Fable 3 actually worse than Fable 2?

[fozzy360]

The problem I had with Fable 3 was that it felt like a stripped down Fable 2. Customizationnwas neutered, social interactions were incredibly limited, side quests felt like filler and not terribly fun...everything that made 2 fun was incredibly simplified. It just didn't feel as open or as interesting as before. Not only that, but 2's story was actually engaging and kind of thrilling. Fable 3's story really doesn't get going until halfway through. The game can be fun, and some of it works, but it felt like a bare-bones version of Fable 2. It didn't have the heart that Fable 2 had.

 

[Tarkand]

Well, the main problem I have magog1, is that while I enjoy the game so far, it is still disappointing.

Hopefully this a trend Lionhead studio will curbstomp with Fable 4... one can hope.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Pencil me in for "every Fable is worse than the previous one".

Remember when Pete did some research and discovered that your average Fable 2 player used like 10% of the game's features? Yeah, he completely missed the fucking point of that study, which is that the Fable games (especially 2 and 3) are chock full of shit people don't want to do. Moly focuses on streamlining menus and user interfaces and all that, but he can't be bothered to fine tune the combat balance or magic system - you know, the actual meat of the fucking gameplay.

This frustrates me to no end because the action RPG, done right, is just about my favorite genre. The Fable games should be right up my alley, but Pete is too busy diddling himself with dressing rooms, shallow social interaction, and real estate management to do the goddamn combat right.

 

[Enkidu88]

I liked Fable 3 better than Fable 2, but personally I think Fable: The Lost Chapters pwns all!

I think if they remade Fable TLC with the graphics and combat of the latter two, but kept all the core mechanics (health and will bars, experience and levelling, wider spell pool etc.) it would be fucking mindblowing.

But I'm also confident that if it were done wrong it would cause global facepalming. As in, 'audible from Mars' global facepalming.

With how the series has been going, they'd probably make the Remake of TLC focused around talking with the Guildmaster.

Please, Hero, go here and - YOUR HEALTH IS LOW, DO YOU HAVE POTIONS OR FOOD!? - and rescue this village from evil. You'll need to - TRY GETTING YOUR COMBAT MULTIPLIER EVEN HIGHER - bring along 6 magic McGuffins, and special supplies - ONLY PURCHASABLE ON X-BOX LIVE AFTER TRADING WITH 100 PEOPLE - to the good village people.

 

[Furious Styles]

Not hardcore enough, or a bit too casual?

That's just as true, because of the whole no saving or pausing thing it required whole days spent traipsing up and down the same level and I just wasn't prepared to spend the time to complete it. Maybe later in the holidays I'll give it another go.

 

[lacktheknack]

I have now offically washed my hands of you Mr Molyneux good day.

I've also said this a ton... and then I play Evil Genius or Black and White and I have to come sprinting back. Gah!

 

[jimplunder]

Well, I think that there could have been some macros that Lionhead could have put in that would have cut down on the grind immensely... like a "Repair All" button in the world map and a "Set Price/Rent" button there too. It's annoying that if you want to change the rent on all of your properties or change the prices in all of your stores that you have to go to each one by one and change it.

Perhaps Lionhead decided to make it all done one-by-one is because they want you to experience the monotony of being a landlord. You're always going around making your tenants happy and making sure their property is repaired. But seriously, I don't like the tedium of the repairs either.

As for Fable 3 vs. Fable Franchise Prequels, I think Fable 2 was my favorite as well. Fable 1 was really good, but property ownership was just a hassle. I miss the old menu, but being able to see the clothing before you put it on was nice (especially if you died certain pieces different colors, they wouldn't show you it, you'd just have to put it on and see). Also I hated the way you had to shop. You have to physically walk up to a stand and buy the item. Why not just go to the shopkeeper, look through their items, and pick out what you want in a menu? The menus are sometimes good!

I also missed the expression wheel and choosing your own spells. Why Lionhead decided that choosing your own emotions (or at least if you can't making the progression really bad) was less interactive, I have no idea, but it was something they should have left in. I was also upset they didn't improve the dog mechanics at all. The dumb dog still doesn't realize that there's a fence in front of its face and tries to use its non-existent magical no-clip spell to walk through it...

I also saw someone trolling on Reaver in one of the first-page posts, so I'll put my 2 cents in on it and say that I actually liked Reaver's character. He had a very sharp wit and his dialogue was funny. I think Reaver is what actually made being the monarch bearable. I was also upset that after you beat the storyline they don't give you more to do as king/queen. I figured you just saved the world from a major disaster, so... there should be some stuff that needs to be done to get things back to "normalcy"... am I right?

I think in the end, Lionhead with Fable 3 became a victim of a game industry that puts the deadline ahead of the product and had Fable 3 not been rushed to be released during the fall/holiday season, it might have addressed all of the concerns we have/had and been a much better game.

[Edit: The family logistics bothered me too... the Castle has 3 children's beds in it, but you can only have 2 children per household... what gives? Dressing the family could be nice, I suppose, especially if you're like me and just want to waste money by buying every item in the game, even if it's the opposite gender's clothing. Also sending the children to the orphanage when you divorce... can't you just pay half of the property's value to your spouse, keep the kids in the house, and get a nanny?

A small note on Multiplayer. It's a big "play at your own risk" affair. I had a person come in, they killed one of my 5 wives, and then stalled at the end of a quest. I've been hesitant to let people play in my world (and I think that they're skeptical about letting other people in) and it just ruins it. The host should be the only one in control of the villager-killing mechanic. If the host turns it off, it's a villager-killing party! If not, then the guest should respect the host's wishes and not mess up their game, or leave if they want to play the villager-head-to-pike-contest game.]

 

[Jake0fTrades]

The very presence of Jack of Blades puts Fable 1 into a league of its own to which we cannot compare the sequels.

Fable 2 was a letdown, from the tedious gameplay to the half-assed story, the absence of any real challenge only added to an already short game.

I feel like Fable 3 was a step in the right direction, but still dwarfed in comparison to the original Fable. The addition of the menacing Crawler brought this game to a whole new level for me, and in several cutscenes we get to see some very effective and dramatic camera angles that showcase the games distinctive landscape, not to mention big names like John Cleese, Simon Pegg and Micheal Fassbender providing voiceovers for the games many characters; such as Logan.

However, while Fable 3 outplayed Fable 2, this series still has a long way to go before it is redeemed.

 

[lovest harding]

Okay, let me preface this by saying I love the Fable series so much that I have a Hobbe tattoo (it's hard to explain, but he's a doodle Hobbe from Fable II's collector's edition guide's artbook). His name is Maxely for all those in the know. xD

I loved the first Fable as well as Lost Chapters. It had such a neat feel and the humor was on point.
Fable II gave me more of what I wanted (character customization, more open-endedness, a beautiful stylistic world with colors outside of brown, even more humor, interesting quests in a world that wasn't just a Tolkien rip off).

Fable III, put everything I loved in the first games into a much more interesting package.
The humor is more memorable (Hollows and Hobbes, BALLS!, Reaver's Mansion party). It did emotion in a much more subtle way (cliche or not, they finally got what subtle is). It took an outstanding idea from the Banshee in two and gave it to the Darkness (the whispers, although I did miss the more personal attacks of the Banshee).
It improved a lot as well. I found the Sanctuary to be quite wonderful (visual pause menu was a lovely idea and implemented well in my opinion). I found the story much more appealing and I enjoyed the characters more (even Reaver was delightfully charming, but I'm sure Stephen Fry was mostly to be applauded for that). I liked that morality was played up (in the story morality was great, but as a mechanic it's still a bit stupid). Spell weaving is neat.
It also has one of the best voice acting casts I've ever heard.
Then there was that little thing that gamers complain about, but no one ever notices in Fable III, the ability to actually change the world drastically. Your decisions really dictate how Albion changes and you can visit those changes (and even get quests solely when you make those changes). SPOILER. When you drain Bower Lake to create a mine, you don't just hear about it rumors, you can visit the mine and talk to the miners. You can even drag new miners to work. SPOILER END. Even some of the smaller decisions made as King/Queen were interesting (although didn't really change a whole lot in the world).
I might have forgotten things, but this is a list of reasons why I love Fable III.

Also, I don't think it's a perfect game. It made some bad changes (the dog feels a bit more useless, the spells have been dumbed down again, awkward pauses for free-roaming, the Leadership role was horribly paced, some story line head scratchers, forced Promises and lack of major middle ground, horrible conversation/relationship system, families were lacking a lot) and has issues/bugs (albeit I've never seen a major glitch that had me resetting or starting a new character). But not enough to feel less than Fable II.

I think the idea that it needs to be more streamlined keeps getting taken way to far, but I still enjoy the games of the series, each more than the last.

EDIT: I also prefer Fable III's repressed feel to Fable I and II's idyllic fantasy world feels.

Something about this post's writing makes me feel awkward. Not sure what or why, but it's just strange.

 

[Frotality]

i remember a time when sequels were supposed to expand upon and improve upon the original, not delete half the content and arbitrarily replace whats left instead of fixing it.

the fable series characterizes this trend pretty damn well. with each successive game, i find less content, NO gameplay improvements, simply gameplay changes..just less and less and less.

remember starcraft and the brood wars expansion? that expansion pack had more content and gameplay refinements than fable 3 had over fable 2 or 1. by a long shot. so i guess what im saying is that fable 3 felt like shitty fable 2 DLC to me. fable 2 at least made a SIGNIFICANT shift in gameplay, if a strange and unneeded one; fable 3 has nothing to it. its fable 2 in a new setting minus half the content.