So I finally played Fable 3... (spoilers within, obviously) (yes, it's a rant.)

[Noctus]

So I remembered that I never actually got around to playing Fable 3 and since the PC version was out for a long time I thought now was a good time. And I soon wished I hadn't bothered.

This game has just perplexed me in so, so many ways. Fable 2 had missteps but it still managed to be immersive and in some ways a better game than the original. But this is just a dumbed down version of that game with a premise that doesn't even work. Every aspect about the Fable games prior to this one are all but gone apart from a few.

Starting with something that is instantly apparent, the fact that the Hero was faceless and never said a word made it so much better to be able to customise your character and make it you. Now that it's some obnoxious twerp little brother (or sister, though admittedly I haven't played through as a female) with an annoying facial expression in every single moment of the game. I no longer care about making the character my own. All as well, really - since there's just about no character customisation left.

A minor annoyance too is that I'm thrown into a male/female relationship with a girl named Elise. At least as a gay man it made the decision rather easy of who should be executed, but starting the game and being told who you are and who you love is not my idea of Fable. Looking for gay men is annoying, too. Oh and no, I'm not in any way calling the game homophobic, I'm not that pathetic. I'm just annoyed that Fable is about making your own character out of your own choices and I think you're thrown into a bit too much here.

Dialogue's okay. Well acted. Fable II got the balance of seriousness and humour just right, there being enough moments to have me laughing but also have me gripped, but now it's to the point where they just aren't taking themselves seriously any more so it's so difficult for me to take it seriously. Maybe I'm not meant to but if all I'm doing is playing for a cheap laugh now and again I'd rather just watch someone doing stand up comedy as opposed to plodding through meaningless and tedious missions just to get a laugh.

I could go on about how flawed the story is forever. Starting with how the hero you have to play is an unlikeable twerp who you'd never want in any seat of power, the premise is just non-sensical. So what is the enemy, exactly? Why does it want to take over Albion? What's it's goal? Where did it come from? I guess it doesn't matter. It's just black goop that spews vaguely cool quotes from time to time. After plodding along to the part of the game where you become king, the choices you make just don't add up. The "evil" choices you get to make aren't even evil in the least, they're completely sensible. Digging up a river for an incredibly valuable element that could save the lives of millions is sensible considering that if you don't it won't be there for much longer anyway because it'll be destroyed. Making a brothel hurts just about no one, and makes a tonne of money, why is that evil? But not only do I dislike being seen as a dick when I'm not a dick, what if I actually WANT to be a dick? You can't. The evil choices are actually good ones and the good ones are also good choices but for idiots. What's more, if you make the good choices, the world is barren afterwards giving you the uneasy feeling that you've completely rendered your game useless without just playing again. If you make the *cough* "evil" choices, people hate you. Until you fart in their face or do a silly dance. Then it's all okay again. But perchance you want to make the "evil" choices for the good of the people and people hate you... why not just tell them why you made the choice you did? It's not like the King didn't want to say anything about the oncoming threat to keep morale up. Logan announced it in front of everyone. Are Albion's residents that braindead? Well they all share the same 3 brains so I guess they are.

Also the amount of stuff they re-used from Fable 2 (and even Fable 1 which is beyond pathetic) is mind-boggling. I actually made a drinking game called "whenever you hear/see something from Fable 2 or 1, take a shot" and I was beyond my realm of drinking comfort in under an hour. As for combat, read any review. Still as unbalanced as before. The map system is worse than ever. The Sanctuary is annoying (but not quite as annoying as most people point out, granted. if there was more in the game it would probably be far more annoying.). I could complain about many of the individual aspects forever but there really is little point to it.

I'm just confused as to who made the majority of decisions that made this game more or less worthless. Yes, straying away from RPG elements isn't necessarily a bad thing but without those, what's left? An unlikeable character in a premise that makes no sense in a world that's cartoony and linear with repetitive combat and "moral" choices. Um...

Lionhead? Why?

PS: Also, a PC game in 2011 with no bloody anti-aliasing?! Come ON, Lionhead. If you're going to try and break into modern PC gaming, look the part. Everything in this game is a jagged edge thanks to no anti-aliasing.

 

[DarkONI]

You make some good points, but I still enjoyed the game myself.

 

[Noctus]

That's cool. I'd much rather people enjoyed a game than not enjoyed it.

 

[Arseface]

All good points sir. The best thing about Fable III was the Sactuary, and even that was poorly excecuted. Had they used menus as well as the sactuary, it would have worked almost flawlessly in my eyes.

 

[Noctus]

I actually agree with that. The Sanctuary could have been a great idea had it been used properly and to its full potential.

 

[Keshire]

And to think. Most of this could have been corrected had the game been open to modding. Instead we got a gimped game that lost relevancy quick enough that Lionhead had to announce another one within a year.

 

[Necromancer]

And yet another knife is being jabbed into me as I read this. It saddens me.

 

[El Mosqueton]

Not gonna lie, I liked the game, but that doesn't mean I can't see it is bad. All your points are pretty reasonable. And I would like to add a few of my own:
-Legendary Weapons: What the hell were they thinking? One of my favorite aspects of Fable and Fable II was going around finding Demon Doors and Silver Keys so I could get them all, but on Fable III there are unlimited amounts that you can buy IN STORES! Not to mention they all look the same.

-Lore: In addition of basically throwing out all previous lore to the window (Jack's Hammer? Scythe's Warhammer? Briar's Blaster??? Jane Grey???) They toned down EVERYTHING, items no longer have descriptions, books are actually read to us and character development is non-exsistant.

- Lack of Support: This one is the one that annoys me the most, Lionhead did not bother to do more than 1 patch. Its plain wrong to treat your costumers like that after they spent their money on your game.

 

[DarkONI]

- Lack of Support: This one is the one that annoys me the most, Lionhead did not bother to do more than 1 patch. Its plain wrong to treat your costumers like that after they spent their money on your game.

Fanbase, we're the retailers customers.

 

[Arseface]

Fanbase, we're the retailers customers.

That's such a massively petty distinction to make.

 

[El Mosqueton]

Fanbase, we're the retailers customers.

I would not call everyone that bought the game part of the fanbase. The fanbase are the dedicated players that love the series or the developer, while a simple customer would be the one that bought the game perhaps out of curiosity or that got it from that Xbox bundle.

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

All good points, I couldn't agree more. The bit describing the crawler as goop made me lol.

Biggest two turn offs for me were the reused graphics and the fact that my character isn't my own in the context of the story. I got Fable 3 when I got a new Xbox and decided to give it a go. I wanted to be as evil as my first playthrough in the original Fable. Guess what? That boring Abercrombie model in the castle was not what I wanted to start with. It immediately erased any desire to keep going. I'm currently replaying the arena in Fable 1 if that tells you anything.

The reused graphics that stood out to me were the blood effects, the digging, and the flames on torches.

Okay. When I go to dig a whole, that **** is just embarassing. Little dirt clouds appear, then a mound of dirt just materializes out of an apparently empty shovel. It's what that sequence would look like if it was designed by someone who had no idea what they were doing and had to design it somehow.

 

[Noctus]

Most of this game is pretty embarrassing considering what it came from. Fable 1 isn't a spectacular game but it is a great game that set the foundation for a really good series, a foundation that they then decided to throw up all over.

 

[Angel]

I can see the points and I agree with a lot of them but I still will continue to buy Fable games for as long as they make them. They've got a quirky charm to them and, above all, they are among the very select few titles that I can actually complete without asking someone to do it for me. That's a huge factor for me

I really like the Fable series - sure, there are things they could and should have done to improve/fix stuff, but overall I enjoy them very much. If they make Fable 4 then I'm first in line to grab a copy

 

[DarkONI]

I'm first in line to grab a copy

I'll keep that in mind /internetpromises

 

[ILikeDeepStories]

I liked the way the first to games had an awesome story and I got emotionally hooked straight away. Fable 3? probably more emotional attatchment when playing Ms. Pacman. What's with the guantlets? The hero's magical ability has diminished so much since the first game. I get what they're trying to say- magic is lost as technology advances; but at this rate we'd be lucky if we're able to bend spoons in Fable 4. The three turns that's s'posed to represent the year you have to prepare your kingdom was abysmal. Fable 1, still the greatest to me and I won't knock anyone who thinks Fable 2 was better but anyone who played the first two can only be disappointed by Fable 3. Big hype, big TV ads, Bigger Let Down!

 

[Windbrand]

The fact that there is only ONE save file, and the game forces an auto-save when you try to quit alone makes it a fail of a game. This means you CAN'T TRY ANYTHING WILD in this game. Quicksave then go on a rampage just to see what happens, then quit the game without saving so you can have your good character back the next time? NOPE, the f*cking game forces a save that overwrites all your previous save the moment you try to quit the game, so congratulations now you have a 58000 bounty on your head that you didn't intend to have. Seriously 3 words, what the f*ck.
Oh and that along with the billion other problems with this game that makes it look more like a tech demo than anything. No mini-map, a grand total of 4 weapons in the entire game (sword, hammer, pistol, rifle), no stats on clothing, no stats ANYWHERE, no inventory (do I have 56 carrots or 14? Nope since the hero is obviously blind or lack the ability to check his/her own pockets you can't tell), forces you to warp to a changing room to change clothing, no quest list, broken waypoint system that points you to completely random locations, the only RPG game I know where there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO BUY in the shops (they only sell the clothing that you already have, like the default 2 you start with which I have absolutely no idea what's the point of buying, or clothing of the opposite gender, dafuq? Why the hell would I need to wear clothing of the opposite gender? Why would I even need to buy that?), extremely repetitive "social" interactions that you gotta watch EVERY SINGLE TIME if you want that extra guild seal, and completely laughable combat where all you need to do is click then press spacebar to roll and repeat this process 50 times to win any boss bottle. At least the combat multiplier thing in Fable 1 made it more challenging.
The ONLY thing I liked about this game was the dog and its many animations. I guess I have a soft spot for cute animals.