**Warning, has some spoilers**
We don’t like to rush our judgements on games. Sure we could rush through them and give you general thoughts, but what fun is that. It is better to have someone sit back and enjoy the game and then give you an honest opinion. Here is ours of Fable III.
The Fable franchise was ground breaking for the way it reacted to your choices. What made the first one great was that whatever you did affected the game. You ate tofu, you were skinny. You drank beer, you put on weight. It’s funny. The second comes along and takes it to a new level. The interactions with other computer characters improves. People fall in love with you, you can get married, you can have children. It’s a nice twist.
So how do they take it to the next level in Fable III? The story still revolves around the mythical land of Albion. But this time you are charged with leading a revolution against an evil tyrant (your brother) to make life better for the citizens of Albion. The game starts out with you having to make a pretty drastic choice of life and death and that starts you on your path to saving your land.
Along the way in the game, you are charged with gaining the support of the citizens to help you in your uprising. What better way to do this by becoming Albion’s errand boy? What, are you the only one with feet in this country? Each quest builds on itself earning you the ever powerful guild seal which you use to upgrade your character.
At the end of the final battle where you take control of Albion as the new king, the game shifts to where you are now ruler and must make big decisions that affect the future of Albion (we won’t give that away).
So what is good about the game? It is gorgeous to look at as usual. The graphics are great. The story line is funny as the other ones. The expressions are much better than Fable II. The fighting/magic are more streamlined. You can combine spells to create some lethal combinations. The ability to purchase buildings is easier by using an overhead map in the sanctuary, instead of having to go door to door. Plenty of side games to go after. From retrieving missing books, picking exotic flowers, even destroying evil gnomes, it just makes the game that much deeper. The addition of the sanctuary anytime you push the start button is nice. You have all your clothing/weapons/dyes/spells right there.
What is bad about it? The way you interact with people is a bit tiresome. You have to select each person. Then interact with them by dancing, farting, doing the chicken dance…Well you get the drift. In doing so this also earns you guild seals. It would be better if you could just walk up to someone and do an expression much like the other games. To have to engage someone every time is a bit cumbersome. We missed the ability to specialize in one facet of the game. In Fable II, if you wanted to be a warlock, you could only kill people with magic and earn magic points thus upgrading your magic faster. This game aims more toward making you a well-rounded Hero. As far as property ownership goes, the fact that you constantly have to repair your rental properties is a bit of a pain. We don’t mind the upkeep, but there should be a way to put it on auto so you don’t have to keep going back to these all the time to ensure you are getting your moneys worth in rent. I didn’t like that you could only carry one type of food in this game. In fact, the shopping in general seemed paired way back this time around.
So there you have it, our honest take on Fable III. In actuality we are still playing through it even though we are done with the meat and potatoes of it. But we are Microsoft Point whores. We still give this a huge recommendation to pick up if you haven’t yet. It would make a great gift for that gamer in your life this holiday season.
