7 Things We Want in Fable III

It’s a testament to the incredibly addictive nature of Fable II that the game won so many accolades and legions of fans despite its numerous flaws. Should Lionhead Studios deem fit to bless us with a third installment in the Fable series, here are the things that we want to see fixed.

1. Don’t kill the dog! Lionhead achieved something major by getting you to become emotionally attached to your in-game canine companion. But admit it: if you’d known ahead of time that choosing the most altruistic of the game’s three endings would prevent you from ever getting your dog back… you would never have chosen that path. NPC sidekicks in games are typically a hindrance more than a help, but Fable II’s loyal pet became such an integral part of the adventure that once he was gone, the game just wasn’t the same. It’s a tribute to the dog’s programming and design that it’s no fun wandering through the hills and streets and forests of Albion without your four-legged pal, once you’ve completed the main story. The problem is that Lionhead didn’t make it entirely clear that there was no way possible of resurrecting your dog should you choose the unselfish ending. Albion is a land of magic and mystery — surely there would be a way to get your best friend back, right? Wrong. As millions of gamers can attest, this is probably the biggest disappointment of the entire game. Sure, Fable II corrected this with the first downloadable mission pack, and the thrill of not knowing how things would turn out before making your decisions is one element that made the game worth playing. But permanently losing your most faithful companion is too high a price to pay, no matter how compelling the reasons.

2. Get co-op right, or don’t bother. Fable II’s co-op is little more than a last minute tacked-on novelty, and it’s not even a fun one. This pathetic addition to the main game allows you to “visit” a friend’s version of Albion and play alongside them. But the game makers were worried that a maxed-out, uber-powerful player might go to a noob’s world and suddenly make all of the early quests way too easy to complete. It’s a legitimate concern, but there has to be a better solution than revoking all of the visitor’s long-labored-over character customizations and possessions — even if that solution is having no co-op mode at all. Because playing as a random hero who can’t even get ten paces away from the other player without being zapped back to his side offers zero investment for the visitor. And it’s about as much fun as watching linoleum peel.

3. No more mutes! Fable and Fable II both feature main characters that never utter a single syllable, which in this day and age is downright archaic. One of Albion’s greatest charms is its endless sea of individualistic, entertaining NPCs. You can literally wander the streets for hours and be entertained just listening to them talk to each other and to you (the superb voice acting is one of the game’s strongest points). Why then is the character you play limited in his or her interactions to childlike gestures? Contrasted against a more three-dimensional protagonist like Captain Shepherd in Mass Effect — who can talk to anyone he or she wants — and Fable II’s hero feels like a cartoony avatar from The Sims who’s been plopped down in a fantasy world.

4. Marriage should be beneficial. I played the game all the way through twice, and the first time was enough to convince me that marriage in Albion is for the birds. Spouses are needy, high-maintenance, and add nothing whatsoever to the experience. Trying to keep them happy is a time-consuming bore that in no way is offset by the trivial “rewards” they give you from time to time. A third game in the series needs to correct this problem by giving players a good reason to get married — something that enhances the experience and doesn’t feel like an unwanted burden.

5. Load times shouldn’t equate to bathroom breaks. Fable II’s load times were long. Painfully long. Go-make-a-Starbucks-run kind of long. It’s understandable that such a complex world would require a ton of data to make it work. But other games have proven it’s possible to allow the gamer to start playing while some of that data is still loading in the background. And considering that most of Fable II’s quests required traversing from one level to another (and back again), all the waiting around time in between just plain sucked.

6. Scars aren’t the same as dying. Peter Molyneaux’s novel idea of appealing to a player’s sense of vanity as a motivation not to die was an interesting idea, but it lacked something in the execution. The concept was simple: RPG players really don’t want to die and lose all of the customization and possessions they’ve put so much time into acquiring. And death is never permanent in RPGs anyway — you can always come back to life somehow and keep playing. So Molyneaux decided to try a different tack: since RPG players tend to be rather proud of the customizations they’ve created in designing their characters, a viable form of punishment might be to take something away from that personalized look — in the form of permanent scars that appear whenever you die in the game. NPCs regard you as uglier than before if you’re covered in facial scars, but ultimately, it has no real effect on the game’s story or world. It was an interesting concept, but it needs to go back to the drawing board.

7. It’s called “morality.” Heard of it? Fable II’s emphasis on a multitude of choices makes it the ultimate “choose your own adventure.” But unless you kill someone in front of innocent bystanders, which brings on an endless swath of lawmen intent on taking you down, there’s really no good reason to choose the “good” path over the “evil” one. The game is equally satisfied with your choices either way. Lionhead’s slavish dedication to the power of choice and all of its consequences adds a healthy dose of weight and responsibility to the “good” path. Its ambivalence should you choose to go to the dark side completely undermines that rewarding sense of accountability.

Images:Copyright 2008 Microsoft/Lionhead Studios