Local Co-Op Gameplay Video and Analysis

[SetWaypoint]

The GF and I played about 5 hours of Fable 3 couch co-op last night. We broadcast it live on justin.tv, the gameplay will be saved for the next 7 days here: http://www.justin.tv/setwaypoint/videos. There's one awesome clip of her jumping on a dude's shoulders and snapping his neck with her thighs.

We'll probably be broadcasting a lot more the next few days, usually starting around 7 PM Central (GMT -6), if anyone would like to watch some local co-op live.

Now, for my initial impressions. I'm surprised with how different the weapons can morph. We were both using swords and acting towards a good alignment, so I expected them to be very similar, if not exactly the same. But after a couple of upgrades each, her sword turned into a gold encrusted cutlass with lots of bright blue runes. Mine was a straight, long, broadsword with dark blue runes. Very interesting and I'd like to see how they play out and learn what exactly affects the appearance. I will say, she barely ever uses the melee flourishes, and I use them almost exclusively in melee combat, so I'm pretty sure that's significant.

I was impressed that we were both able to start our save game files at the same time. As she started and selected her gender, I could just push start and select my gender at the same time as we started the game at the exact same time. All my skills, weapons, and money are carried over to my single player campaign, but the storyline does not progress at all, so when I load single player, I'm at the very beginning of the storyline. But, I'll be uber awesome with my upgraded weapons and skills

If anyone has questions about local co-op feel free to ask away. I know I had a lot of questions when reading about this game, local co-op was barely ever mentioned, they just kept hyping online co-op. It's pretty much the same except you're on the same screen Fable 2 style.

 

[Dracelix]

awesome.
i may do that with my cousin.
have me make my first game character, then have my cousin play as the second character on my game, in my account.
then when we finish the whole game co-op, i just start playing the second character from the start of the game where he left of.
seems better than having to buy 2 games.

so can you trade items between characters in couch play?

 

[SetWaypoint]

Yes, you can trade items and gold.

You simply walk near the other player and press... Left Bumper I think it is. Maybe right. It'll highlight the button options.

One of those buttons says "Gift" and you push it and you (whoever pushed it) gets taken to the Sanctuary. Since there is no menu or inventory, all of your items are stored in the Sanctuary (where you select your clothing and weapons and such). So, you get sent to the Sanctuary, select the item from all the items scattered across the room you'd like to gift to the other player, and select OK. And then that item will be sent to the other player's inventory (Sanctuary room) where they can use it however they want.

 

[Erghantar]

Ooh that sounds great! I've got a question: when one player goes to the Sanctuary, what happens to the other person?

 

[SetWaypoint]

Ooh that sounds great! I've got a question: when one player goes to the Sanctuary, what happens to the other person?

Each player goes to the Sanctuary by themselves. So, if Player 1 wants to change their clothes, they press start and get transported to the Sanctuary, where Player 2 disappears and no longer exists. Player 1 puts on new clothes then leaves the Sanctuary and Player 2 re-appears by your side exactly where you left off in Albion to continue your adventure.

Same way in vice versa if Player 2 goes to the Sanctuary.

 

[Dracelix]

if you are the second player. do you get to use all the features from the hosts road to rule. or do you use your own features, or simple none?
because it would be cool to get a second chance at leveling/morphing your weapon

 

[SetWaypoint]

You use all of your Road to Rule chests saved to your individual player, not the host. What player 1 has opened in Road to Rule does not affect at all what you have on your player. If that makes sense. If player 1 unlocks the shock spell, Player 2 still will have to use the same number of guild seals to open the chest himself and unlock the same spell for his own use.

If you open a chest in the Road to Rule, in single player or as the player 2 lackey in someone else's world, you cannot ever open it again in any other game mode. It is registered to your save file as being opened.

I went through the first 3 road to rule gates as the Player 2 lackey, and just this morning tested out if single player would work with my save file. On the road to rule, all the chests I had already opened in her world were already opened and I could not get them again.

So no, I don't think you'd have a second chance to morph your weapon with that. Sorry. I'm looking for more ways to change your weapon up as well. It'd be awesome if you could reset it and start the morph all over again.

 

[D.Shizz]

Sooo you cant play through the story line if two people are playing?

 

[SetWaypoint]

You do play through the storyline. But the progress for that storyline is only saved to the host's (Player 1) save file.

So the GF was host, and I was the player 2 lackey. We advanced several quests into her story. If she picks up and loads her game, it will be at the same point in the story we left off. I could join again or not, wouldn't matter. She's still be at that point in the story. We advanced there together, but it was on her file.

But, my save file did not get any of that storyline progression. So, after the long co-op session playing in her world, when I went to start up single player by myself, it started at the very beginning of the story. My character still had the gold, items, and skills I had acquired while playing in her world, but the storyline only moved in her world.

 

[D.Shizz]

oh gotcha, thank you

 

[DeaconSeth]

That's.. actually kind of awesome. Kind of like a New Game+.

 

[SetWaypoint]

Yeah, by the time I get to playing through the game on my own storyline, I'll probably have unlocked almost everything. Should be nice being able to wreak havoc with level 5 thunderstorms raining down on poor little hobbes

And money shouldn't be much of a problem. Playing as the lackey, I was earning more money than player 1 was. Not sure how they determine how much the player 2 gets paid, but the first day it seemed like about 100 every 5 min, and the second day for some reason it was up to about 1000 every 5 min. Pretty nice.

 

[Fable3Player]

is it possible to play 2 saved characters on the same account. we only have one live account.

 

[SetWaypoint]

You can have multiple save files on the same account, and switch between the save files easily by selecting which one to load.

However, you cannot have two people play on the same account at the same time. Both people would have to be signed into the same account at the same time, which is not possible.

You can just make a silver account for your Player 2 though. You don't need an xbox live gold account to play local co-op offline. Silver accounts can play the game just like gold accounts, only thing they can't do is play online co-op. Silver accounts can have their own saved file and persistent character to play with and drop in and out of off-line co-op games or play their own single player games no problem.

 

[Skip]

Hi folks -

New to this forum and to Fable 3. Trying it out in hopes it would be a good couch co-op experience for my wife and me. Looks like SetWaypoint or others posting to this thread have learned quite a bit about how its couch co-op mode works and might help.

Mainly we need tips on getting both of us into the game on as equal footing as possible. Tried Fable 2 local co-op where the 2nd player is just a henchman tagging along with the host player. Not much fun. But so far, very early in our first experience with Fable 3, my player 2 is doing just that. My wife started the game, picked the princess character, got her first set of clothes and so on, then I joined. My guy pops into the room in his PJs and off we go. Her character's story keeps going like I'm not there. Now we're in the first village after escaping the castle and I'm still basically just tagging along in my PJs. Interaction with my wife's hero seems to be pretty much limited to shaking hands. Does the second player's ability to interact, get stuff, and generally participate in the story line develop later in the game? Did we miss something during the startup that limits what my guy can do? Or is that just how local, as opposed to on-line co-op works in this game too? I should at least be able to get some clothes, right? .