- Publisher: Microsoft
- Developer: Lionhead Studios
- ESRB Rating: “M” for Mature
- Genre: Action RPG
- Pros: Consistently hilarious; Aurora; fun exploration and combat; good sound; nice visuals; Lute Hero; Sanctuary
- Cons: Oversimplified controls for everything; more straightforward than past Fable games; chugging framerate
Microsoft
Fable III takes place fifty years after the events of Fable II. You play as the son or daughter of the hero in Fable II, and your brother is the current king of Albion. He is a ruthless tyrant squeezing the life out of the people, however, and your character decides to fight back. After awakening the hero powers passed down from your father, you start a revolution and eventually overthrow your brother. You are now the king or queen, but the decisions you face as ruler turn out to be much more difficult than anyone could have foreseen.
The first half of the game has you running around Albion and meeting with community leaders around the land to try and win their support so they will fight with you against the king. You have to prove your worth to them by finding items or fighting through dungeons - typical Fable stuff.
Once the revolution happens and you take the throne, you find out the real reason why your brother was seemingly so evil. You find out that you have a year before something awful will happen to Albion, and you need to earn money in order to fund an army strong enough to fight back. To do that, you make tough choices (like whether to repair a homeless shelter or turn it into a money-making whore house ...), among other choices, to raise money. You can also donate your character's own money to the national treasury as well. Only that sort of breaks the game.
Economy
If you don't go that route and earn the money the easy way, the decisions the game presents are much more difficult. Raising taxes, putting children to work instead of sending them to school, polluting one community so another one could be healthier, etc. are tough decisions. Always hanging over your head is the direct correlation between how much money you earn, and how many people will die if you don't get enough. One slightly disappointing aspect is that there aren't ever any compromises or other options available. Your choices are always either very good (which usually costs you money) or very evil (which earns you more than enough money) or not changing anything. You don't really ever feel truly in charge.
Gameplay
Microsoft
The experience system is also simplified in a negative way. In past Fable games, you earned separate XP based on what attacks you used that only leveled up magic or melee or projectile attacks, and by the end your character was truly unique. In Fable III, all attacks fill the same pool of XP. You level up your character by spending your XP to open chests on a special "Road to Rule" section of the game. You buy new conversation options, costume colors, magic, and attack abilities by opening these chests. Characters aren't unique anymore.
Weapons and armor also don't really matter. Clothing doesn't really make any difference unless you like running around in a chicken suit. And despite the fact that there are lots of weapons around, it doesn't matter too much if you just stick with the same ones you start the game with because they level up as you use them (each weapon has specific level up requirements).
