Fable 3 pretends to be RPG royalty, but is actually just the Fool.
Fable 3 streamlines the RPG to the point of absurdity, retaining almost all of the annoyances of its predecessors, and introducing a laughably broken kingdom management simulation. But damn if Albion isn’t fun to explore.
Universal ammo in Mass Effect 2. Linear paths in Final Fantasy XIII. Streamlining the RPG may be all the rage these days, but when a developer feels the need to dumb-down the pause menu, you know you’re in for a rocky ride. Enter Fable 3, the latest edition to Peter Molyneux’s action RPG franchise.
Apparently, Lionhead discovered that the reason more people don’t buy Fable games is that menus are too befuddling for your average Joe. Mainstream gamers are confused by convoluted menu choices such as Map, Inventory, and Skills. These concepts are so complex that they must be illuminated through the use of metaphor. A virtual room with a map table, a wardrobe closet, and an armory. A road lined with treasure chests, each of which contains a skill, and each of which can only be unlocked with experience points.
Wait … there’s skills … you unlock…. Hey, now I get it! Thanks, Lionhead!
Game: Fable 3
Genre: Action RPG
Version reviewed: Xbox 360
Also available for: PC (coming soon … supposedly)
Time to complete: About 23 hours
Save system: Save anywhere, but only one save slot
Never mind the ridiculousness of this theory. (Hey Lionhead, there’s this series called Call of Duty that you may have heard of. You might want to check out its multiplayer mode before you conclude that experience points, skills, and equipment are too scary for your average gamer.) The ultimate irony is that in its quest to simplify tried-and-true RPG mechanics to a level where even a semi-comatose parakeet could pick up the game, Lionhead actually made the game more complicated and unwieldy!
For example, Fable 3 continues in the grand tradition of Fable 2 by providing the most worthless maps in the videogame industry. You can see a pretty picture of each town, but not your current location in it? Seriously? Even the map kiosks at the mall have a “You are here” pointer. There are no maps at all for the dungeons. To compensate, we once again get the magical glowing breadcrumb trail. Not only does this obvious developer intrusion break your immersion in the game world (“Hey gamer, go this way!”), but it is also useless if you need to, say, get to the closest potion shop, or visit your house. One might think that a functioning map would be more useful to RPG veterans and newcomers alike (not to mention more immersive), but Lionhead knows better. Lionhead must have also discovered that health bars, a concept used in roughly ninety percent of video games since the debut of the wood-paneled Atari, confuses would-be adventurers. So they removed it. Don’t worry, though. Enemies posed a greater threat to your health in Sega Bass Fishing than in Fable 3. Fable 3’s monsters (all three of them) use AI straight out of Gauntlet (swarm the enemy, die, repeat).
Dying is so difficult in Fable 3 that it should unlock an Achievement.
Much has already been written about the last segment of the game, when the kingdom management simulation kicks in. I’m going to take a page from Lionhead’s playbook and streamline my commentary of this element of the game – it’s shit. (Suffice it to say that you can save every citizen of Albion and win Fable 3 with a halo and angel wings, all by being a ruthless slum lord, murderer, and antitrust law violator. Morality and consequences? Too complex!)
Does Fable 3 do anything right? Well, yes. I have to admit that, to my own surprise, I actually enjoyed a lot of my time playing this game. Exploration, although hampered by the lack of a decent automap, is quite fun in Fable 3. Every environment that you visit is unique and beautiful – frequently breathtaking. The graphics combine with excellent ambient sound to create a world that is exciting to explore. The towns range from a snowy outpost to a bustling industrial city to a desert wasteland, and the dungeons are even more varied and cool. None of the dungeons in Fable 3 felt generic to me – each one felt painstakingly crafted, a nice change of pace from the generic tunnels of ArcaniA: Gothic 4 or even Dragon Age 2.
The story, at least in the first half of the game, is also engaging. Raising a revolutionary army to overthrow your tyrant brother is a departure from the typical fantasy RPG plot, and a few of the characters (especially Walter) are very endearing. There are no dialogue trees, but the characters (including your character, who is no longer a silent protagonist) banter while you run around, and their conversations are well-acted and well-written. Had its developers focused less on mass market appeal and more on the strengths of the game, Fable 3 could have been a great RPG.
Fable 3 is an object lesson in the perils of pandering. Its misguided mission to cater to every possible gamer results in silly (at best) and frustrating (at worst) alterations to tried-and-true RPG gameplay mechanics that were in no need of fixing. If you can adjust to these inconveniences, however, Albion itself is worth a visit.
The Final Dungeon Score: 7 out of 10
i think hes right on a lot of points, however the biggest problem for me was the lack of personal choices, instead of 10 different types of weapons with stronger and weaker forms, we get a choice of a sword and a hammer, and somehow all the weapon shops can get their hands on so called legendary weapons, and have several copies of them. then theirs clothing choices, i believe the 1st fable had the best clothing options. with not just atleast a score of different clothing types, they also had light and dark versions as well. don’t get me wrong, dying clothes is great, but its kind of hard have a unique character with about atmost 5 types of clothing, that is unless your into cross dressing
Actually, with a bit of planning, you don’t have to be “a ruthless slum lord, murderer, and antitrust law violator.” You CAN save the kingdom and actually earn your wings, so to speak. (Though I agree about the maps.) Even with it’s faults, thought I think FableIII deserves 8.5, maybe 9.