Fable 3's combat gameplay is the best thing it has going for it. The
combat flows easily and fluidly between melee, guns, and magic attacks.
The weapon flourishes that can be done to finish off enemies are some
of the game's strongest animations. The combat feels like a solid hack
and slash, although the magic, even after being fully upgraded, still
feels underpowered. The weapons themselves get upgraded depending on
what you do with them (kill 300 hollowmen, kill 150 enemies with
flourishes, make 30 friends), and that changes both their damage output
and their look.
Forming relationships with NPCs is as simple as it is annoying. It
involves having your character engage in nice expressions such as
dancing, playing patty-cake (seriously), or tickling. After doing this a
couple of times, the NPC will then become your friend after you perform
a basic fetch quest for them. If you want the NPC to love you (and
thus open up the possibility of marriage), you must engage in the same
nice expressions with them, and then take them on a "date" to a random
location. The same expressions are used regardless of the NPC's gender
or orientation.
The endgame, which has you making decisions as king, seems rushed,
and a point of no return can be quickly reached if you aren't careful.
If you want the best ending possible, it is best to have lots of money
(which you mainly get from buying properties and businesses). Money can
also be obtained through doing "jobs" in the different towns. The jobs
are simply quick-time event mini-games, but they can be an effective
means of getting gold in the early stages of the game.
The story and setting are interesting, involving a kingdom in the
throes of an industrial revolution, which is something not often seen in
fantasy. The voice acting in Fable 3 is, for the most part, mediocre
and forgettable (though it isn't outright bad), with two major
exceptions: Jasper the butler (voiced by John Cleese) and your mentor,
Sir Walter (voiced by Bernard Hill), are both very well voiced. They
are also the game's strongest characters, and the only ones I really
cared about.
The graphics are sub-par compared to recent games. The game has no
mini-map to show where quests are, but it does feature a glowing trail
that leads you in the direction of your active quest. This trail,
however, often disappears, leaving you with no means of knowing where to
go. I found that the later into the game I got, the more this
happened. Killing random villagers will result in guards running at you
and yelling to turn yourself in--and then standing around and not
attacking at all.
Fable 3 isn't a bad game. It just isn't a very good or very
memorable one. The engaging combat is the only thing that is really fun
here. The rest of the experience suffers from poor (the rushed ending)
to downright baffling (like the relationship mechanics) design
decisions that take the focus of the game's major strength.
