Fable III review

PC gamers are finally getting the chance to explore the world of Albion, now that Fable III has made its way from the Xbox 360 to our gaming platform of choice. The epic RPG might continue the storyline from the previous game, which never saw a PC release, but players new to the series don’t have to worry about catching up. The main plot gets explained within the first ten minutes; the King, your older brother, is an evil dictator that needs to be overthrown. After a midnight escape from his castle, you’re tasked with uniting the towns and tribes of Albion and staging an uprising. There are many hurdles along the way, with game-altering choices to be made at every turn. Each one is presented as good or evil, and how you react to them will shape both future quests and how NPCs react to your presence in Albion’s towns and cities.

There are hundreds of locations to explore and quests to complete, but you aren’t alone in your mission; you have a constant canine companion that will follow you throughout the game. He can sniff out secret chests and buried treasure, which can be dug up and used, sold or equipped, but also proves his worth in battle. Combat in Fable III is split between melee, ranged and magical attacks. The fighting system has been slightly simplified in the transition from console to PC, so that you can only wield one of the three at once. This makes combat slightly less strategic, but having accurate mouse control with ranged weapons makes them much more useful than before.

Like previous entries in the series, Fable III contains its fair share of side quests, jobs and other distractions that add plenty of replay value. Any NPC can be romanced, which can lead to marriage and children, or divorce and STDs. You can also become a property magnate, buying houses and shops throughout the world, or play one of several themed mini-games to earn extra cash. These aren’t vital to the overall storyline, but earning money early on will certainly help in the final part of the game.

Part of what makes Fable III such fun to play is its wicked sense of humour. Characters you meet are suitably over-the-top, quoting Monty Python and spouting hilarious one-liners. The voice acting is terrific, helped no end by an impressive collection of famous names; a typically sardonic John Cleese plays your faithful butler Jasper, Zoe Wannamaker returns to voice Theresa the spiritual guide and there are a host of cameos from Sean Pertwee, Ben Kingsley, Simon Pegg and Stephen Fry.

Fable III PC has exactly the same core gameplay as the Xbox 360 version, but Lionhead has made a great effort to ensure it wasn’t a lazy console port. This is noticeable immediately in terms of visuals; draw distances have been greatly increased, creating spectacular views and vistas that stretch off into the horizon. It’s slightly odd that the same doesn’t apply to NPCs, who routinely pop into view as you enter new areas. Some textures also look slightly bland, but otherwise the graphics are a definite improvement over the console version.

It’s fair to say that every Fable game has been criticised for being too easy, but that shouldn’t be the case for PC gamers; a new hard-core mode ramps up the difficulty level by stopping health from automatically regenerating and making enemies more aggressive. The control system has also seen improvements. Using a mouse and keyboard makes it feel like you have much more control over your character in combat, but the remnants of the console version are still plain to see. Holding down a key to make choices during conversations feels cumbersome and the overly simple shop interface could have been improved for the new platform.

Although the main storyline isn’t particularly long and suffers from occasional plot holes, there’s plenty of extra content once the credits have rolled. You can even invite a friend and explore Albion together using Games for Windows Live. Serious RPG fans may baulk at the simple gameplay mechanics and uncomplicated plot, but Fable III is still an excellent adventure. It’s not quite a perfect translation from console, but there’s no question that Fable III PC is the definitive version of the game.