ZAM Ascends to the Throne in Fable III

Reporter Kayla Smith leads a revolution in the newest installment of the Fable series.

As a longtime fan of the Fable franchise, I've been really looking forward to Fable III. From the second I picked up the controller, I was happy to be back in what feels like classic Albion. The storyline ropes you in from the beginning by forcing you to make some major moral decisions.

While Fable III is not your classic MMO, it's definitely the type of game that will appeal to MMO players. In a nutshell, the story is set 50 years after Fable II and you are the son or daughter of the previous game's hero. Your brother rules Albion with an iron fist and it is up to you to lead the rebellion and take back the throne.

It's really easy to navigate through the new menu system. You'll instantly see that there are no status bars crowding your screen. Everything takes place in the sanctuary, which is guarded by your butler, Jasper, who is voiced by John Cleese. Who wouldn't love having John Cleese around to help you organize everything? Here you will change your weapons and clothes, save, view your achievements and gifts and travel instantly using the map. It's much easier to teleport through the towns instead of wasting game time running down paths with a sparkly trail guiding you.

There are no more text-based menus for customizing your character. Everything is put in front of you, such as your outfits which are displayed neatly on mannequins. It's easy to visualize what you have in your inventory as a big picture. It's also intuitive to navigate through as everything is separated into its own categorized room. Need a weapon? Weapons room. Need an outfit? Clothing room. It's that simple. You can access your sanctuary at any time by hitting start, and doing the same to jump right back into the game.

How about your epic weapons? Weapons such as swords, hammers, pistols and guns will morph throughout the game. Your decisions and who you kill determines how your weapon evolves. It's a lot easier to switch between weapons in the sanctuary. The first time you see your weapon evolve, it really feels like you accomplished something and are in charge of how that weapon will continue to grow.

Leveling up your abilities is a lot less personal in Fable III because they are laid out before you on the Road to Rule. After each main battle or storyline chapter, you are prompted to go there to open up new and more powerful abilities. The path is very linear and requires you spend Guild Seals to open each chest. Guild Seals can be earned by completing quests and killing enemies, so skilled players can travel down the road and open every chest without missing an ability. This will not power you up in one specific way since you can max out your melee, ranged and magic abilities all at the same time. There's really no way to pick which type of damage you're going to excel in other than using one in combat more than the others. Either way, you can still buy the rank up for all three skills every time you visit the road and you're not forced to make any character-altering ability choices.

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Fable 3
# Oct 30 2010 at 1:52 AM Rating: Decent
18 posts
I definitely miss the feeling of control I had in Fable (2) over my skills but I got over that pretty quick. My big problem was the game seemed very-very short. Maybe it was because it was so thrilling and I was racing towards the end but that is how it felt to me.

Some plus sides was how difficult it was to be good once you sat on the throne. If you want to do the right thing every time you better have rank 5 pie making, and make a lot of pies, which doesn't seem very kingly. The more reasonable approach would be balancing your decisions on importance but it is kind of hard on your first play through. Its challenging to be evil at the start but at the end it is very easy so it makes for a refreshing change on a second play through.
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