For Albion! Fable 3: One Less in the Backlog Review.

Sh*t, I better slow down. Another review and a second game done on the next night. Truthfully I have been toiling away on Fable 3 for years now. Ever since Ranvier and I decided since we had so much fun with Fable 2 we would co-op Fable 3. That sh*t never happened... Our lives and loves just wouldn't let it. I took it upon myself to find some time over the course of these past few months to look into chipping away at my backlog. This was the first I decided to tackle as it is lengthy for someone who doesn't have the time to really play for long duration. Let's see what Fable 3 did for me.

Such fond memories of playing Fable 2 led me to believe this was going to be departure from the droll of this series has had. Much remains the same. With a new story and a continuing arch of the Albion Hero. Story goes like this.

Your twisted brother has shat on the people and places of Albion and you are set to start a rebellion to bring back the beauty that once was. You and your brother, Logan, are the children of the Hero from Fable 2. With that lineage you carry the Hero's blood, you are special, who know the line. Anyways, you travel the countryside of Albion gathering followers to your cause. Doing their little jobs to gain support for the rebellion to take the throne. Albion has grown from the last installment, so the amount of running from one place to the next is substantial. Thank the maker for fast travel cause it gets old quick. Don't get me wrong this helps the overall scope to make the game a massive landmass compared to Fable 2. You still have your locked off areas you can see but can't reach, giving areas lots of depth, but a yearning to find out whats over there. That's the first half of the game. The second half you become *spoiler* king/queen. Making decisions to either help or hurt Albion. Aurora is introduced. The shifting desert populous across the pond from Albion and it is there you find that a great evil is heading your way. Your decisions affect the strength of your army to defend against this evil. Good and evil.

Game play goes back to the tried and true method of Fable games that people love. Action oriented combat, guns, magic and melee. New weapons with legendary powers if you fulfill requirements. Kill this many of this, become friends, enemies or combat performances. Nice feature to make weapons, killing machines. Hobbes has always been my favorite enemies of this series, silly little creatures with attitudes. Hollow men also make a return also, and there is a lot of them, a lot. Whole sections of levels and areas crowded with this ghastly figures. You also have your bandits and balverines, yet not as prevalent as they were in Fable 2 if I remember right. My biggest beef with this game is the lack of the golem. You about shat your pants when you first see one in Fable 2, and you knew this was going to be f*cking cool. Aurora has spiced up the mix with desert furies, cloaked something or other and walking armor guardians. Fetch quests prevail as ever and even as much as digging up some minuscule treasure in some dark corner of the land for individual friend quests. Like I said lots of running this way and that. Killing things fun, finding your lost scrolls, lame. Fable 2 had gargoyles to find, this has gnomes, foul mouthed creatures hiding all over Albion spewing mouth garbage at you. These were fun to hear.

Graphically this is very beautiful game for its far off places and the feeling of what was old is new again. You can visit many of the places that you did in Fable 2 with some changes time has afforded. Very cool to see what was once was and realizing the change from something in Fable 2. The gypsy caravan camp where you begin in Fable 2 is a great example. All is all it's still got that Fable series charm.

Overall Fable 3 is a great causal action RPG. Decent story, even better that your dog doesn't f*cking die, really Fable 2, really? Game play is good with the hack'em up style minus the fetch this, quests. It's still a pretty looking game and still has that cheeky humor the series is known for. I would give Fable 3, 3.75 INUS, it seemed it has missed a step compared to it's predecessor, but still a fun game. I have read that Peter Molyneux has left Lionhead Studios and the Fable series has petered out. I guess there is a Kinect title sometime in the future that should be interesting to see how that turns out.

Well, Back to the Backlog.

SWS out.