Fable 3 Impressions with Peter Molyneux

How do you create a third game that continues to impress fans in a series that has introduced so much innovation? After all, fans hate change. At least that’s what Peter Molyneux told us when we sat down with him, and the game, as we went through some of the key changes and additions for Fable 3.

Fable 3 will look to move out of the RPG genre and more into action-adventure, but great care has apparently been taken to keep the role-playing elements, to ensure we still feel we’re playing a Fable game. And indeed, from what we saw in the game demo, this still looks and feels like Fable. The premise of the game still relies on choices and consequences, good and evil. You’re still part of a world filled with mystique, interacting with characters in traditional ways from the past Fable games. Yes, you can still fart in stranger’s faces – and I’m sure they’ve spent at least some time to improve the crass action’s animation. Molyneux jokes that by simply having this action in the game, they sell thousands of copies in England.

One of the major ideas in Fable 3 is that almost all traditional stories follow a set of rules. Typically you rise up from the ground, defeat the great evil, and watch the cinematic ending to your journey. Fable 3 says why stop the game there? As you slowly rise to power, you’ll be working towards overthrowing the tyrannical leader, Logan, by recruiting fellow townspeople as your followers. Overthrowing the tyrant king – who currently cares not for the people of the land – marks the halfway point in the game, where significant change will occur, affecting how you play Fable 3. The choices you’ve made, and the people that follow you, will play a significant part in what happens from here on out.

Followers replaces the in-game currency that featured in the previous games – no longer will you work for money and do quests to earn a buck – you’ll receive followers for doing these things, and along with other actions you do, you’ll lose or gain them. Jobs like chopping wood or being a musician will increase your followers. Buying property will now increase your followers as well.

This also means throughout the story you’ll meet characters who will request that you do something for them and in return they’ll become one of your followers, bringing with them varying numbers of followers of their own. These choices that you make will determine the balance between honorable and corrupt, and the path you’ve taken will also ripple down to how Albion (and the new playable continent beyond) will appear once you take the throne. Molyneux wouldn’t expand too much on what happens when you become king, or anything after it, stating that there are big events and twists, and trying to explain anything after this point would ruin it. Sounds like something we’re going to want to wait (and try to avoid reading elsewhere) to experience first-hand.

As the world changes, so does your character. The line between good and evil will be symbolised through not only your person, but your weapons as well. Walk on the corrupt side, and your sword will curl and drip with blood. Your weapon will also grow sharper and stronger as you level throughout the game, with your character becoming taller, stronger and bigger. And fear not, your dog won’t miss out; you’ll be able to buy skills for ol’ pooch.

One big change for Fable 3 is the menu system. Molyneux found that players hated the clunky system in place for Fable 2, describing it as a horrible list of hundreds of items that you had to scroll through. That’s gone. In its place is the Sanctuary. Hitting the start button will now take you to a room where you can physically walk around and access different areas: your clothing, the armoury, etc. Walk into the clothing area, and you can try on the different threads right there and then. While it does remove the old-style menu system, it only appears to replace it with a system that will take longer to navigate, but could end up being more immersive.

Other than that, Fable 3 really appears to set out to let players answer the questions ‘What will you do with your power?’, ‘What choices will you make?’, and ‘How will you shape the world around you?’

These would also make great taglines for the back of the box, don’t you think?