THE WORST FABLE YET!
I have been playing Fable since the first one came out on the original Xbox.
At the time I've never heard of Fable. One day my friend just said, this game's pretty cool you should play it... and so I did. Thirty hours straight until it was finished. When I finally stood up I fell over because my legs had become completely limp.
Now, if that is how I reacted to the first game... I should have probably been seriously worried for my well being going into the third one. But no. I was perfectly healthy going in and out of this MEDICORE abomination. At no point did I feel the NEED to play it... when I was hungry I made myself some food, when I got tired I went to sleep, and when I needed to go to the bathroom I actually got up and went, instead of holding it in for 10+ hours. This might seem like a good thing... but it's not. It's just another memory that's not as good as the ones I already have.
Sure it can be argued that since I was younger when I played the first one I thought it was better through the use of a nifty little device called nostalgia goggles. But I assure you this is not the case.
What's wrong with Fable 3? Lets find out...
First of all the graphics are worse then it's predecessor Fable 2. How in the world did they manage to make the graphics worse over the span of two years? I personally do not judge a game based on its graphics... it's all about the game itself not how pretty it is... I'm simply pointing out. How does a sequel have worse graphics?
It has been casualized more so then any other series I have ever seen. The game literally plays itself. In the first Fable there was actually fear of death... In the second they used a "knock-out" system similar to the third. However in the second game I actually was knocked out plenty of time, because certain parts actually presented a challenge. Now... towards the END of the game... the final enemies die in ONE hit. I seriously went though the whole thing without being downed once. I understand some people like playing on easy mode... but there is NO DIFFICULTY SETTING. The super easy mode it starts with is the only one there is. At least give the masochists in us a Nightmare difficulty, we'd actually end up playing the game longer.
To continue on the whole "casualization" topic. There is no longer a health bar. The screen just turns red after you've been hit about a million times. What is this an FPS? There is only two guns and two melee weapons. Now they "morph" which is just a lazy way of saying... there is only 2 sets of attacks you'll ever see, but your weapon will have a different skin then your friend's weapon. Magic still auto kills everything around you, but so does everything else.
What about progression? Before you massed experience and got to pick the skills you wanted that actually altered your character. You know... the system every single RPG has been modeled after since the beginning of time that anyone who likes RPG's loves. Now it's just a matter of opening chests that make you stronger on a winding snake path in the clouds. Yeah that's a much better system, I type sarcastically. Apparently they did this because going into a menu and clicking on whether you want to be a Warrior, Rogue, or Wizard was a little too much to comprehend for the average gamer. In fact they've done away with menus all together. While it's true they got rid of actual armor in the second game, and instead you got to play dress up and just pick what looks pretty. This system returns but now instead you actually have your own wardrobe and you do it ALL WITHOUT menus. So why am I complaining? Because it was a retarded use of resources when making a game... considering there ended up being less clothing combination then the second game.
But what about the grand finale? Well towards the end you become the king of all the land and have only one year to prepare for an ultimate confrontation against the armies of darkness. Well it says you have a year... but really it just fast forwards a lot and it ends up being only like... six days or so. But what do you do during this time? You have to raise 6.5 million dollars anyway you can... so you're faced with hard moral choices about what to do with your kingdom. But why was this pointless? Because by the time they told me I had only a year to make ALL THAT MONEY. I already had about 1 billion sitting in the bank. So I forked over pocket change to save my kingdom. How did I have so much money you may ask? Because from the get go I started buying property and taxing the citizens... The most tedious process EVER! I have to go to each individual house and make repairs and so on... NO IDEA WHY, by the end... when you own EVERYTHING you couldn't just auto pilot the whole process instead of making it into some sort of lame facebook game.
Now to say some nice things about it... The scenery looks really nice in many areas, but pretty landscapes aren't enough to save a game. They've also added a much better co-op system then the second game. Now from the get go you can play the entire game with a buddy with your own characters. Which IS almost enough to save the game... since the two of you can go through the MEDICORE experience together and poke fun at it.
Overall... a giant step back for the series. I don't know how they screwed it up to the point that John Cleese and Stephen Fry couldn't save it. If you want to play a better game just get Fable 2... you won't even be able to tell it came out before this one. Or if you're really in the mood for an old school classic, get the original Fable.