In Fable III, the latest installment of the critically acclaimed Xbox 360 exclusive franchise, fans new and returning will now embark on an epic adventure, where the race for the crown is only the beginning of your spectacular journey. Five decades have passed since the events of Fable II, and Albion has matured into an industrial revolution, but the fate of the kingdom is at peril.
- Embark on an epic adventure
- Be the Hero
- Blockbuster Action meets adventure
- Choice and consequence
List Price: $ 39.99
Price: $ 31.99
Amazing, Until you become king…,
After finishing the game, I have been forced to edit my review.
I was a huge fan of Fable 2, I loved the interaction with the people, the cities, and how you could make the game your own. Fable 3 is a good successor to the Fable storyline. The main plot is engaging and the wit/humor found within keeps you laughing. The game does a good job of mixing up the action, bringing you to different places and having you accomplish varying tasks throughout.
However, Fable 3 is essentially a cut down version of Fable 2. While removing the menus was generally a good thing, the Fable 3 team went too far. I list the Pros/ Cons here, but my final verdict is that unless you know what is coming at the end of the game, the end decision will ruin the endgame (the part after the plot is done) almost guaranteed. I won’t give away anything, but I strongly recommend you either be willing to play through twice, or rent the game. I was extremely angry at the Fable team after the plot was over. Forcefully shutting my xbox off, controller on the ground, angry.
Pros-
-No Menus
When I say no menus, I mean none what so ever, instead you have your sanctuary. An area that you can instantly teleport to whenever you want. Inside is your armory, dressing room, trophy room etc. All your items are displayed on mannequins and on the wall so you can pick and choose without going through layers and layers of menus. Even saving has an area in your sanctuary (not very obvious in the beginning). It sounds like it would be weird, but it really adds to the immersion of the game and works very well. A big map does the traveling when you can select areas for your indicator trail to go (same as fable 2) or fast travel to the areas that you’ve already visited. You can also zoom in on cities that you’ve visited and see more information about them. The entire idea may sound weird, but it really adds to the continuity of the game.
-Alive weapons
When I heard in the trailer that the weapons were ‘alive’ and would change as we used them I thought it would be neat, but weapons probably wouldn’t be that different. Boy was I wrong. A friend came into my world, same levels as I was, and ALL of our weapons were totally different. I’m not saying the designs or colors, but EVERYTHING. Shape, size, color, symbols/color of symbol. Everything. This provides a very cool customization of weapons.
-World is much bigger
And I’m not kidding, after eight or nine hours of Fable 2 you basically had explored everything. I’ve played at least that much and have only seen five or six of the at least twenty or so villages/areas. It’s huge.
-No allocation of skill points
Unlike Fable 2, where you had to choose areas to put your different skill points into, Fable 3 has a much more streamlined process. You get (basically xp, but I forget what they are called) which are earned through kills, quests, and talking to villages. Inside the sanctuary you can visit this area called ‘Road to the Kingdom’ or something along those lines. Inside, there is a figurative path on how close you are to ruling Albion, with chests and gates along the way. Every little way in the game, a gate is opened allowing you access to more chests, which can be opened with a requisite amount of ‘xp’.
-Better Graphics
Title basically speaks for itself. The graphics are more polished although I have encountered some stuttering.
-More
Very generally, more spells, more swords, more people, and more flourishes. You can weave spells together to create amazing effects. (fire and ice robert frost style anyone?
-Amazing Variety
I have YET to find myself doing something to the point where I am bored of it. It maintains continuity throughout but manages to stay away from just ‘bashing your way through’. You never know what you’ll have to do next, from interacting with villagers to make them like you, romancing a married woman to get her to divorce her husband that doesn’t want her, to playing as the hero inside a dungeons and dragons game.
-Combat
In Fable 2, you could pretty much bash your way through anything without having to worry about finesse. That’s gone… In just about every battle I have been pushed to roll and block in order to keep the enemies from overpowering me. The enemies are various, and they always have one or two strong guys that really make you feel pressured while fighting.
-More realistic villagers
In Fable 2, if you had enough renown basically everyone loved you. Its a little harder in Fable 3. If you want that girl/guy as your significant other you need to work for it a bit more.
-Pro/Con (can’t tell)
You no longer get money when the game is shut off like Fable 2. This is good, and bad. It makes it so it is much harder to get gold, but also stops the Fable 2…
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|An unbalanced game that fails to follow its own rules or innovate effectively,
**SPOILERS AHEAD** We all heard about the “touch” expression system. The “innovation” in the interface. The “improved” combat. All of those fail on many levels. It attempts to rewrite the rules of the genre and does an awful job of it. I’ll cover those in a minute.
My biggest issue? The king section’s poor execution.
Example 1: The game refuses to play by its own rules. You earn money from your properties every five minutes of play time, correct? The time it takes you to walk from your house to the blacksmith can earn you $20,000 if you own enough property. That is why you buy stores and homes in the first place.
So, can someone please answer this: How is it that, as king, a month or more of game time can pass in an instant and you haven’t earned a single extra golden dime from your properties? When you’re walking the streets as king, you still earn money. However, when a king segment ends and you fast-forward in time – say two months – you receive no earnings. It doesn’t compute how much you should have earned in those 60 days. Your potential earnings just disappear into limbo.
Money is the sole key to Albion’s fate. People will live or die based on how much gold you’ve got in your coffers. It’s a literal $1 to 1 life ratio. Yet, just when you need it the most, they take away that mechanic. Over the course of a game year the game skips ahead at enormous, irregular intervals – such as three months as opposed to a standard 30 day month – so you have no accurate gauge as to how fast you need to earn that money.
My wife and I ended up just leaving the game on overnight when we realized what was going on. During one of the (very) few action segments of the king chapter, we left our character in a castle room, bound the controller stick with a rubber band to keep it from pausing out and earned a ton of $$ from our properties. It doesn’t want to play by its own rules? We won’t play by them either.
I’m not one to use cheats, exploits, or “God” codes in games. I find cheating takes away the fun and challenge of a game, which is what I play for in the first place. That said, I did not feel bad in the least doing what I did. We used no codes or trickery. We simply did what the game *should* have done. Considering the amount of backlash the “king” portion of the game has received for its gross imbalances, I made the right decision.
Example 2: Zero grey area or thought put into the king’s choices. One of the choices involves Aurora, which wants to become a part of Albion. The good choice – rebuilding Aurora with a fort and letting them join Albion immediately – will cost $200,000. Reaver’s suggestion is for them to pay you a $500,000 dowry of sorts by mining a mineral deposit located in Aurora.
My question is this: if you let them join Albion now, won’t that mine be yours anyway? I mean, Aurora is now your land. You can extract what you want from it. So… why would following the “good” road cost you $200,000 instead of earning you just $300,000? ($500K worth of mine – $200K of rebuilding = $300K left over, no?) It makes no sense whatsoever.
And your other choices? Orphanage or brothel? Sewage or tree hugging? People who want their happy, pretty cake AND for you to save them from the horrible “darkness”. They are all so very black and white. Politics are often about compromise. I realize Fable is not intended to be a political system simulator, but it should have at least some grasp of human nature. In WWII, when the USA was threatened by the Axis, everyday people sacrificed food, materials, clothing and more for the sake of the armed forces. That the people of Albion would be so oblivious is beyond me.
As for the other things…
Touch Expression: Sure, you can interact people now, but you can’t express yourself. There are no choices beyond “good” or “evil”. In lieu of a natural friendship progression – wave, shake hands, hug – now your first contact with someone is playing patty cake or executing a perfect dance number (complete with lift). It’s a ridiculous, disappointing change from Fable II’s “expression wheel”. It’s like someone giving you a sports car but ordering you to drive only in straight lines on a 50 foot long track. What’s the point of that power when you can’t tell it in which direction to go?
Interface: The sanctuary is a clunky, time consuming mess. The “old” list method from Fable II is not as pretty, but is far more expedient. Running from room to room and cycling/paging through the limited display of items took far more time than Fable II’s list system. I did like the world map feature. It made it easy to navigate and manage your quests. However, when dealing with your property, a simple dedicated “repair 100%” button would have been nice when you highlight a property, instead of having to drill down into each property’s sub menu. What about…
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