That's right it's time to have a look at the third installment in Peter Molyneux's epic fantasy series Fable.
Fable 3
Like many of the big releases this time of year many people have an opinion of the game before they even play the game. I know i did with this game. I knew i was going to love it! I played Fable 2 and it was one of my favorite fantasy games i've ever played. In fact it has been one of my favorite games played on the next generation consoles. It was a perfect blend of epic fantasy action, plot and design mixed with razor sharp british comedy. Sure it wasn't perfect. Sure i had a few problems with it but the positive aspects of the game vastly outweighed the problems. So obviously when Lionhead Studios announced the third game in the series i was all for it.
However the game began to fall to the classic Molyneux sales pitch. He began making huge claims about the game such as being able to lead a revolution against a corrupt tyrant and then lead the country either fulfilling promises or breaking them, your choices during the game having a direct effect of the community and aesthetic of the whole region of Albion, having moral grey areas and weapons that evolved as you used them depending on your play style.
Did the game live up to the hype it received?
In short, no.
As always Molyneux had promised much much more then he delivered and the game that was released was in fact terribly mediocre and incredibly lacking in many areas. Leading the revolution is there as the first half of the game and to be honest that is where the fun stopped for me. Doing quests to gather followers and completing challenges to impress key characters to have them join the fight against the king. Some side quests are brilliantly written and executed, one example is when the hero is shrunk down in order to participate in a table top role playing game similar to Dungeons and Dragons, which features a lot of parody about not only table top gaming but fantasy gaming in general and you can tell that the jokes had been written by people who loved the subject matter and more then willing to point out the stereotypical aspects of the genre.
Once the revolution is one however the game grinds to a slow agonizing crawl as the count down begins to the big finale. During this section of the game all the player has to do is decide to be evil or good and try to make money. This part of the game just drags on. If you try to be good by building schools and saving the environment you'll make no money and in the end the entire population of Albion will be killed. However if you choose to be evil and raise taxes and ruin the country side in order to improve industry everyone will survive, even if everyone hates you for it. This section of the game seems to rip itself away from the fantasy action adventure genre the previous two games of the series settled in. Instead it seems more aimed for people who love to farm gold in RPGs or manage business finances. I really found myself struggling to get through this part of the game and I know of others who did as well.
Apart from the very rare entertaining side quests the things to do outside of the main plot was also very disappointing. Mostly consisted of fetch quests or delivery quests. Neither of which really make me feel like a hero battling to save the entire world but instead they make me think I'm playing the role as village handyman which is not the reason I got the game. One of the reasons I did buy the game however was for the huge cast of amazingly talented british actors such as Stephen Fry (reprising his role as the charismatic Reaver), John Cleese (as your ever loyal butler Jasper) and Ben Kingsley (taking the role of the hilarious tribal leader Sabine) just to name a few.
With actors like this voicing the cutscenes really helps bring out the humour that has been laid both subtly and right up in front of the quests, conversations and general characterizations. This is specifically found in the gnomes throughout the game. Much like in Fable 2 with it's gargoyles, Fable 3 has given itself a very large collection quest in which you must go around, find and shoot every single gnome hidden throughout the game. Unlike the gargoyles however the gnomes have some hilarious one liners they throw at you, favorites include; "You know what I like most about people? They die!" and "You know you're quite funny. To bad looks aren't everything!" When I heard these lines I found myself chuckling and just staring at the gnomes waiting to see what else they'd say.
Once you've reached the throne however the only real reason you'd carry on playing is to see the end of the game. Apart from a few highlights early on in the game and the odd interesting side quest the game is incredibly average. With gameplay copied from Fable 2, an over top complicated menu screen, despite being simplified like they claimed it was just a different realm the hero would walk around in and look at things instead of just having a normal inventory or equipment set up. Even the overly hyped evolving weaponry was just a case of as you upgrade your melee or ranged skill the weapon would change colour or shape depending on how many hollow-men you killed or how often you drank a potion.
I can only really recommend this to people who played Fable 2 and wanted less of the fantasy adventure and more of the tedious simple life simulator. It's fun for a while but in the end has just had too much taken out of it and not enough put back in. If not then just as a rental to play over a free weekend, or a week if you are a completionist, but over that and you'll find yourself getting bored of how standard the whole experience is with no significant high points except for the cast and the rare burst of well written puns.
Thanks for reading.
EpicFlyFire
