Fable III Impressions

I've had some time to sit down with Fable III, and though I certainly can't write a review on it yet, here are my initial impressions.

Second verse, same as the first

Other than changing the look and feel of the world, nothing changed from a technical standpoint since the last version of the game.  I don't know for sure if this is still the same game engine from Fable II, but if it isn't, Lionhead should be ashamed of the non-existent progress from the first iteration.  Everything from the pop-in to the choppy job minigames has moved right on in to Fable III.

You can do anything you want, as long as we let you

The most frustrating change from the last Fable that I've run into so far is that you have all these wonderful expressions at your disposal, but unlike the previous game, there is no expression wheel to let you pick the action of your choosing.  Instead, most instances give you one "good" expression and one "bad" expression.  So in my case while playing last night, it was either dance with a dude or belch in his face.  Comically, I wasn't paying attention to what the action was so when I started dancing with him, I got a wonderfully perplexed look from my (real life) wife.

Wizard needs food, badly!  Maybe.  I think?

The last of my frustration with the game is that you now no longer have a life meter.  After taking enough damage, your quick select items area will glow red and you'll get a warning message that you're low on health, but you never really have a finite indication of your health status.  You next breath may be your last, or you might be able to take 3 or 4 more hits... who knows?

It's not all bad though...

I've spent the first part of this piece pretty well hammering the game for its flaws, but it isn't as bad as it sounds.  The magic system has been tweaked slightly for the better.  No longer do you have to worry about the various orbs specific to certain types of kills.  All kills provide general purpose magic, which is now upgraded via the "Road to Rule", which is a nifty little way of showing your progress in the game as well as letting you upgrade your character. 

The battle system is mostly unchanged, though magic use has changed significantly.  Unlike Fable II, all magics are not available at all times depending upon the "slot" that you assign them to.  I'm still early on this one, but it appears that you have specific gauntlets to wear that allows you the type of magic contained therein.  There also appears to be a way to combine various gauntlets, but I've not reached this point of the game yet.  The basic premise is unchanged though.  You still get a button dedicated for melee, ranged, and magic, and they work exactly as they always have.

Multiplayer is worth playing!

I've played about three hours of local co-op multiplayer.  I can tell you it's loads better, though not perfect.  No longer do you get the generic hero if you're not the host, you can actually bring in your real character and get credit for all the loot and experience gained in the game.  The drawback is still that the game is still tied to the host's save file, and anything accomplished will not reflect in the save file for the character who joined.  This is really disappointing considering that Borderlands handled this with no problem.  However, this is the only complaint I have for the co-op.  It's nice to have the co-op feature that is worth playing in this one.  I say this even though I did complete Fable II in local co-op mode with a friend.  It was still frustrating to no end though.

More of the same isn't necessarily a bad thing

I'll have more to say about the gameplay and story in the full review.  But for now, suffice to say, if you enjoyed Fable II you'll want to pick up the latest and greatest.  As usual, Molyneaux has shot for the moon and missed, but still has managed to land among the stars.