A prematurely released game when it should have been worked on for almost another year to make it an easy 9-10 rating.
Fable 2 was incredibly glitchy, (complete freezing, lag, extreme frame rate issues, slow loading textures, dumb A.I.) boring, linear maps/story/quests, lacked any worthwhile story, quests, or deep thought, *ALSO a tacked on shoddy co-op.
Fable 3...
Just remember that I will go through a LOT of flaws and just because I can critically point out MANY flaws in any game doesn't mean that the game isn't worth playing or that the thing's going to have every single problem occur for you as you play, some, like glitches may just randomly happen.
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The Bad :
SERIOUS GLITCH -
A common problem, which I've had happen on my 2nd character is that IF you cannot push START to go to the sanctuary and then push START to return to your previous point in the game, you have a glitch that may need a complete game restart to fix. (At this time there's been no patch/fix update 11-1-2010.)
Pretty glitchy at times, frame-rate issues (Not nearly as bad as Fable 2 about 1/10th as much for me.) lack of customization, bad dye options for clothing, hair is not hair-like as Fable 2 and instead is a pre-laid typical hairstyle that you'll see in most games. (possibly to help the frame-rate/loading), not as many clothes, only 4 types of weapons (sword,hammer,rifle,pistol), a weapon leveling up customizing (weapon evolving) feature that could have been much better done and thought out. Most areas in the game felt large but... strangely boring, as if I really didn't care much about going off the path and searching nearly as much as I do in any other game **(I'm the kind of guy who can spend literal DAYS more in a game just searching behind every corner for hidden items, someone who walks into a room and has to pick up every item, as if by some kind of OCD.) The game was again, too short but that's true for every game, and even more for the Fable franchises games. Fun parts cut out of the game like card mini-games (seriously, I hated Fable 2's mini-games but at least toss in some Blackjack or Poker and I'm sold. They had a few mini-games but one you'd only play until you've gotten the highscore (mortar cannon) and another that was basically a somewhat randomized horse race with chickens. (chicken race), there may be others but none come to mind. There's a serious problem with characters repeating a line over and over, often for me, the same line right after the dialogue was just said. There's one part that will probably annoy you almost as much as it did me, the part where the Butler says in his own way "Hey there's stuff in the store XBOX LIVE DLC, You may want to buy that." (Problem being... that's with Microsoft Points so.... NO THANKS, especially since that ONE DLC atm is a stupid ass dog costume that you can wear pay 160 MS for.)
Characters sometimes appear.... confused, like the dog A.I. which should be no surprise.. if he stops at a wall,fence,tree,building,cliff,etc. you may have to get his character model to move completely away, then approach from another angle. You should also get used to waiting on your dog if you swim, run too fast... or just go anywhere the A.I. gets stuck. (IF you think that he'll spot treasure/dig.) -------- Other character A.I. often got scared of me even though I did nothing wrong, and maybe even actually just helped or friendly motioned them.
Fable 3 removes A LOT from what was Fable 2, like .... depth (items, character customizing, hair, facial hair, clothes, books, item viewing (I believe to help with those extreme frame-rate glitches that were in Fable 2.) Helpful quest jumping map navigation, food/potions, stats, spells (I actually love what they did with the spells myself), fighting is overly simplified and even boringly repetitive.
In Fable 3 there is no more "GREY" area, it's either BLACK or it's WHITE.... GOOD or EVIL, with almost every option it's YES or NO, which destroys a lot in choices/decisions.
They've tacked on the Co-op again... better done this time but it's still a tacked on gimmick onto what time could have been spent trying NOT to use a gimmick and to improve the game further. Achievements focus around Co-op a bit too strongly for a game that NOBODY is playing because of co-op.
There are about 51 "unique" weapons in Fable 3, ..... BUT you can only get around 26 per game SOLO I think... which means you're not getting every weapon you could... which FORCES you to play co-op if you want to get experience or collect every weapon, or just want a specific one and were unlucky enough to not get it.
ANNOYING Gnomes.... basically the gargoyles from Fable 2, only with an awful, over-worked, over-acted dialogue/voice.
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Summary: A Countdown Timer
At one point of the game there's actually a countdown timer, .... without giving it away it's basically a Dead Rising kind of thing where you do everything you can, but when that time runs out it's game over and onto the next part, which this part is by far the longest part you'll want to spend time on to gather money, explore the game, and basically just enjoy what you can do... but is cut incredibly short with a "1 Year" timer... and that 1 Year goes a little too fast considering I needed at least another 20-35 hours than what I got.
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Believe me there's more.. BUT let's just get to what's good about this game.
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The Good :
The main character talks, for one... not enough to be annoying or full of itself. The characters in-game (main) are actually likable, unlike Fable 2's **** moody Hammer. They exist with you through the story as friends and a team, rather than people you just up and collect like items.
MAGIC:
The magic has been simplified but stronger and more to the point rather than Fable 2's ..... slap magic to layers and charge to which you want to get, hoping to not get interrupted. You use a gauntlet with ONE magic power, that power can be tossed or AOE (Area of Effect) circled on the player. Magic eventually can be combined with 2 different spells, meaning the 5-7 spells you get each can combine with one of the others causing two effects.
Summoning and Time Control have been made into potions instead of spells (since they're support spells, this helps a TON) Potions are extremely easy to use, UP and DOWN for the support spell potions, LEFT and RIGHT for foods/health potions.
The clothes look nicer, although... the dye customize sucks. It's MUCH MUCH easier to put clothes on, what you want, how you want, tattoos are a form of clothing now, no more of that "tattoo parlor to remove" stuff, you collect, you keep. Hairstyles and makeup as well.
Clothes: head,body,hands,legs,feet
Tattoos: head/face, body:chest/back, arms, legs / makeup / hair The part I loved most about Fable 3... START button instead of taking you to a pause screen OR boring tedious text screen which wasn't exactly "streamline" or helpful. It literally takes you from the action that you're in, lets you jump out and do whatever, even actually changing weapons and or spells, then jumping back exactly where it left off with said changes.
Weapons get their own room, clothes get their own room, achievements/trophy/ a literal GOLD coin mountain for how much money you have (Have you ever seen that old Ducktales show or know of Scrooge McDuck's money vault? It's basically that, which is awesome.) a room for co-op/online options/join/friend invite area, a small spot for your dog/dog stats/ a spot for stats/save game. The story is actually pretty engaging at first. The areas are HUGE and no longer linear little tracks like they were, some of the areas are familiar but at the same time, completely revamped enough that you don't just feel that they reused the exact same map model. The game plays from you playing as a run-away prince/princess who leaves and forms a rebellion, then returns to fight against Logan (their brother) to rule as king/queen. There's renting like in Fable 2, although there's the new "repair" option... buildings degrade over time. You can change wallpaper, table top modes, etc. (like food, books, skulls, or chemistry sets on objects)
The leveling up system has.... changed for sure, I like the change from Fable 2, actions gain points which are then used on a... what seems to be a subconscious road where you spend those points to open chests that give you actions, job levels, magic, ranged, melee strength and dyes for clothes.
The main character's look better, the women look like women, unlike the She-Hulks of Fable 2.
At a point in the game your true form shows, although being a typical white winged angel or a dark winged angel.... I don't think there's an inbetween.
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I'd say that in conclusion, this game succeeds as a game without a doubt but not exactly succeeds as the best Fable game. I think this is a huge step forwards from Fable 2 though, they simplified things way too much but if they make Fable 4, I'll bet they'll work on that.
For Fable 4, Peter Molyneux needs to do LITTLE to NO "what we're trying to do for this game" hyping like he can't help but do, I can read people pretty well but with Peter Molyneux I'm not sure if he's a dreamer that thinks too far for what he's working with or one of the greatest salesmen I've ever seen. He wants to go in the right direction, changing these things we play which we call "games" on an emotional level rather than the more common surface of emotion game type. A mentality which makes us think about what choices we've made, rather than mowing down a prostitute with a car or gunning down an entire room of "enemy soldiers" which seemingly have no history, background, or family tie.
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This game is one of the more hard games to rate for me, parts of it made me think that it was a 9, some parts made me think that it was a 6-7. To even be able to slap on a single rating for gameplay that varies so much from boring to great is a task in itself. With most games everyone has a general consensus within about 1 point of rating within 10, this is one of those few that bounces dangerously both ways causing people who want to be precise about games to scratch their heads wondering.
I thought the game is definitely worth playing, and to others and myself worth buying.
P.S. -
If you do try out the game, make sure to shake someone's hand by holding down the A button.... but don't let go when you're supposed to, instead just hold the hand until it stops you and hear the creeped out uncomfortable dialogue when the player is a little too friendly with the people. Something about that unsettling reaction from the townspeople made me laugh my ass off when I started playing the game.