Review by: Jason McMaster

Let’s start this out in the most efficient possible way: if you didn’t like Fable III on the 360, you won’t like it on PC, either. There are differences, but not enough to make the game a new experience. This review is for the people who are approaching the game for the first time.

The Fable series of games puts you in control of a hero and presents you with the task of saving your land from some great evil. The choices you make color whether you’re a good or bad person, a hero or villain, and your physical appearance changes to mark your public image. The entire concept of Fable is based around morality and choice-making. Though, other than unlocks and a few major choices, these bits don’t really make a difference. You can go around being as nice or hateful as you want; it still goes to the same place. The real draw of Fable III is the game’s goofy charm.

You begin as the Prince without a care in the world. Your older brother is king and, for as far as you can see, a very bad one. The people are starving and if they speak out they’re executed. Early on, you make the choice to leave the castle and lead a revolution, deposing your brother and righting the wrongs. Unfortunately, the situation isn’t, well, black and white. You must work your way up, gaining followers and glory, to lead your revolution. The game doesn’t stop at the revolution, by the way. It actually improves. Vastly.

The beginning of Fable III is made bearable by sheer charm, which is quite a feat. Making me forget that I’ve been tap dancing and giving people piggy back rides for the last four hours isn’t the work of normal humans. As much as I love running around doing whatever the hell any stranger wants me to do, it gets old, and that is why the writing isn’t in question, nor is the voice actors and musicians, because the game’s sound design is excellent. The real issue with Fable III is its streamlining. Simply put: the game is terribly easy. That’s clearly a design choice and one which some will appreciate but there’s easy and too easy. Fable III is too easy.

Earlier Fable games gave you a choice of actions for which you needed to choose the appropriate response to reach the end that you desired. Not in this one. You can choose the nice or mean response, which comes down to either dancing with someone or farting in their face. Or something equally stupid. To make things even better, you hold down the key to hit the “sweet spot” or, as I like to call it, the longest possible animation ever. Once you see Dr. Dance Machine do his stupid, sassy dance a million freaking times, you’ll understand. Oh, also, get used to patty cake and tickling.