REVIEW: Fable III

[Marvin]

Read Review For Fable III »

It's good to be the King... but not great.

[G-Train]

Before I get abused for not commenting on A) Being the King  B) Morality  C) Others.  I didn't have room, so I commenting on things I found most important. Also, alot of Fables pull is it's story line, and I didn't want to ruin it for ppl, so I couldn't really talk about being the king etc without giving too much away.

[Master Chief]

Anyone that abuses you for your opinion is a bigot 

[jango]

the review isnt coming up for me...

[Napoleon Insists]

Good review, some good points. A few things though;

- I'm pretty sure fast travel has been in every game? The cullis gates were certainly in number one, and they let you travel to major locations.  Not every location like 3 does, but fairly close. The areas weren't as big back then as well. You could use your guild seal at any point to transport. Though you're right it does seem to make the world a lot smaller - after an initial bewildered exploration (they seem quite big the first time) they quickly get smaller.

- I definitely agree with your opinion on the sanctuary, road to rule. My thoughts are exactly the same.

- The spells, yeah probably aren't as cool as last time because they can't modify your melee / ranged attacks. That slack is picked up  a bit by the unique weapons (I only unlocked a few of the special abilities by the end of the game) and potions, but whatever. Some look very cool, but by the end I basically just had Shock and Fire on constantly because it did good damage. I don't mind they've simplified some of them. Being able to cast them in an AoE or directed spell is cool.

- Agree on voices as well. I think Bernard Hill did a good job, but I reckon Cleese is wasted on the Butler. None of his lines are particularly great, unfortunately.

- Somewhat agree on the accountant bit of being a king - but I think it actually adds some weight to the moral decisions, instead of it just being personal preference with no repercussions either way. I gotta say I liked how they based some choices on real world issues - environment, economy, etc. It's all very relevant and so I think some adult players will have very strong views on some. I like how the game just takes a turn like that too.

Anyway, good review man, good read.

[Master Chief]

fast travel was defo in fabes 2, I was playing it on Thursday.

[G-Train]

#SPOILERS#

Yeah I remember the previous fables had fast-travel, but it was seriously revamped in this iteration IMO, I certainly found moving around alot easier than I did in Fable I, though can't remember two all that well.

The spells I though were quite well done, but horribly limited. I thought the removal of Multi-shot and Charged terribly linched the game play for me, melee and ranged just wasn't any fun to play. My first play through as a warrior type turned into a mage by the end, and my second play was just a mage and was alot more enjoyable. At any rate, the ones that were there, were bloody impressive. Did you give Vortex + Blades a crack Nap? You don't get them until the assault on the castle, but man are they badass! Charge to full and release lifts anyone around you off the ground (preventing them from attacking) and then 6+ blades per person appear and owns them, really awesome spell combo.

As for being King, there was pretty much no way to win. Either become a complete tyrant like your brother and save a shattered, broken world. Or keep your promises and watch the world you've built burn. I must admit, I found a loop hole my second play through. There's a glitch in the game (won't tell you how unless you ask) where you can amass unlimited gold - I found it and used it to give my second character 10 million gold. When the decisions rolled around, I kept all my promises and then donated all my gold to the treasury - perfect world, saved everyone ^_^

Really my only major issue with the game was the limited spells, and the story wasn't quite as good as previous fables (which would have been hard to continue) - other than that I really enjoyed it.

[Napoleon Insists]

You're right in that fast travel in this lets you access any area - whereas before it was mainly the big towns and so any of the mid-way exploration areas had to be trudged through. I don't remember how Fable 2 did it, though.

I didn't try every spell combo, though I did have all of them, and was basically going for a mage character. Blades + anything was good, but you had to kinda pre-empt attacks because not only is there the charge time, but the time for the blades to float there and then hit them.

SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS

I actually made nearly every good decision (I think the brothel was the main bad one... can't remember what else) and nearly had enough cash, but the game kinda boned me. I owned every single house and business in the world, and was earning about 100k every 5 minutes. Also made pretty good use of trade items and the blacksmith job. Anyway, I was saving for the 5 million you needed to get that chest in the sanctuary, and then I was gonna transfer it all to the treasury and have nearly enough. I was about 200k off that 5 mill, and thought I'd do a quest to take some time. Turned out to be one of the last story quests (you know it skips from like 121 days to 1?), and after that I didn't have a chance to put all of my money in the treasury... needless to say, my world got owned, I was good but all my towns are empty and filled with bodies. And I had enough money to save nearly everyone sitting in my personal treasury. Sigh. All I got was a stupid weapon too. Raging!! I don't' know how to do it, but I think they patched the infinite gold trick. There's a spare one mill lying in the sunset house demon door which helps too

Anyway. Oh, actually, I liked the finishing moves, some of them - but I don't have a clue how any are triggered, even after a full play through. Some I guess are random, some I think get triggered by killing a dude with a flourishing move - but, still, I dunno.

[G-Train]

That *exact* thing happened on my first play through too ^_^

I owned every house/business in Albion, was making rediculous money and got screwed by the day 121 to day 1 jump - was soooo angry, hence my first use of cheats since I was like 10.

[Master Chief]

No one else seems to have problems Brad.. maybe delete your cookies or something.