Fable 3 review
Fable 3 Review
With the last two games in the Fable franchise promising far more then they could hope to keep, can their newest title be the shinning beacon in an already crumbling Albion.
You are the prince or princess of the Kingdom of Albion, with your older brother right off the bat showing off how much of a tyrannical ruler his is you set off to start a rebellion with the people of Albion, but before you can do that you need to prove that you are the leader that they believe that their land deserves. After a pretty rocky start to the games “good and evil” selections you are forced to leave the castle and here you find out that your parent was the hero from Fable 2 and so now that we need a hero don’t find it surprising that you fill out shoes quite nicely.
To prove that deserve that you can rule in your brothers stead you need to gather not only the support of the leaders of the land but also the respect of the common folk. This is simple enough to so it’s a good thing to get on the good side of as many people as you can for it’s a good way to gain Guild Seal’s, which is this games form of currency. Gone is Fable 2’s experience gained by using a certain type of attack on enemies, for now Guild Seal’s are universal, and easy to obtain. Either through people, quests, battles, or story scenario’s you’ll be looking high and low for these for later on they will become a bit scarce. They go on about saying that only a hero can pass pretty much all of the trials that you end up going thru but if that is true then the people in this game are the weakest in any game. It is almost impossible to die, you can but to do that you pretty much have to stand there and wait, to fight you have melee swords and hammers, ranged guns, and an array of magic spells, but really all you have to do is throw all your EXP into upgrading your magic’s strength and then keep spamming the B button and pretty much all enemies will be a cake walk.
For this game they tried to make it more compatible for everyone which may explain for the games extreme easiness, but it also shows in much more nicely in their way of weapon evolution, and their menu system which I think is the best feature of the game. The sanctuary is pretty much you own personal cache case. All of your weapons, spells, clothing, and any other important item are stored here and are easily laid out so you can switch to what you need quickly so you can get back to the game. Another great thing about the sanctuary is that is flows seamlessly from the game to this room at the push of a button at almost any time so you’re never stuck with any one thing. Throughout the game you are able to find a multiple of weapons that may help out with a certain type of enemy but any weapon is able to evolve further when using it against a certain enemy enough. Another fun they did to change up the combat is by letting you use two different types of magic spells together, while some may just act at the same time to do more damage, like ice and dagger, others will combine to change up the way you will use either one of them, such as fire and vortex.
Sadly a lot of the problems from the last 2 games come back at full force. While the game itself looks great, you will probably come across frame rate issues and at times the quality will drop in both game play and cut scene events. Running is as much of a hassle as before. While it gets you where you need to go it feels way to stiff, for many it won’t move nearly fast enough, and let’s say the whole A button = good and X button = evil for every option defiantly isn’t going to make you think hard which will fall into which category. Gladly though the pros defiantly out weights the cons. They improved on the aspects with the dog, which now don’t feel like a waste of programming. The quests aren’t the same 3 over and over, and while your actions are easy to distinguish between good and evil later on in the game you do feel like your actions have some consequences to it whether it’s for you or your people or you work for now or for the future.
I have to say though I thoroughly enjoyed this game. The story was interesting and kept you involved, and with a multiple array of quests, side-missions, and collectibles to find or buy you will defiantly find stuff to do for quite some time. It’s good to see that they can make a great game when they aren’t weighed down by promises that they later realize were a bit more then they could chew.
I give it a 8.5/10
