[E3'10] All’s Fair: Fable 3 Impresses

I’ve felt a bit torn by the Fable series over the years. A lot of promises have been made and broken, special editions have disappeared and glitches may or may not have made certain portions of my saved game files a bit swear-worthy. Then again, I’ve sunk days of my life into the colorful world of Albion and made merry with its hilarious inhabitants.  My biggest issue, at least to me personally,  has been how forgettable the experience has been upon completion. For all of the hubbub about shaping a world by choice, the only things that really stand-out are the controversies surrounding the development and inevitable release. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve played the hell out of the first two games and have to admit they’ve rewarded gamers with some unique changes to RPG’s as a whole, but in the end I am somewhat wary of what Lionhead has in store for us this time.

Post-E3 and I’m not necessarily a changed-man, but I am leaning a bit more in the direction of salivating fan boy.  After seeing the game in action for the first time, I am inclined to admit that I’m feeling loads better about the direction the game is going, and what changes the developers are making to how the game handles. I might even go so far as to say I’m looking forward to the thing.

60 years have passed since Fable 2 came to a close, and your hero’s offspring now find themselves ruling an industrialized kingdom of Albion. Logan, your elder brother, has become king of the entire continent while your character is off adventuring throughout the land with loyal mentor Sir Walter. King Logan is a nasty piece of work, having plunged the kingdom into the depths of despair so that he might gain immeasurable amounts of power at the expense of his subjects. Under the guidance of Sir Walter, players will endeavor to stage a revolution against Logan and his tyrannical regime, obtaining the power of the crown and gaining the loyalty of an entire kingdom in the process.

Funnily enough, all of this culminates roughly midway through the story, setting the stage for the even grander endeavor of maintaining an entire country and fending off the invasion of a newly discovered continent across the sea. Fable has always been about choice, and this latest installment will be testing the limits of just how far players can go to achieve their ends. The Fable 3 on E3′s show floor was instantly recognizable and a breeze to pick up, but beyond this idle physical familiarity Lionhead has pretty much tried to re-write the book on how to not only make a different kind of Fable game, but how to make a different kind of RPG in the process.

Fable 3 is going all out to bring in a new audience while offering a tricky blend of innovation and consistency to fans of the franchise. Combat was easily picked up with a focus still maintained on simplified one button combat for your sword, ranged, and magic attacks. Fights moved a lot faster this time around, with flourishes taking place in real-time with only the occasional slow-mo infused moment of badassery breaking up the lightening fast combination of sword and gunplay. During the demo, one of the press members noted something intriguing going on with the right trigger that had some sort of effect on magic usage or targeting, but all our Lionhead representative would reveal was that the specifics would be elaborated on later.

Everything about the game seems more streamlined, tailor made to keep the action flowing and delivering a more cinematically styled adventure. Gone are the different colored orbs and copious amounts of spell-types and skill tress to toggle through, replaced with an upgrade system that does most of the heavy lifting behind-the-scenes. Everything reacts to how your hero behaves within Albion. Depending on your actions you will earn the occasional follower, and the more followers you have, the more powerful you will become. Weapons also evolve contextually in accordance with how you use them. Instead of spending your time buying rusty blades (As our friendly neighborhood Lionhead said: what kind of hero would waste hard earned coin on one of those, really?) and earning enough money to buy the Legendary Weapon of Detrimental Shiney-ness, YOUR tools will evolve according to how you use them and eventually obtain mythological status on their own.

I had read a lot about this on the web, but I wondered if this evolution would be limited t o a single weapon, or if you could perhaps obtain some more. You can indeed forge multiple weapons depending on your skill-sets, and all you have to do is buy another baseline weapon to evolve along to your demands. This also opens up a whole new social aspect, as you can name and sell your weaponry online to your friends. With the countless combinations available to players, Xbox LIVE is going to be flooded with unique weapons of destruction upon release. There will of course be some sensational mythical weapons lying around in dungeons and at the end of quests, but with the individuality creating your own namesake provides you’ll probably save those for later.

As the demo went on, we got to talking about just how much Albion has changed in all these years and the point was brought up that virtually every enemy you saw in the original games have either been completely re-tooled or cut entirely. The only beast to make it through development unscathed has been the brutal Balverine, which in all honesty was one of the better monsters anyway. One of the new creatures I saw a player go up against was a massive demonic armored archangel called the Sentinel, a being I was told would serve as one of the primary antagonists for the story. An fairly intimidating force with massive wings, he was as enigmatic as he was powerful, hurling purple hued energy and causing all manner of general unpleasantness for our hero. This also highlighted the increased focus on a more theatrical atmosphere, with the game engaging in some really refreshing camera-work and the inclusion of consistently story-boarded cinematic cut-scenes as opposed to the in-game developments of previous storylines.

Cooperative play has thankfully been overhauled, something the everyone admitted needed a bit of work considering how Fable 2‘s co-op fared with fans. Being stuck playing second fiddle to a game’s host party member was never all that compelling in my opinion, and the shift has been made to creating a seamless transition and more engaging interaction process. Fable 3‘s spin is on trying to show off your hero and world to one another, allowing players to import EVERYTHING about their character into one another’s game. Compare weapons, achievements, story decisions and more while remaining untethered from your partner and free to make your way in their world. Heck, even your dogs can jump dimensions with their owner, and players can go so far as getting hitched in their game, a perfect Beta test for actual marriage.

Perhaps the biggest change to the series comes in the form of how players will interact with their menus. Actually, there really aren’t any menus to speak of. If you want to go to your map, change your clothes, offload some gear or peruse your armory, you will actually warp back to the safety of your castle. Exploring the different rooms will bring you to the different areas normally associated with a menu, having you carry out your micromanagement in real-time without a text screen to speak of. Walk through your closet and gaze at your clothed mannequins to piece together a new outfit or walk over to a huge diorama of the game-world to see how your kingdom is faring. The Map table actually reacts in real-time, allowing players to zoom in incredibly close and witness peasants going about their daily tasks or draw attention to an encroaching army upon the horizon.This all plays into a very king-like God complex, allowing you to really immerse yourself in the universe being created, in part, by you.

Even multiplayer and co-op interfaces have their own chamber, as does the trophy room. Lionhead has teased us that they will have a choice-based decision to make within the confines of this area which may shape anything from how you interact with the space to how it affects the way quests play out. Not to be outdone, there was also a sly nudge about there being “something cool with achievements” on the docket. In fact, expect 6 to 7 more features to be revealed in the coming months as Fable 3 nears release. I’ll be keeping a close eye on how things are shaping up with this latest installment, so let me know what you all are looking for in terms of future developments and general hype-inducing bouts of hyperbole.