Fable : Evolution of a Hero

Fable very quickly became the most popular and easily accessible RPG's around, and with Fable III around the corner here is a quick Recap of the Story so far and some of the changes in Gameplay and style.

Fable + The Lost Chapters.

In the first Fable game the player is cast as The Hero of Oakvale. Starting as a child the player learns about Strength (swords, axes and maces), Skill (bows and crossbows) and Will (spells and potions) and these 3 core elements make up the basis of any upgrades for the rest of the franchise. The Hero is assigned the task of Saving Albion and destroying Jack of Blades (the spoiler free story). Along his journey the hero makes moral choices that sway him either way towards Good or Evil and also adjust the players appearance based on this. The alignment and appearance modifiers used to do this were what made Fable stand out from the rest of the crowd on its release.

Fable II.

Fable II was an improvement on Fable as they Focussed mainly on the interactive experience as opposed to the story.  a new Expressions menu was added allowing for a wider range of interaction between the player and the people of Albion. Fable 2 also introduced the ability to choose the Gender of the character and a higher level of customisation with the introduction of dyes for colouring the clothing you brought. The core trio of Strength, Skill and Will was still there, Skill was expanded to include Firearms as well as Bows and Will was managed with a new stackable spells system meaning less on the HUD at once. The alignment system is much improved with the addition of a purity/corruption meter that runs alongside the Good/ Evil, this enables players to be Good/Corrupt or Evil/Pure and removing the plain Black&White options of just Good/Evil. The Story was the same as the 1st game, save Albion from an unknown threat and discover your true potential simple but effective.

Fable III.

Very little is known about Fable III but here's what we do know. You play the Descendant of the Hero from Fable II who is leading a revolution against his brother who is the evil ruler of all Albion. The second half of the game starts once you become King/Queen of Albion and your actually have to rule the kingdom. Everything from expansion, production,taxation, punishment and rewards are all under your control as the new ruler. The player also has the chance to keep or break promises that he/she may have made to various factions during the revolution. Interaction has again been improved with a new Expression Touch system enabling all types of physical contact between players and NPC's. Co-op has been improved with what is presumed to be a split screen system allowing each player to do different tasks in the same world, Co-op also allows full imports of a players character, dog, and weaponry into the host players world. there's no word as to weather the 3 core roles will still make an appearance but casting magic has been changed to equipped gauntlets containing different spells which can be woven together enabling multiple combinations.

According to  Lionheads Director Peter Molyneux the health bar has been removed altogether to enable a simple clean HUD that displays when you ask it too. Molyneux also promises that levelling up will still appear in a different form than what we are used to. The main difference between FIII and the previous games is the menu systems. Menus are now a thing of the past in FIII as shops now contain all the stock on shelves for you to view and The start menu has been removed, don't fret though as the start menu has been replaced with your HQ. the HQ is an open building which contains your weaponry, Spells, Items and trophy's for you to walk around and look at and select as if you were still in the main game. The HQ is run by your butler who will guide you too an item if you need to find it quickly and a simple press of the start button will allow you to travel back to the action with the same speed of a menu. Molyneux has made alot of promises that FIII will still remain an RPG.

I for one havent given up hope yet.