Fable III Review - Fable 3 Review

CrazyKooK

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Fable III Review:

I just beat Fable III on my xbox 360. I am biased in my opinion of it as I do love the Title in all its series so you may call me a fanboy. So, I will focus on comparing it to previous titles, noting areas for improvement, and highlighting some key enjoyments!

The game was an expansion and improvement on Fable 2, graphics were clearly upgraded, the plot was a logical extension and in my opinion rather well crafted. There were no real spots in the main plot where I thought, "What does this have to do with anything?". I will criticize the game in what I feel are flaws across all the titles:
  • I always felt that some of the side quests were entirely designed to build your experience (guild seals) or other purpose, but had no real connection to the plot.
  • The games are all rather short (I try to upgrade my weapons beyond what is required [not crazily like some]) and Fable 3 lasted only around 12 hours. If you take out a lot of the additional time I spent horsing around, the game could have been completed in around 8 hours, far too short for such a good game. I don't want a 300 hour+ game like Skyrim as I'm not a huge RPG guy, but about 40 hours would allow a person to get much deeper into it without just completing side fluff for dumb eastereggs.
  • Fable 1, 2, and 3 were meant to change the world based on how you played. Yet, beyond changes to the map and a few quest lines, the main plot does not deviate. In fact, in Fable III at the end of the game I added another 3 hours to my gametime to fulfill main objective and its impact was completely mute other than a few words of dialogue that were clearly modified to allow the same plot in either case.
  • Buying homes and businesses is a lot of fun in the economy of Fable, however it has been almost the exact same across the titles, including the fact that if you start off investing everything in real-estate money will never be an issue. BUT, I would expect Lionhead to update the economy system to allow those that really enjoy this to interact on a deeper basis.
  • In Fable III: if you specialize in magic throughout the game, it is entirely too easy. I almost never had to use any weapon other than magic, and there was no need for variety in my battles. I do like using magic but more than two attacks are needed (One area of effect attack and one attack for selecting an individual enemy). Additionally there needs to be a lot more variety in how enemies attack you, more skill on their part and more strategy required on my part.
  • The main boss was far too easy to defeat and the final quest itself was very short, I had expected many more small objectives along the way.

Key takeaways from Fable 3:
  • lack of difficulty
  • repeatitive moves
  • short playtime

Overall Rating of Fable III:
Overall I give the game an 8.5/10 because it is a great game that does well capturing you in its world but with the concerns I described. It is definitely worth picking up but you may consider renting or borrowing it instead due to the short amount of time it will take to complete it and replaying only once to change from Good to Evil or Evil to Good. With no really multiplayer value aside from Co-op, it's not a title you need sitting on your shelf afterwards.
 
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