Fable features through the series

[Bluedrake]

I have replayed all three Fables recently, and I want to do a comparison of all three games. What were the strong and weak points of each game. I will explore aspects that all three games had in common and which one, in my opinion, did it best. Feel free to add more stuff to the list.

Trading: I think Fable TLC did this one best. Each town had a variety of stores with many items, and you could buy in bulk (the little buy-sell glitch notwithstanding) and there were traders, some with unique items, travelling the world. Fable 2's stores were a nightmare and Fable 3's went for some kind of middle ground that didn't really work for me.

Weapon augmentations: Again, I would go with TLC for this one. Not only were all the augmentations combat oriented (which made sense since they went into a weapon), but you could add two of the same if you wanted a bigger effect.

Fable 2 had some good augmentations, but a lot of them were rather useless (bewitching, bark and the like).

Fable 3 was the worst by removing them altogether. If weapon morphing had depended on augmentations it would have given players greater freedom to choose what they wanted their weapon to look like. I didn't mind building up the legendary weapons. It was a nice touch that you had to use the weapon to unlock its potential, even if some of the requirements were a little silly

Money making: Fable TLC already had the real estate gimmick but did a poor job with it. The original owner had to be disposed of in some way before the building became for sale and you had to run to each building individually to collect. Very tedious.

Fable 2 introduced jobs which were improved based on your performance in them, and the real estate rent was automatically collected.

However, Fable 3 takes the palm for the real estate. It was made easier than ever and profitable. The only problem I had with the jobs in Fable 3 was that I had to spend experience to improve them. It doesn't feel very heroic to spend my hard earned experience to become a master pie maker.

Pub games: Fable TLC had a good variety of them and most relied on the skill of the playes rather than luck.

Fable 2's pub games felt more like casino games to me, especially Spinnerbox. Only fortune's tower required a bit of skill.

Fable 3: No thing to do in pubs except drink, which is lame.

Clothing: Fable TLC had 10 or so basic outfits, which all came in three different color sets. It was okay.

Fable 2 did the customization best in my opinion. The was a good variety of outfits and the dye system made for a good mix and match potential. There were also several hair, facial hair and makeup options, most of which were pretty good.

Fable 3 is the worst I think. There were very few outfits compared to the previous game and most of the hairstyles and makeup choices were disappointing. I will say though that even though there are not that many outfits, most of them look pretty good. I didn't understand why all the hats make the character look bald though. The dye system was improved by having one basic color and a slider to determine the shade (even if the most popular color was held hostage as a DLC).

Experience points: Fable TLC and Fable 2 had a similar system, but Fable 2 did it better by not having to return to the guild to spend the experience as well as having the option of "selling back" the experience.

The system itself in Fable 3 was alright, but having to return to the road to rule to spend it was annoying. Also, why do I have to spend experience to buy dye packs, expression packs, job skills and the ability to purchase houses and have children? Seriously, WTF?

 

[Little_Sparrow]

i disagree. I think the best trading system hands down was fable 2. I loved the fact every item ( and house) had a five star rating system to it, and that added a feeling of wealth and made it seem more like an RPG. Hands down, best weapons ( melee at least) were fable tlc, followed by fable 2, then fable 3. The only weapons i liked in fable 3 were the swinging sword, and dragonstomper .48. Clothing system i agree was definatly fable 2.

Now for experiance and upgrading your hero, this one is debateable. You see, loooooooooooooved the fable tlc way of leveling up at the guild, and making my guy a giant and he looked intense when he was fully upgraded. But i hated that you aged when you leveled your guy.

However, when fable 2 came out, i felt like my guy deserved kind of a desperado, piratey, rogue type of guy, so i hated leveling up physique because it made him way too big for his clothes ( looked retarted if he wore male upper class outfit)

Fable 3, i loved that if you leveled strength, you could still remain a same body size, and not look freakishly huge. But i hated road to rule, and leveling up experiance and everything there. Like i agree, leveling up your job and marketeering skills was stupid.

Now i think fable 1 suited its leveling up system, because it was all suits of armor and such, and it looked badass being a big bad hero in plate armour.

Fable 2, dont think so, because i never leveled up physique.

Fable 3, yes and no, because it had ****ty road to rule leveling up.

All in all i loved fable tlc, and can play it over and over again ( especially if i have modded the game on the pc)

Fable 2, another great game with minor problems, but nothing to bitch about too much ( like when playing the game i would find something i didnt like, and say " hmm maybe it will be better in fable 3" )

Fable 3- just sucked. Didnt recognize any issues in fable 2, and just ****ed everyone off.

 

[Bluedrake]

Hey there Little_Sparrow. I agree that the five-star rating system in two was good, but I was refering to the fact that a store only stocked one of each item (except the pubs, which kept three) as opposed to TLC where shops kept a lot more of each individual item and the ability to buy one, ten, twenty or the whole stock at once. I felt that the one item of each kind gimmick was a cheap way out of the buy all- sell-all exploit of TLC.

As for experience, I was merely refering to the way it was acquired and spent, not the resulting morphs. The Fable TLC and Fable 2 systems made it more epic in my opinion than Fable 3. The aging thing in TLC was very annoying I admit.