The Fable series has long had the lofty goal of bringing a personal and emotional level to the RPG formula, while taking the complexity out of the RPG experience. To varying degrees, it’s hit that mark successfully. One area that has seen success is in dividing the opinion of players. Some dislike the one-button combat or the lack of depth to the good/evil choices, while others are attracted to its ease of use. If you’ve enjoyed the debate that breaks out after each game in the series, you won’t be disappointed this time around — but how much enjoyment will you pull from the game itself?

Unfolding in a style that remains true to the series, the script is a charming pastiche of British slapstick and verbal acrobatics, recalling the non-sequiturs of Monty Python. You’ll travel to and fro, helping an eccentric cast of characters with a mix of serious and absurd tasks, while gaining support in your quest to overthrow a ruler who has put power and financial gain ahead of the concerns of the populace. The ruler in question being your brother, who inherited the throne from the Hero of Fable II.

Every interaction with the people of Albion revolves around the idea of a personal experience with that character. Talking to people loads the game into a one-on-one view, where you get the option to dance, play pat-a-cake, belch, and so on. Overall, you might have the ability to use many of these but for some reason you get to choose from two, randomly assigned at the start of each interaction. If you want to choose the option to be nice and you don’t like the idea of tickling that person, the only thing to do it exit and see what you get by trying again.

In an attempt at making the interface less complicated, the game menus are gone, replaced with your Sanctuary. Teleporting in allows you to look over the world map, change your clothes, weapons, magic abilities, etc. All it’s really doing is swapping the traditional menu with a huge closet of sorts. It’s a neat idea but after a few hours I was wondering why I couldn’t switch my weapon without having to go into a room to retrieve it from a display. Even checking the world map means you have to enter the Sanctuary and walk over to the table to examine it. At least entering the Sanctuary isn’t burdened with a loading time.

Fable III’s character upgrade system (The Road to Rule) is little more than a disappointment. It consists of a path, broken into sections. Each new section is reached by story progress rather than experience points. Completing quests earns you a skill currency called “guild seals” which enable you to buy new emotes, melee skills, magic, and, strangely, dyes and higher paying side jobs. As long as you’re doing side quests you’ll end up having all of these by the game’s end, which left me wondering why we just didn’t get them automatically upon reaching each new portion of the Road.

This brings us to the interesting idea of having weapons as the thing that differentiates character abilities. Each Legendary weapon has three lines they can be upgraded along. You may have to kill a specific number of foes, kill them in a particular way, decrease your moral standing, or merely complete quests. Once you fulfill the requirements, the abilities gained can be quite useful, making it worthwhile to complete these on your favorite weapons.

The combat itself is still a simple one-button system but it’s been streamlined even further. The melee, magic and attack flourishes work well, but for some reason you can’t aim when using ranged combat. This no-fuss method provides for fast paced battles, but at the cost of having no depth whatsoever.

Choice still plays a big role in the series. This time, you’ll get to make plenty that have a huge impact on the game world. It’s sad that most of them are so similar (make the people happy, or make money for the kingdom), because seeing the impact of something that I decided was quite satisfying. There’s a lot of emotion happening at every turn with the people impacted by my decisions, but by being left with fewer options than I should have, I ended up feeling disconnected . Especially when portions of the game are designed around the very concept of choice and consequences.

The most interesting ideas are found in the game’s second half. Once you become ruler of Albion you’re faced with having to make a lot of decisions that aren’t always easy. Sure, it may be simple to see what the nice and not-so-nice options are, but it’s just as easy to understand why the latter decision might be necessary. It’s a shame more wasn’t done with this, because I had a lot of fun with balancing the desire to adventure with the need to attend to my royal appointments. Also, it wasn’t long before one of the most infuriating moments of game design reared its ugly head.

During this phase, the days skip ahead by weeks or months at a time. All the while, there’s a threat looming; one you know of and are preparing for. There are constant reminders of how urgent these preparations are. While you seem to have plenty of time remaining, at the end of one day, time jumps ahead and you find it’s now 118 days later — the day you’ve been preparing for! Since the game auto saves, you’re unable to back out. It wouldn’t be so bad if time advanced in an easily determinable way, but it simply doesn’t communicate that this is about to happen! I’ve been asked to take matters seriously, only to find the game isn’t willing to do the same.

With all the problems and criticisms I’ve mentioned it would be easy to think I didn’t enjoy this game. It’s a real credit to the talent at Lionhead Studios  that I was able to like Fable III in spite of the many ways it failed. The writing is outstanding and the personality of its many characters made me want to keep coming back for more. This is a very good game wrapped in a slick package and it’s easy to recommend, as long as you keep in mind that you’ll be playing by its rules — even if it doesn’t always tell you clearly what they are.

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Things We Liked: Funny dialogue with outstanding voice acting. Brimming with unique, innovative ideas. Fast paced with a low barrier to entry.

Things We Disliked: Lack of follow through on its innovative ideas. Over-streamlining its combat made it a little too easy. Eliminating menus for ease of use actually made it more tedious. Doesn’t let me choose which emote to use during interactions. Baffling and unpredictable leaps in time during the later game.

Target Audience: Anyone who enjoyed the prior two games in the series. People looking for an easy RPG with a comedic edge.

(Fable III – Developer: Lionhead Studios. Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios. Available for Xbox 360. Unfamiliar with CFD!’s review system? Read our newly revised explanation here.)