Summary [8.0 out of 10]

The newest installment in the Fable series is back, this time putting you in the role of a prince or princess who must overthrow your older brother who is a despotic tyrant ruling the kingdom with an iron fist. With improvements to the gesture system, a new menu system and improved relationship mechanics Fable III picks up right where the series left off with more of what we’ve come to expect from the series. The added political system and revamped morality changes things up in the later half of the game but things feel business as usual for the series. If you like previous Fable games and want more of the same with some extra mechanics thrown in then you will like Fable III. If you hate the previous games in the series then you aren’t going to find anything here to change your mind.

Introduction

Fable has always been a strange franchise built on broken promises and solid gameplay. Peter Molyneux is well known for announcing things that the games will do and then have to strip away features upon release. Fable games as promised would be really epic but what we get are good games with more realistic feature sets. Unfortunately at part III the series is starting to feel a little long in the tooth. Fable III is good at what it does but it doesn’t do enough new things to be truly great.

The Great

• Graphics: It still has the same style the series is known for but the fidelity and design are much better this time around. Not only does it look prettier in general but character models look a lot better than Fable II. It was nice to be able to run around as a character that doesn’t look like he hit every branch on the way down out of the fat and ugly tree.

• Writing: The dialogue is the best of the series and is often very funny. Side quest dialogue in particular is great and is often very inside and self-referential with characters discussing reasons for game play decisions in philosophical terms and complaining about issues with past Fable games. It is really amusing and clever and makes otherwise repetitive missions feel fun and amusing.

• Controls: The simple control scheme from Fable II returns with a single button each for melee, magic and ranged attacks leaving the A button for action commands and evasion. It seems like this would feel overly simplified and boring but adding context and directional commands and you get surprisingly deep and intuitive controls that make you feel in tune with the game and not feel like you are fighting the controls as well as the enemies.

• Voice Acting: The voice cast, which includes John Cleese, Simon Pegg, Michael Fassbender,  Ben Kingsly, Naomi Harris and Stephen Fry, is top notch and makes that good dialogue I mentioned sound even better. The game isn’t overly serious but the inclusion of great voice work elevates the already good material into something even better.

• Flourishes: The flourishes aren’t new but they are very cool this time around. These are essentially critical hits in combat and lead to your character completely owning the enemy. In the past it has been made up of beheadings and other such limb removal but here we have really creative and badass ways for your character to dispatch the enemies. These were a joy to watch and made a surprising difference in spicing up the combat.

The Good

• Story: There isn’t a central plot so much as a series of events that you have to deal with. The first half of the game follows an entirely different line than the second half. This seems like it would feel uneven and distracting but it flows together organically and feels natural. The story isn’t going to win any awards but it feels more satisfying than the more obvious twists and developments found in previous entries.

• Combat: As mentioned above in the controls, the combat feels very good and offers up enough options and variety to keep it interesting all the way through the game. With the new weapon upgrade system, you feel like you are always improving and always a badass. Part of this is uneven difficulty but for the most part the combat is well balanced and exciting.

• UI: Instead of a static menu system, when you pause you go to the hero’s sanctuary in which you can manage your costumes, weapons, gifts, hair styles, save games, your dog and just about every thing that needs to be managed. At first I thought it would be a pain in the ass but it makes a nice break from game play and is much more interesting to manage than static and boring menus.

• Gesture System: There is no gesture wheel any more and everything is based on button presses. Holding down the buttons will maximize the gesture and the gestures themselves are more reasonable than some in previous entries. The removal of the wheel means that you are much less likely to fart at a girl you are trying to chat up.

• Moral Balancing: The moral decisions in the game are still pretty black and white in terms of doing good or bad things but the consequences have much more far reaching implications and make the decisions much more difficult than a binary good or bad option. It turns out this Fable world is one of gray and you have to manage that by mixing black and white together. This starts off early when you have to choose between the life of a group of people and your best friend and never really gets any easier. This is a welcome change from the typical morality systems even if it has its own problems as mentioned below.

• Replay: There is a lot to do in Fable III and you can’t do it all in one run through. Luckily, the gameplay is fun enough to go back through multiple times to see alternate outcomes. In a way, the morality system makes it a bit like gambling. You want to try just one more approach and see how well it pans out.

The Bad

• Repetitive Quests: There really isn’t much new under the sun as far as quests are concerned and they are getting predictable. I was playing along at one point and said to myself ‘Isn’t it time for a Balvarine mission or two?’ and sure enough I found myself smack dab in the middle of them. Not only were the quests just more of the same for the series they were more of the same for the game itself. The side quest are pretty much the same thing over and over. The writing helps this a bit but the quests really need to have more to them.

• Not Enough Innovation: The latter half political material is a big change for the series and some tweaks were made to gestures and the online experience but there really isn’t nearly enough new here. Fable II had some major jumps from the first one but what we get here is more of a hop. It is still generally successful but it is roughly as successful as the last game and there isn’t enough to differentiate the two.

• Over-Simplified Political Structure: While I praised the moral implications of the political system above I did find it a little frustrating that the game seems to be telling the player that in order to do good things you have to spend tons of money and let a bunch of them die. I get that social programs cost money but given that there is an artificial conflict and time frame set up by design, the conceit doesn’t really work and ignores the nuance of the political process for something more simplistic. What is funny about that is that it also helps create a more complex moral structure but I think the whole thing is a double edged sword. More time should have been spent here to allow for a deeper experience.

• Lame Ending Boss Fight: The final boss fight is pretty quick and pretty easy especially when put next to other major fights in the game. The lack of an real consequence for death makes it a bit of a cake walk. I shouldn’t complain too much though because at least there actually WAS one this time around.

Conclusion [8.0 out of 10]

Fable III is a good solid game if you like this sort of experience. If you have enjoyed the previous entries you should enjoy this one. If you haven’t you probably won’t like this one either. There isn’t a lot of innovation this time around but what there is delivers well enough. There is plenty to do and fun to be had but nothing here is going to redefine action RPGs for years to come. It is just a pretty good game.