If you’ve ever championed a game pre release as the greatest thing in history, and then three months after release realized it’s definitely not, you may be able to relate to this. What I want to do is essentially re-review a game once I’ve had a few months to stew on it. In short, I’ll be admitting that the newness blinded me, and that I completely overlooked issues in said game. 

Fable III, a heartbreaker. I desperately wanted this game to be everything Lionhead told me it could be, and so much more. I was so won over by Peter that I pre ordered my Limited Edition copy post haste, and had it delivered on game day. I even took a day off of work to welcome my new child. I was happy as a clam for two whole weeks. I bragged about how amazing the world was, and about how you could buy every house to either rent out or live in. It was a match made in heaven. 

It was about week 3 ½ or 4 when I started noticing problems. For example, all of those houses the game let me buy needed constant repair. I don’t know what the hell the citizens of Albion were doing, but destroying my property must have been at the top of their list. It seemed like every five minutes I had to repair twenty homes. What made the situation worse was not having a “repair all” button. No, I had to travel to each house via the map and repair them individually. 

During a Gamers with Jobs podcast someone asked why a king needed to run around fixing houses. Why couldn’t I, as the king of Albion, hire repair men to take care of my homes? Thinking about it now I can’t believe it took me three weeks to realize what was going on. I am as frustrated with myself as I am with the game. 

What follows is a spoiler for anyone that hasn’t finished Fable III. In the game you become king, ruler of Albion. You stage a revolt and remove your brother from power. The first ¾ of the game requires you to gain the trust of several different groups of peoples in order to mount an attack on the castle. Everything up to the point of initiating the attack was good, and great in some cases. Unfortunately, the game falls apart once the attack starts. 

You see, once you take control of the throne the game rockets forward 365 days in about an hour. That’s an entire year in 60 minutes. Let me be clear. It took me 8 real world hours to complete the first ¾ of the game, and an hour to complete the last ¼. The math doesn’t seem right. Why Lionhead decided that the most fun, rewarding, most touted aspect of the game should rocket by is beyond me. When I first played the game I overlooked this. I was still so in love with Fable that it could do no wrong. 

In addition to the aforementioned items, there were the weapons. The weapons themselves weren’t the problem, it was leveling them up. In order to level a weapon you needed to complete certain tasks. The problem is that the weapons you start out with are as powerful, or more powerful in some cases than the legendary weapons you find later in the game. I thought legendary weapons were supposed to be the cream of the crop? Did I not spend a half hour trying to open a demon door to unlock an uber weapon? Short of getting the achievement points, spending time finding the legendary weapons seemed like a waste. 

Looking back on the experience I’m dissatisfied with the oversimplification of it all. When I think about how much time was actually spent investing in my character I’m saddened. Fable has always been about feeling connected to your character and the world. In Fable III they severed that connection when they decided to ease off of the rpg elements and add more action/adventure. I spent less time deciding what powers I would level up and more time deciding what chest I should open. 

Verdict: I overlooked a lot of glaring defects in the game because I allowed love to get in the way. Shame on me.