As much as I hated Fable II, I actually liked and still like the first game.
- Kill the expression gameplay mechanic. It's insulting to the player to try to pass it off as interaction. There were few things in Fable II that pissed me off more than one character explaining some dire situation to me, and I have only the choices to do a fist pump or a thumbs down.
- Make combat require more tact, not just a clusterf*ck where you wait for everyone to come close and use AOE lightning. Have enemies using different strategies: while 3 guys come at me with blades, another 3 are set up with long range attacks.
- Raise the stakes: sure it's annoying to die in a game and be set back to the beginning of an area, but it at least gives you reason to try to be the best fighter you can be. The whole not dying mechanic is immersion-breaking and boring.
- Where is the sense of wonder? This is a fantasy series, but everything just looks dull. Graphics are good in the game, but they are never given a chance to shine. There should be times where the player just pauses and looks at what he is approaching.
- Make the story priority and omnipresent. Fable II involved people being taken from their lives and forced to live years of hard labor, but this fact never seems to dawn on the citizens of Albion. Make the story feel important, the villain a real threat, and don't let us forget it.
- Don't keep the player in the dark. From Fable II, what did we learn? There was a bad man who wanted to build a spire. We know he had lost his family, but that doesn't explain why he feels its fine to kill off others' families, or what was his motivation in building the spire. Who was Theresa? Why did she want the spire. Any decision a major NPC made in Fable II just seems to happen in a vacuum. By the time the game ends, we know nothing more than we knew at the beginning. It makes the whole game feel meaningless.
- Kill the expression gameplay mechanic. It's insulting to the player to try to pass it off as interaction. There were few things in Fable II that pissed me off more than one character explaining some dire situation to me, and I have only the choices to do a fist pump or a thumbs down.
- Make combat require more tact, not just a clusterf*ck where you wait for everyone to come close and use AOE lightning. Have enemies using different strategies: while 3 guys come at me with blades, another 3 are set up with long range attacks.
- Raise the stakes: sure it's annoying to die in a game and be set back to the beginning of an area, but it at least gives you reason to try to be the best fighter you can be. The whole not dying mechanic is immersion-breaking and boring.
- Where is the sense of wonder? This is a fantasy series, but everything just looks dull. Graphics are good in the game, but they are never given a chance to shine. There should be times where the player just pauses and looks at what he is approaching.
- Make the story priority and omnipresent. Fable II involved people being taken from their lives and forced to live years of hard labor, but this fact never seems to dawn on the citizens of Albion. Make the story feel important, the villain a real threat, and don't let us forget it.
- Don't keep the player in the dark. From Fable II, what did we learn? There was a bad man who wanted to build a spire. We know he had lost his family, but that doesn't explain why he feels its fine to kill off others' families, or what was his motivation in building the spire. Who was Theresa? Why did she want the spire. Any decision a major NPC made in Fable II just seems to happen in a vacuum. By the time the game ends, we know nothing more than we knew at the beginning. It makes the whole game feel meaningless.
