told that the story will be darker and more adult-oriented. The interesting concept of the game is that once you’ve become King or Queen yourself, you will apparently be faced with a whole new set of choices for what is essentially shaping up to be the second half of a full game.
The core structure of the game seems to remain intact, where you’re running around from town to path to town from a third person perspective. Something that was very noticeable from our demo though, was that the game ran infinitely better than Fable 2 ever did. It was not just that everything ran much more fluidly and smoothly, but the finer details have been ramped as well. Interestingly, the game has ditched a traditional menu for an ‘interactive’ one, but it seemed that the performance didn’t take a hit at all. Technically, it seems like a much improved game.
The interactive menu may sound like a dubious idea at first, but from what we saw, it actually to work really well. Basically, when you open the menu, your character is transported to their own little realm/room. Your personal butler, voiced by John Cleese, will talk you through the options available and any new additions. Thankfully, it seems that he hasn’t brought along his Basil Fawlty persona. Some of the neat things that you’re allowed to do includes being able to walk up to your clothes and weapons to pick them, while you also have a map that you look over with a magnifying glass and can buy property directly off the map, rather than having to physically go up to the house and buy it.
Don't worry, your faithful partner will return too.
As many would have heard by now, Fable III forgoes RPG conventions such as experience points and hordes of new weapons. While some may be up in arms over such a move, it seems to come off reasonably well. In Fable III, as you complete work to become King/Queen your progress is measured by the number of followers that you gain along the way. Also, your weapons will change, depending on how you use them. Obviously though, you need some sort of tangible way of showing progress other than just an arbitrary numerical measure.
And so, you have the’ Road to Rule’, which is an actual path/realm that your character can enter and walk down. As you collect followers, treasure chests and segments will open up along the pathway. The chests may contain new weapons, attire, gestures, abilities and so forth. The path ends at the castle, suggesting that something else will measure/reward your progress once you become the ruler. Speaking of being ruler, we’re assured that you will face choices and consequences unlike you’ve seen before in a Fable game. Aside from apparently having a major game changing choice right at the beginning of the game, Fable III is looking to ramp up the stakes, especially once you become the ruler. And we were told that there will be scope for being a ‘bad’ ruler as well.
The combat in Fable III remains pretty similar Fable 2, but with some added bells and whistles. The health bar is gone though, replaced by a ‘pulse’ near on the bottom left of the HUD. While there really wasn’t enough time to see the morphing weapons, we did get to see some of the new finishing moves, which were suitably cinematic. Magic is now stored in equitable gauntlets, so you can wear two at once and combine the individual spells. So while we struggle to see how spells such as summoning the dead will work, but it seems like it will be great with elemental spells.
Where's a bigger gun when you need one?
Interacting with your adoring (or loathing) public and your spouse(s) has been a big part of the Fable games. However, Fable III tries to get a little more intimate. Rather than having a wheel of gestures to pick from, you now have the ‘touch’ system. When you engage in a conversation, you’ll have essentially a positive and negative action to pick from. At first it may seem like you mightn’t have much to pick from, but as you progress and earn more gestures, you’ll cycle through each set of gestures to give a more ‘conversational’ flow. You will be able to perform communal gestures as well, such as playing the lute. Another reason why it’s called the touch system is that you’ll be able to grab people by the hand and drag them along, pick up your children and use gestures such as dancing.
Along with additions such as a proper online co-operative mode and many of those mentioned above, Fable III looks to further enhance the series reputation of being solid RPG with a plethora of choices and shenanigans. While a lot of the changes may seem like they’re dumbing down the game, they’re also taking Fable III into a territory where it looks like it will sit completely on its own. What other game has an interactive menu? What other game will have you playing as a ruler from third person? And what other game will let you fart and thrust your hips in the faces of other NPCs? So while it may not ever become the best game ever created, Fable III does in the absolute least look like a lot of fun to explore and play around with.
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