Brendan Rowe
Contributor
Fable III is the latest offering from Lionhead Studios. As a fan of the original Fable, I had some onward and outward expectations for the third instalment in the trilogy. Unfortunately, the game is not as innovative as it could have been and has inconsistent themes and tones.
Fable III is a game that continually reinforces itself as part of a larger idea. The player is first introduced to that idea through a cut scene depicting an escaping chicken, caught up in some sort of chicken revolution.
This is just one of many chicken jokes riddling the Fable series. From chicken suits to chicken races, you have it all in Fable III. Either way the game reminds you constantly of the chicken, and non-chicken, revolutions.
You’re cast as the offspring of the last hero king – who was the protagonist of Fable II – and sibling of the current king, Logan. The game allows players to choose to be either a prince or a princess basically just a gender choice.
Your butler, Jasper, wakes you up from your royal slumber and quickly acquaints you with the game controls. Jasper delivers you into the castle garden in order to meet your childhood friend. Afterwards you’re introduced to your other constant companion, Sir Walter Beck. Beck begins to introduce Logan’s changing character. This leads to a confrontation with your brother and the first of several world-changing moral decisions, a strong theme in the Fable franchise.
Unable to deal with your brother’s cruelty any longer, Beck and Jasper help you escape the castle. The escape places you on a journey to become a proper hero, like your father, and to overthrow your brother. Beck helps you meet new allies throughout the world of Albion to help you in your quest to start a revolution.
Overall, the look of Fable III is exciting. The characters have evolved from the cartoon designs of the previous games, and the cinematics look great. Fable III offers plenty of customization in clothing, hair and tattoo styles for your own personal touch. The visuals really shine during magical attacks; combine two distinct spells for some amazing effects.
The Fable franchise once again stands out with amazing voice acting. Your butler, Jasper, is voiced by the ever-lovable John Cleese of Monty Python fame, and Sir Walter Beck is voiced by Bernard Hill, best known for his role as King The?oden in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Simon Pegg, Michael Fassbender and Sir Ben Kingsley also have voice acting roles in the game.
Gameplay in Fable III handles pretty well. Following Fable II’s very simple controls, it makes for some visually interesting combat comparable to Assassin’s Creed. Spellcast- ing can be a little touchy at times, but works well once you get used to it. Fable III’s quest system has some issues it needs to work out, especially when creating relationships with the multitude of inhabitants of Albion.
You need to complete what are known as relationship quests to change a neutral character to your friend and then complete another to change them from friend to lover if you feel so inclined. These quests are tedious to the point where the game will literally call them “fetch quests,” going for one place to another, and my dates kept getting killed trying to complete them.
Fable III comes out pretty well for a third instalment but there’s enough silly gameplay errors to detract from its overall score. Still, the game remains in the same humorous vein that the previous games occupied, though this sometimes conflicts with the serious tone of the plot.
Genre
RPG
Platform
Xbox 360
Release
oct. 26, 2010
Developer
Lionhead
Publisher
Microsoft
Rated
M for mature
You’ll like it if
you want to hear some great voice acting
you want to see some visually appealing spells
you love yourself some chickens
You’ll hate it if
you really want to see something new an innovative
you want to have a deep experience with the ihabitants of the world
you hate tedious fetch quests
