Fable III; Oh, how you rock!

Yeah, the game is awesome, on so many levels it's so very hard to describe them all.  Nor will I try to do so, as the attempt would probably give me altitude sickness.  And that's not something I can easily live with (bah-dum-pish!  ...nevermind).

Anyway, after the disappointment that was Fallout: New Vegas I was hoping for a game that was, oh, I don't know, polished?  Complete?  Lacking major bugs?  All of the above?  If there is one thing that Lionhead Studios learned from with Fable, it was to at least try to follow through with promises related to gameplay mechanics.  After spending a large portion of time with Fable 3 over the last week, I can safely say that Peter Molyneux's crew have given us another well polished, entertaining game with loads of easter eggs, in-jokes, top-notch voice acting, and decent gameplay (I do have some issues with the game, but more on that later).

First off, I have long been a fan of British comedy (Monty Python rules!).  It's an educated sense of humor that requires as much brain power, at times, as a critical thinking exercise.  Granted, Monty Python and the like can be just as silly as anyone else, but it's an educated silliness (in stark contrast to, say, the Jackass movies).  One of the aspects of the Fable games that I have adored the entire time is the very prevalent sense of humor the games have.  Self-referential, self-deprecating, and utterly hilarious, Fable 3 is one of those games that I am willing to replay just for the jokes.

And the jokes are everywhere: flavor text, achievement descriptions, mission completion text, and all manner of places you wouldn't expect to find them.  There's one point, when you're running through one particular mission, there's a running commentary that, as both a video gamer and a table-top RPGer, busts my gut over references to stuff that carries across the Pond for most gamers.  It gives me hope that gamers everywhere go through the same things (and dealing with rule mongers is the same, no matter where you go).

The humor of the game is one of the best aspects of the game, but that doesn't mean that the game is completely silly, or lacks any kind of depth to the story.  While the premise is fairly straightforward, for the first part of the game it plays just like any other Fable game.  You run around, complete missions, beat the crap out of hobbes, balverines, and hollow men, and generally enjoy the experience.  Once the first part ends, however, the challenge really ramps up.

Unfortunately, I'm may run a spoiler or two in this section, so if you don't want to have any of the game spoiled for you, I suggest skipping ahead a little.  Basically, the well known portion of the game is straightforward, but Peter Molyneux really hits you with a curve ball once your character becomes the Monarch.

This incredibly dire situation is approaching, and you find out why your character's brother was doing the horrible things he was doing.  Now, if you're like me, you probably went around and became a property magnate as soon as possible, so you don't really have any cash flow issues.  However, once you realize that the amount of people in your kingdom you will save is based entirely on how much money you can raise, suddenly, that amassed wealth is nowhere near enough, and you find yourself torn (particularly if you're a "good" character).  Do you become a ruthless tyrant to save as many people as possible?  Or do you honor all of your promises and potentially sacrifice innocent lives in the coming storm?  I found out very quickly that it's very tough for me, knowing what is coming, and still honoring the promises made earlier.

Granted, my evil characters won't face such moral dilemmas; namely because of the way that I play evil characters (Lawful Evil, in D&D parlance).

One of the best features added for this game is the ability to hold another character's hand and leading them (or, if you're evil, dragging them) around.  I'm not sure what it is, but that small little addition makes situations seem that much more immersive.  It becomes a little silly when you have to lead full-grown adults around like a little child, but, c'est la vie.

Another nice feature was an overall update on the graphics engine.  It still uses the engine they created for Fable 2, but with a lot of improvements across the board.  One of the nicest changes (it's a pet peeve of mine from Fable 2) is that your character's eyes seem to actually be linked together, rather than trying to look in two directions at once.  Other improvements in the graphics include better lighting effects, and an overall better look to clothing and weaponry.  This does come at the cost of some bottles and other "minor" objects being toned down to simpler models and textures, but it doesn't detract from the overall feel.

However, this boost comes with a cost.  There is a noticeable lag in framerate and game speed, particularly when there are either a lot of characters on screen or you are doing a lot of action very quickly.  By contrast, I never really saw that much slow-down in Fable 2.  It's not enough to really detract from the gameplay, as it seems to register button presses during the slow-down, so you don't screw up on jobs or in combat.

There are a few drawbacks to combat.  Namely the somewhat twitchy nature of the blocking and flourish mechanic, and the wonky camera work stand out as big issues for me.  There are times where I would go to block, only to realize that the game was stuck on the idea of me doing a flourish.  It rarely happened the other way around.  And the camera problem exists in most 3rd person action RPGs, so it's just the nature of the beast.

There are some features that I'm not going to go in-depth about; the lack of a menu system (for the most part), the loss of a large portion of the RPG structure, and the somewhat short playtime.  All of these are either non-issues (the lack of a menu system, in my mind, was implemented spectacularly), or are just the same-old-same-old (Fable games have never been the longest RPGs out there).

Simply put, Fable 3 is the best of the trilogy so far.  It's not the biggest, baddest game on the block, but it also isn't loaded with bugs and other issues.  It's well polished, complete, entertaining, and a laugh riot.  And really, that's all that matters.