Fable III, Fun but Familiar
Lionhead Studios is best known for its Fable IP, a fantasy ation-RPG that probably needs no introduction here, so I’ll get right down to my experience with Fable III.
Players start out the game as a revolutionary in Albion. Eventually, players will lead a coup and become king. Whether you are a good or a bad king is up to you. In other words, it’s the classic Fable good vs. evil choices that will alter your appearance and reputation but probably not affect the main storyline.
After watching players in front of me play an action level meant to show off your character’s fighting skills. In what looked to be a cave, a daughter and her father fought their way out against shadow creatures that resembled the bad guys from Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland.
What about game mechanics? In Fable II, you could use multiple magical powers by placing them in one of five power-level slots. Not so in Fable III. According to the rep, and the screen in front of me, Lionhead has done away with that system. Instead, players use one magical power at a time. For me, this is a good choice on the studios part because all one had to do to kick-ass was place a couple time-slow powers in the first slots and a magical attack like shock or inferno in the level five slot.
Another change players will notice is that in stead of a menu system for selecting weapons, clothes, etc., pressing start will take the players to their sanctuary (for lack of a better term), a 3D space that allows players to see their equipment on pedastals and walls ala Assassin’s Creed II.
Finally, after watching the players in front of me play, it was my turn to fight Albion’s foes, that is, until the rep decided it to take me to a town in Albion and have me chase chickens. The town’s wooden roofs and fences all looked like any other Albion town. The graphics and design, still in development and far from final, looked similar to Fable II. I found chasing chickens boring, so decided to hack, slash, and magic my way through the town’s people. People ran, screaming out in fear. It’s going to be good to be the king.
Checkout some of the gameplay captured during E3 2010:
