An Indigo Mind

Today I’m taking a break from the insanity that is NaNoWriMo to write up my initial impressions of Fable 3. Why? Because it will be a month at least before I can get back to the game, and all work and no play… well, you know the rest.

These are my initial impressions, and not a full review, because I’ve only logged about nine hours in the game and only just reached Bowerstone[1. Actually, the last quest I finished was Kidnapped, which really should have been a morality neutral quest. But that's an argument for another time.]. My experiences so far with the game have made me come to the realization that I make a terrible beta tester – the glitches simply don’t happen to me. I keep hearing reports about huge, game breaking glitches, and the worst glitch I’ve encountered is occasionally the breadcrumb trail will forget where it is supposed to be going.

Visually it’s beautiful. The Fable series has always flirted with uncanny valley in it’s character designs, but for one I think they got something, and the locations are rich in detail. I just wish the game was giving me more opportunity to explore them, like Fable 2 did. Speaking of locations, I really miss the locals from Fable 2 – I had been looking forward to see what happened to Bloodstone, Westcliff, and the Spire, and so far there has been not a peep about them. I feel like there is a lot missing from Fable 3, and lots of unanswered questions – why didn’t the Hero of Bowerstone reel in Reaver[2. Assuming the 'Good' outcome is canon, which so far it seems to be]? What happened to Garth, and Hammer? What is Theresa really up to? Because I doubt Xanatos would be content with just playing narrator.

Writing wise I am very impressed. Mostly. The main story – the revolution is powerful and driving, the characters behind it a rich and colorful cast. My only major complaint is that Logan is a rather wimpy villain. Just who is his other parent, Dastardly Whiplash? So far all he’s done is twirl his mustache while being a dick. Either he’s under mind control and being very obvious about it, or he’s intentionally trying to start a revolution, which would undermine a lot of what the game is trying to get across about the cost of such an upheaval. In either case the game needed a scene, or just a hint, to set up that he hadn’t always been such a cold jerk. In some respects Lucien was a much better villain – while the game could have set him up better, if you take the extra steps you get treated to portrait of a man descending into insanity. The ultimate lesson seems to be that if you live in Albion, don’t give your son an L name.

As for the gameplay – the combat is nice and fluid, and I enjoy that they’ve finally balanced the weapons so that rifles and hammers don’t utterly suck to use. The Sancturary is probably one of the best menu screens I’ve ever seen, except for two things – could it have killed them to include the ability to see my items in a list? And just quickly saving is kind of a pain. I don’t understand why they changed how you do Expressions, because they worked beautifully in Fable 2; the whole befriending process has become a tedious chore. And I think the whole Road to Rule idea was a complete misstep, robbing me of that customizable control over my character’s growth that was so core to the first two games. I recall the developers talking about how they wanted to move away from RPG elements, but the Road to Rule is a huge step back towards the tradition RPG mold. The only feature of the Road to Rule that I really enjoy is the plinths marking my Hero’s progress and growth.

All in all, there’s some awesome stuff and some disappointing stuff. I still love it to pieces, which is why I’m going to be so hard on its faults. Now I need to get back to writing so I can finish this NaNoWriMo thing and get back to the business of saving Albion.

…Oh, and can I mention how much I love that they fixed the female character model? Being forced to play Brawn Hilda if you wanted any sort of combat ability in Fable 2 was really annoying.