Since the latter half of the Xbox 360’s lifespan, it has become increasingly clear that Microsoft has opted out of the console exclusives arms race. Whereas Sony and Nintendo continue to pump out a wide breadth of quality first and second party titles, the Xbox has had to make due with the trinity of Gears of War, Halo, and Forza. While some former exclusive developers (like BioWare and Bungie) continue production of new games as multiplatform titles, the same cannot be said of Microsoft’s three UK studios. Bizarre Creations, former Project Gotham Racing series developers, have wilted under Activision’s ownership and have not released a game since 2010. A similar fate has befallen storied developer Rare, who have been kept in Kinect and Avatar purgatory since 2008. But perhaps the most depressing story belongs to Peter Molyneux’s former studio, Lionhead, which was shuttered in 2016 after years of irrelevance. With the studio’s shutdown it is unlikely that we will see another entry in its flagship series, Fable, and that is a true shame.

Though not as highly regarded as other major RPG franchises, the Fable games have always delighted in their own way. The first game carved out a niche with its charming sense of humor and focus on building up the hero’s reputation through a unique dialog and relationship system. The second game built upon this foundation by adding a fully realized economy, online cooperative play, and a much larger scope. The last of the mainline games, Fable III, for some reason or another has been maligned as the franchise killer, sending it towards the excretable Fable: The Journey before dying off completely. After nearly seven years of avoiding it, I finally decided to see what all the hubbub was surrounding the third Fable game and, by extension, what it did to kill off such well-regarded series. Onward to Albion!

Fable III starts out approximately 50 years since the end of Fable II. Albion has entered an industrial age, with the attendant bellowing smokestacks and rampant child labor. You are the son or daughter of the now deceased Hero, scion to the throne and second in line to rule. Your older brother, Logan, is a hated tyrant whose policies have become increasingly onerous upon the citizenry. After he presents you with a cruel decision to save either your significant other or a group of protesters from execution, you are spurred into action to lead a revolution against him. This results in the game’s first half, which feels a lot like the previous game in which you quest around Albion, building up your army and reputation prior to confronting the royal army in the capital city of Bowerstone. Upon defeating Logan and his loyalist forces, the game’s big twist is revealed. You are now the rightful ruler of Albion, however a supernatural army will arrive at your shores in one year to kill every man, woman, and child in the country. The only way to oppose this is to amass 6,500,000 gold pieces in order to fund an army large enough to prevent the impending havoc. With this crisis looming you must make the hard decisions between filling the royal treasury and becoming a tyrant, or emptying the coffers and having the people love you.

It’s the second half of Fable III that really pushes the series forward. The larger scope of looking after the best interests of Albion is something that feels unique to the game. It also allows the game to become surprisingly political by presenting the player with such heavy issues as balancing the needs of industry with the protection of Albion’s natural resources. Though you can help fund your government’s policies by transferring personal wealth over to the treasury, it can be difficult to stay out of debt if you give the go-ahead to every popular measure. Making the “right” decision becomes all the more difficult when the other option typically allows you to pillage Albion’s people and resources for gold, like if you choose to convert an orphanage into a brothel, netting over 1,000,000 gold pieces in revenue. Heavy is indeed the head that wears the crown.

Despite being Albion’s head of state, the game smartly does not limit your comings and goings in its latter half. You’re still a Hero, and so you will continue to journey across the land solving problems and killing all manner of beast and man that threatens the peace. The typical Fable nonsense is still present, with writing that recalls the dry English wit of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett. It’s still great fun to interact with the locals, get married, have lots of sex (and deal with the consequences), and commit the occasional crime spree. The real estate system from Fable II makes a return, which made me care greatly about the world as I owned vast swathes of it by the end of the game. Of course, it’s still easy to game this system, and tying a rubber band to your controller and leaving the system on overnight remains an effective way to gain essentially infinite gold.

That’s not to say the game is perfect. Fable III comes with it a myriad of technical shortcomings, including a control scheme that feels sluggish, textures that sometimes fail to load, and the occasional hard freeze. The game is clearly straining under the limits of the Xbox 360, with the chugging framerate being a constant reminder of that fact. Additionally, the lack of menus can make questing more tedious than it needs to be and the series staple breadcrumb trail can be somewhat unreliable. However, if you’re willing to overlook these issues, the underlying game remains incredibly charming and compelling.

With the passage of several years and the arrival of a new console generation, I wasn’t expecting to be taken in by Fable III as I ended up being. I was reminded how much I enjoyed being in the quirky nation of Albion and how neat it was to see the world advance over the course of three games. It’s disappointing that we are unlikely to see a Fable IV harness the Xbox One to create a modern day (or future) version of Albion. There’s still much potential in the series to offer a less serious form of epic RPG, but only if Microsoft wishes for it to be so. Until then, Fable III remains an excellent send-off to a memorable series.