Gamer’s Guide - Fable III
Welcome back to Gamer’s Guide! Today we’ll be reviewing Fable III which is the follow-up game to, you guessed it, Fable II! It follows a child of the previous hero as they seek to save the kingdom from their murderous sibling. In a strange departure from my norm, I chose the female option and fell in love with the way she towered over the citizenry. Am I showing my short roots? Perhaps...
*Please be aware that there will be spoilers and game rants ahead.*
Fable III
Likes:
My Bros – The first major excursion involves escaping from the castle (and murderous brother) with my two closest supporters: Jasper and Walter. Walter is my ‘retired soldier who teaches me everything I know about fighting and magic’ while Jasper is quite literally my butler. These two are hilarious together and really provided what the previous game lacked - people I cared about. Walter, unsurprisingly, accompanies me on several quests. Meanwhile, Jasper enters my hero sanctuary and proceeds to keep me organized as well as humble with his running commentary on all my life decisions.
Physical Inventory – It is perhaps inaccurate to call it a ‘physical’ inventory when its inside a video game, but Fable III’s take on the inventory is exactly that. Instead of the normal screen where you can flip through your clothes, money, etc you go to an actual place (called the Hero’s Sanctuary) where there are rooms set aside for each piece of inventory: weapons, clothing, and finances. It was a fairly unique idea though it was a little frustrating how slow it could be having to physically move from room to room or into and out of the sanctuary just to access my map. It honestly reminded me of the old barbie horse game where there was a ‘hub’ where you physically went to different places for your horse and riding outfits.
Mound of Gold – I must also make a special note here about ‘The Mound of Gold’ aka my financial section within the hero’s sanctuary. There was a ledger which kept track of my spending and deposits, but where this game really shone was the literal mound of gold. The more you saved the bigger the pile. I could literally run around on top of a hoard which nearly reached the ceiling. As a visual person it sparked sooooooo much joy, fiends.
Bad Guys – This game really flexed its muscles with the Big Bads. From my own demented sibling to the return of Reaver from the second game, Fable III delivers again and again. They’re evil. They’re funny. They’re creepy to the extreme. Not gonna lie, fiends, I had to turn on the light when I met The Crawler whose horror element was played incredibly well in the dark tunnels underneath the desert. I truly believe Fable is shown to its best advantage when showcasing its evil characters.
Dialogue/Voice Acting – This is probably Fable’s second greatest strength. The sheer power and range of the dialogue and voice acting is top class. Reaver and Jasper are my two favorite voice actors. Shout out to Stephen Fry and John Cleese respectively.
Dress-up System – From the sheer number of selections available to the new tattoo system, it felt so much better than Fable II’s options. I also loved how you could save specific outfits including hair styles and tattoos! I had my Queen of The World, my Rugged Adventurer, and my Cute But Feisty outfit.
Gnomes – These are the ‘replacement’ for the insulting gargoyles from Fable II. And you don’t love them as much as love to hate them. They hide in the surrounding area and spew (often hilariously foul) insults at you. By the time you finally have them in your sights, shooting or stabbing them is incredibly cathartic. A dirty end for a dirty existence.
Dislikes:
Clunky Mechanics – Fable III was dogged (pun intended) by incredibly clunky mechanics. My animal companion was constantly getting stuck, lagging behind, or disappearing entirely. I would rather have the AI from the second game!
Bugs – So. Many. Bugs. I was fined for trespassing in a building I owned! But worst of all is the infamous Mute Jasper bug. Halfway through gameplay Jasper is suddenly muted. There is apparently a fix, but since it involves utilizing a second online player, it was of no use to me. Jasper was one of THE reasons I enjoyed the game so losing his voice halfway through felt like a spear through the heart!
The Crawler – Don’t get me wrong, I love this dude (thing?) The voice acting and overall horror elements were incredibly well done. My issue lies with the complete lack of information we were given on this boss character. It just...appeared? In the desert? And then wanted to take over the world? And shroud it in gloopy darkness? 2/10 for backstory.
Poor Warning System – In the second game, you’re given plenty of warning when you’re about to embark on a quest that will A. take a long time and/or B. Take you to a time skip and change quite a bit about the landscape and populace around you. Fable III failed to do so. After deposing your sibling from the throne, you have a year to raise an army and a significant amount of funds to save your people from annihilation. I call it ‘Countdown to Destruction.’ It’s not a real countdown, thankfully, so only after you visit the throne room/interact with quests will the timeline move. Which is good because it takes forever to come up with enough cash to save your citizens. However, the countdown skips from Day 121 to actual Doomsday without A. SINGLE. WARNING. Not one! It is luck itself that I had not only the 6.5 million needed to save my country BUT the extra for the requested funds I’d just agreed to in the throne room. I had more in my personal treasury (as opposed to the kingdom’s), but at no point was I allowed to transfer any to the kingdom’s treasury. I’m frustrated and my citizens didn’t even perish! I can only imagine the screams of those who weren’t prepared.
Civilian Murder – Fable games are big on letting you choose your morality alignment. Murdering innocent civilians/soldiers will understandably lower that morality. Unfortunately, its not hard to accidentally murder someone as fights can occur in the middle of towns. Not to mention you need access to your weapons to murder the gnomes which actually DO deserve destruction. Both Fable II and Fable III implemented a system where you can set your weapons to no kill. This magically means that you can’t accidentally murder any civilians who run out in front of you...except apparently it didn’t work. I murdered at LEAST two people on accident even with my weapons correctly set. And then had to listen to all the townsfolk mutter about what a horrible murderer I was for the rest of the game. My little INFP heart was crying, fiends.
Final Comments:
To sum up, Fable III was a fun game with interesting maps to explore and a fun cast of characters. It built on previous iterations of the Fable series with exciting new ideas even they were if somewhat clunkily executed. Unfortunately, all the good ideas cannot outweigh the sheer amount of bugs and discombobulations caused by the system. Feel free to play. Just be prepared for the frustration.
*In June of 2023 the Fable 4 trailer was released. Since the last game came out in 2010, I’m excited to see their newest take on this world.