Fable 3 – review

A west country burr and scouse grumbling as you wander around a medieval village? Yes, the Fable franchise is back. Developed by Peter Molyneux's Lionhead team, the Fable series of action role-play games has always flattered to deceive. Fable 2, while enjoyable, never really gave you a compelling reason to spend time away from the main adventure by getting married or buying a house. It felt – like many previous Molyneux games – that these were good ideas waiting to be properly implemented. Fable 3 fixes this. Like the other two games in the series, this is ostensibly an RPG but one that focuses on action and interaction rather than fiddling with stats. Fallout fans, for example, will scoff at the simplistic weapon upgrades but they would be missing the point. Fable is much more about what you do than how you do it, and never more so than in Fable 3.

This time round the game is split in half. The first part of the game follows the standard template, so think quests, combat and exploration. As a prince (or princess) your main aim here is to recruit followers to your cause and eventually overthrow your tyrannical sibling. Support is achieved by visiting the various – and varied – locales and gaining the trust of the locals. While much of this is secured by delivering an item or clouting whatever enemy is bothering them, there is some real invention to most quests. Acting in a play or donning a chicken costume are just some of the early challenges. Once you have got your army together – this can take anything from eight to 12 hours depending on how much you explore – the revolution can begin. At this point you take charge of the kingdom and it becomes a strategy game. You can still get down and dirty – literally – with your subjects but the emphasis is now on the bigger picture. As a change of pace it works fantastically well. Best of all, your decisions have a real impact and there are some surprisingly tough decisions to make.

While this new structure is the biggest success in Fable 3, there are a host of smaller improvements too. Interactions with the locals are on a one-to-one basis now, making any success more worthwhile. For example, wooing a partner takes longer but the upside – or downside if you get an STD – is more keenly felt. You can also get down to some dirty dancing or hold hands with other characters and lead them to safety in a similar way to the PlayStation 2 classic Ico. If this is too romantic then you can always fart or belch your way to disapproval.

What else? Co-op is more tightly integrated than before and works well offline (online is not live until Friday). The scrapping of menus is a plus point too. Now when you press start you enter the "sanctuary". Here you can access your weapons, costumes – all fully customisable – and the world map. Your butler Jasper – John Cleese – hangs out here too and acts as your guide to the action. Cleese is joined by Ben Kingsley, Simon Pegg and others in a game that is quintessentially English. Presumably the 16+ age rating is for the use of phrases like "sod off" and "bloody hell".

Five stars then, right? Not quite. For a start, the graphics are mixed. The locations are varied and generally evocative, with wind blowing through swaying branches. However, despite the new inclusion of industrial steam and grime the settings are fairly typical fantasy tropes. There is also some occasional scenery "pop-up" too, though this is minimised if you install the game to the Xbox hard drive. But the character graphics and voice sync are at least two years behind the high standard set by the Mass Effect series.

Loading times are an issue too. While the use of the world map and fast travel gives the perception of a living world the on-foot action is still interspersed by far too many loading screens as you enter a new section. The world still tends to feel like a collection of levels. Also the glowing trail that shows you your next objective is off-putting. Yes, it can be removed, but it does tend to limit exploration as you mindlessly follow it on auto pilot. As you would hope, though, going off piste is rewarded by treasure and money.

Despite these concerns it is hard not to get sucked into Fable 3. The combination of gaming styles – action, role-playing and strategy – works wonderfully together and there are some real consequences to your decisions. It may be too accessible for hardcore RPG fans but Fable 3 is hugely enjoyable and the perfect game to play on a cold winter's evening.