Review | Fable III

Peter Molyneux’s ambitious action RPG series returns and this time players get the chance to take on the role of the ultimate ruler, the King. Well, eventually.

Set once more in the English inspired Kingdom of Albion you’ll soon find that a good 50 years have passed since the successful conclusion of the previous game. You take on the role of the son or daughter of the previous hero turned king. Unfortunately it seems for the kingdom as a whole you have an older brother named Logan who has taken the throne for himself. The problem is he’s a thoroughly unpleasant chap who is busily crushing the people of Albion underfoot.

Fifty years has allowed for much to change in Albion, and while some areas will be familiar, such as the marketplace of Bowerstone, the world overall has been created anew. Think less late Medieval and more Oliver Twist style 19^th century complete with tightly clustered dwellings and smoke belching factories complete with weeping child laborers’. A traumatic event early in the game sees your princeling flee from the royal palace accompanied by a trusted friend of your late father and your butler. Your objective, to gather followers in order to start of a revolution and cast your brother from the throne.

Before you get to that lofty state though it’s back to the classic sort of Fable you love (or hate), exploring and questing. Returning players will be instantly familiar with the feel of Fable III including its fighting style which utilizes a mixture of melee, ranged and magic all of which each use a single button. You’ll make friends and sometimes enemies, buy properties, pick up quests and in general just check the various areas out as you hunt down keys, treasure chests, garden gnomes, dig spots and living doors.

Once again you have a best friend in the form of a dog who’ll sniff down treasures, attack enemies you’ve knocked down and just downright entertain you as you interact with him – fetch boy (yes it does get old). The down side is that the poor mutt is as thick as a brick, well that’s what I tell myself anyway. The reality of the game is that Fable packs its fair share of bugs and nothing makes it more obvious that the dog which will walk in circles trying to find a dig spot or get caught on some piece of the environment and left far behind.

The people of Albion too can be interacted with and one of the first things you’re encouraged to do is make a lot of friends. Unfortunately one of Peter’s ‘fixes’ for the game is making interactions with people a one on one affair. This means in order to start impressing people you have go into a ‘session’  with them and after a series of burps, farts, chicken dances, heroic poses and the lot you’re generously offered the ‘chance’ to become the friend of whatever random pleb you’re speaking with –to actually become their friend however you have to complete a pointless fetch quest.

Alternatively in the whole good or evil approach that Fable takes, you can just be a dick and start threatening people, stealing their stuff and in general just getting yourself hated all around. Either is good. Of course how you interact with people and the choices you make will not only affect the people of Albion, but the appearance of the land – buildings for example will fall into disrepair if you tax too high. Your own appearance and the weapons you use will also change; a goody two shoes will be almost angelic in appearance, but start randomly murdering people and your visage will grow ugly and your sword will drip with the blood of the innocent.

I won’t go into the plot too much as there are some neat spoilers later in the game. Needless to say Fable III is divided into 3 acts. The first see’s you gaining allies for your revolution as well as progressing through the dreamlike ‘road to rule’…a level up like state where you spend points to unlock chests to give you new abilities, spells or make your weapons more powerful. Act 2 see’s Fable for the first time leave the greenery of Albion and has your player exploring a ruined Middle Eastern inspired continent called Aurora. Act 3 is the part where you’re actually King and tasked with the defense of the land against a great evil from across the sea intent on wiping out the kingdom. This is probably the part where clear lines between good and evil get blurred. Being king is hard and so are some of the choices; a large army is needed to defend the land and funds are limited, so do you really re-open that learning academy you promised to rebuild when you could use the funds to get more troops?

The greatest attribute of Fable III and the Fable universe in general is that the game is genuinely funny. Compacted with British humour (the actual funny kind, sorry Yanks) the game holds no bars on taking the Mickey out of itself, gaming in general and of course you the player. The inclusion of John Cleese as your butler is sheer brilliance and he’ll have you cracking up from the moment he voices disbelief at your donning a chicken suit (seriously).

Those who tore their hair out over the hapless co-op inclusion in Fable II will be overjoyed to know that this part of the game has seen the greatest improvements. Not only are you able to explore the areas without sticking to the same screen, but you can also play with you own hero instead of joining somebody else’s game as a generic henchman. Co-op is necessary as well to get some of the more rare items in the game.

The overall drawbacks are the bugs I mentioned earlier, poor AI, as well as graphical glitches, and slow down. It’s all suggesting a game which has been rushed out a little raw to meet the Xmas buying season. The more serious gamers’ among you might also find some criticism in the fact that Peter and crew have gone even further to dumb down the RPG aspect making the game even simpler than its predecessors.

Despite the drawbacks however, and there’s plenty of them, Albion is a land I have fallen in love with in the past and I continue to love it. Replay number two will be starting up shortly and that’s a rare thing for this old gamer.