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My Fable 3 Review (Wall o Text)
15 years ago
General
So I beat Fable 3 this last weekend, and after compiling my thoughts, I have decided to go ahead and give my unasked for, unbiased opinion on the game.
First of all, the storyline. It starts out just how the commercials present it; it's you starting an uprising against your brother's rule. Because he's being kind've a douche. And, so, you go around to different chunks of Albion and gather up followers to aid you in this revolution. Then, once you become ruler, you suddenly learn your brother was a douche because he was doing what needed to be done to save Albion from a horrible incoming evil. You had met this evil in the process of gathering followers, and it seems completely detached from the story until your brother is like "was building an army to fight it lol". Oh, okay. However, at this point the game slowly becomes a series of in-game cut scenes where you listen to one of your followers whine about what they want, and then Reaver stands there like a bitch and calls them stupid before sayign "Do my thin instead because there is profit in it for me." And then, all the sudden, once you've done so many of these the game declares that it's time to determine whether you've saved everyone or not based on the amount of $$ in your royal treasury. Then you're done. The end felt kinda rushed, hasty, and uninspired compared to the rest of it, but hey. It's a step up from the last game's storyline.
Storyline aside, you have the RPG experiences of exploration and combat. Exploration is much like the last game (which was stronger than the first game), with some area's being more or less explorable depending on how open an environment they are. Caves are pretty straightforward, and wide open fields/bodies of water offer more roaming. Cities are a bit more confusing, and the fast travel system could use some fine tuning (You can fast travel to a building by choosing to fast travel while it is highlighted on the "map").
Combat is much like the last game. You use X for all of your melee attacking/blocking, as well flourishing by holding it AND a directional button. Your ranged combat is all assigned to Y, and you can aim manually by holding the L trigger (this also has the unfortunate side effect of automatically locking onto whatever the game wants to). Magic is changed up a bit from Fable 2 (thank god) by assigning spells to a gauntlet that you wear. each gauntlet can only use a single type of spell, and you can use two at once after unlocking the "spellweave" ability. I will admit I found being unable to use certain spells until a certain point in the game was a bit frustrating (less customization of your combat magic early on), but given how overpowered the final spell you get is (Blades), I can understand locking some of them away. Also in regards to magic, you get to cast level 5 spells from the get go. HOWEVER it takes over a minute to charge up to level 5 when you only have your magical abilities at level 1. For every level you advance your magic, you charge faster and deal more damage. If you have two people playing together, one can keep enemies off the other while they charge their spell even at level 1 magic. I liked that notion. Another small note on combat is it is constantly interrupted by an in game feature, where the camera slows down and zooms in on an enemy whiel you do something. However, you are left wide open to attack durign this. And it always strikes at inconvenient times.
Running real estate in this game is needlessly complicated. All because they forgot to add ONE option to the menu; "Repair All". As your property is lived in, the condition of it falls. If you have a property hit 0%, you no longer get paid by your renters. And you have to repair each and every building ONE AT A TIME. I hate that |:< However, running real estate is vital to make enough money to save everyone if you go the total good route and keep all your promises. Mind you it didn't take long to accrue the money in my case. I continuously distracted myself via sidequests, and it felt like I had the money in no time.
Now then, the dog. I hated the dog's AI in Fable 2. In Fable 3, the dog seems a lot less clunky, and tends to stay out of the way. However, his AI in reference to where treasure is can be derpy, and his pathing AI tends to wig out every so often.
Little stuff I also want to note or nitpick (mostly cuz I'm sick of writing lol):
Expressions system is a lot worse than the last game's (bring back the wheel)
Less clothing options, but better looking clothes overall.
Weapon morphs are cool, but people like to bitch about them.
Why is there always a demon door with a fat fetish?
I WANT TO KILL REAVER AND TAKE HIS CLOTHING
AND HIS MANSION
Walter should have been voiced by Liam Nielson. Figure it out.
TL;DR version:
I liked the game, but like every fable before it it has it's faults. But less of them than Fable 2 had, imho
First of all, the storyline. It starts out just how the commercials present it; it's you starting an uprising against your brother's rule. Because he's being kind've a douche. And, so, you go around to different chunks of Albion and gather up followers to aid you in this revolution. Then, once you become ruler, you suddenly learn your brother was a douche because he was doing what needed to be done to save Albion from a horrible incoming evil. You had met this evil in the process of gathering followers, and it seems completely detached from the story until your brother is like "was building an army to fight it lol". Oh, okay. However, at this point the game slowly becomes a series of in-game cut scenes where you listen to one of your followers whine about what they want, and then Reaver stands there like a bitch and calls them stupid before sayign "Do my thin instead because there is profit in it for me." And then, all the sudden, once you've done so many of these the game declares that it's time to determine whether you've saved everyone or not based on the amount of $$ in your royal treasury. Then you're done. The end felt kinda rushed, hasty, and uninspired compared to the rest of it, but hey. It's a step up from the last game's storyline.
Storyline aside, you have the RPG experiences of exploration and combat. Exploration is much like the last game (which was stronger than the first game), with some area's being more or less explorable depending on how open an environment they are. Caves are pretty straightforward, and wide open fields/bodies of water offer more roaming. Cities are a bit more confusing, and the fast travel system could use some fine tuning (You can fast travel to a building by choosing to fast travel while it is highlighted on the "map").
Combat is much like the last game. You use X for all of your melee attacking/blocking, as well flourishing by holding it AND a directional button. Your ranged combat is all assigned to Y, and you can aim manually by holding the L trigger (this also has the unfortunate side effect of automatically locking onto whatever the game wants to). Magic is changed up a bit from Fable 2 (thank god) by assigning spells to a gauntlet that you wear. each gauntlet can only use a single type of spell, and you can use two at once after unlocking the "spellweave" ability. I will admit I found being unable to use certain spells until a certain point in the game was a bit frustrating (less customization of your combat magic early on), but given how overpowered the final spell you get is (Blades), I can understand locking some of them away. Also in regards to magic, you get to cast level 5 spells from the get go. HOWEVER it takes over a minute to charge up to level 5 when you only have your magical abilities at level 1. For every level you advance your magic, you charge faster and deal more damage. If you have two people playing together, one can keep enemies off the other while they charge their spell even at level 1 magic. I liked that notion. Another small note on combat is it is constantly interrupted by an in game feature, where the camera slows down and zooms in on an enemy whiel you do something. However, you are left wide open to attack durign this. And it always strikes at inconvenient times.
Running real estate in this game is needlessly complicated. All because they forgot to add ONE option to the menu; "Repair All". As your property is lived in, the condition of it falls. If you have a property hit 0%, you no longer get paid by your renters. And you have to repair each and every building ONE AT A TIME. I hate that |:< However, running real estate is vital to make enough money to save everyone if you go the total good route and keep all your promises. Mind you it didn't take long to accrue the money in my case. I continuously distracted myself via sidequests, and it felt like I had the money in no time.
Now then, the dog. I hated the dog's AI in Fable 2. In Fable 3, the dog seems a lot less clunky, and tends to stay out of the way. However, his AI in reference to where treasure is can be derpy, and his pathing AI tends to wig out every so often.
Little stuff I also want to note or nitpick (mostly cuz I'm sick of writing lol):
Expressions system is a lot worse than the last game's (bring back the wheel)
Less clothing options, but better looking clothes overall.
Weapon morphs are cool, but people like to bitch about them.
Why is there always a demon door with a fat fetish?
I WANT TO KILL REAVER AND TAKE HIS CLOTHING
AND HIS MANSION
Walter should have been voiced by Liam Nielson. Figure it out.
TL;DR version:
I liked the game, but like every fable before it it has it's faults. But less of them than Fable 2 had, imho
If its back in Fable 4? Awesome.
If not? Darn.