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Thoughts on Fable III (possible spoilers)
15 years ago
General
First, let me say that I enjoyed Fable and Fable 2. Sure, they had their flaws, but I always managed to play them through to the end.
Now, Fable III was fun up to a point. The combat was as fun as ever, and mixing spells is interesting and neat. I wish the much-hyped shapeshifting weapons actually affected gameplay, of course, but it's a Peter Molyneux game, so letdowns like that are to be expected. The job minigames (or should I say minigame) suck, though, since they're *ALL THE SAME DAMN MINIGAME*, just with different animations in the background. One wonders what the point is to HAVING more than one job in the game if you're not going to make them any different. And the Sanctuary replacing the Pause screen just seemed clunky and honestly fairly silly; having John Cleese in there was amusing for a bit, but his repetitive comments quickly got on my nerves.
Still, it was fun enough...to a point. And I can put my finger *precisely* on the point where it stopped being fun: The moment you're crowned king. (That's not a spoiler, that part was a major part of the promotional stuff).
You see, being a king is freaking *boring*, and if you're trying to be good, the game actually punishes you by taking massive amounts of money from your treasury. There are also no more quests outside of the castle (or at least none that I saw), so there's really nothing *to* do besides the various 'royal duties', which, so far, merely consist of 'go here, watch cutscene, then pick a 'good' choice or a 'bad' choice'.
I confess, I haven't played more than a couple in-game days as a king, so maybe it improves. To me, though, it feels like the game screeched to a halt so fast that it threw me off.
Edit: Oh, and I forgot to mention why I don't just take the 'evil' choices as a king. For starters, I'm a sap, and I've been playing as a 'good guy'. And even if I wasn't, most of the 'bad' choices I've had to make pissed off LIKEABLE characters, and have you agreeing/helping Reaver, the biggest prick in the Fable universe. You heard that right. Not only has Reaver escaped bloody death AGAIN in Fable III, but you have the fucker WORKING FOR YOU. And the worst you can do to him is not take his advice. Seriously, Lionhead, let us kill that smug, sick, obnoxious prick already, please?
Now, Fable III was fun up to a point. The combat was as fun as ever, and mixing spells is interesting and neat. I wish the much-hyped shapeshifting weapons actually affected gameplay, of course, but it's a Peter Molyneux game, so letdowns like that are to be expected. The job minigames (or should I say minigame) suck, though, since they're *ALL THE SAME DAMN MINIGAME*, just with different animations in the background. One wonders what the point is to HAVING more than one job in the game if you're not going to make them any different. And the Sanctuary replacing the Pause screen just seemed clunky and honestly fairly silly; having John Cleese in there was amusing for a bit, but his repetitive comments quickly got on my nerves.
Still, it was fun enough...to a point. And I can put my finger *precisely* on the point where it stopped being fun: The moment you're crowned king. (That's not a spoiler, that part was a major part of the promotional stuff).
You see, being a king is freaking *boring*, and if you're trying to be good, the game actually punishes you by taking massive amounts of money from your treasury. There are also no more quests outside of the castle (or at least none that I saw), so there's really nothing *to* do besides the various 'royal duties', which, so far, merely consist of 'go here, watch cutscene, then pick a 'good' choice or a 'bad' choice'.
I confess, I haven't played more than a couple in-game days as a king, so maybe it improves. To me, though, it feels like the game screeched to a halt so fast that it threw me off.
Edit: Oh, and I forgot to mention why I don't just take the 'evil' choices as a king. For starters, I'm a sap, and I've been playing as a 'good guy'. And even if I wasn't, most of the 'bad' choices I've had to make pissed off LIKEABLE characters, and have you agreeing/helping Reaver, the biggest prick in the Fable universe. You heard that right. Not only has Reaver escaped bloody death AGAIN in Fable III, but you have the fucker WORKING FOR YOU. And the worst you can do to him is not take his advice. Seriously, Lionhead, let us kill that smug, sick, obnoxious prick already, please?
