Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

Was Fable III rushed? That's what I heard. And from what I've experienced, that seems to be the case.

Vs Fable II, it's got next to nothing. The only thing it has got over its very enjoyable predecessor is that the game world itself is more easy on the eye then ever before. Vibrant and alive, it sucks you in. Especially so when it lets you off the beaten track for a run around in the woods. You feel so free.

And yet, it doesn't let you do it as much as Fable II did. The game is shorter and the world is smaller. I beat the game in 14 hours and I did alot of side questing. I also got married and fathered 2 children. Once again, like in Fable (though less so in Fable II), the very idea that you can be wed and become a parent in around an hour of gameplay is just ridiculous.Having said that, it's not neccisarily a complaint. The Fable universe has always been a very silly place, and this game doesn't appear to do anything to change that. But that's all part of its charm.

I'm rambling abit, but it's hard to put my finger on any one thing that stops this from being as good as it should be. The whole game feels pretty ropey in places and I could spend a long time listing them. But my one biggest problem was the feeling that the game should have been alot bigger.

In the first half of the game, you spend time running around recruiting various factions and groups to help you dethrone the tyrant king and seize the throne. Great! But when geting one of these parties onside involves walking into their city, chatting to the leader.... and making a promise to reward them... without having to do anything to prove yourself first... right there and then... you can't really blame me for wondering if they planned to include some leg work here an just ran out of time.

But the biggest example of this comes in the second half of the year, when you have become king (or queen), and are now given 365 days to raise enough swag to fend of the evil shadowy invasion. Fail, and millions will die. But raising the cash won't be easy is you decide to keep all the promises you made to become ruler in the first place. It's an difficult and very enjoyable part of the game. At one point, my kingdom was in fact a million gold in debt! But I knew with alot of hard work and effort, I would eventually raise the money.
And then, the game let me down one last time. You don't actually have 365 days. It skips MONTHS at a time. And towards the end, it actually skipped over one hundred days, throwing my plans out the window and thus, dooming my kingdom.
I was actually quite annoyed at this. The people got hammered by the invasion, and my wife and kids killed. The kingdom survived and I was seen as a hero for all my good work, but, I wasn't happy.

And that's not a good aftertaste.

So how would I summerize Fable III? It's a good game. A wonderful, alive world. But it's been mishandled here. I don't know if it's developer or publisher to blame, all I know is that when I fail a game, I like to fail at it because of my own lack of skill. Not because the game itself doesn't provide me what I need to succeed.