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Fable III takes place 50 years after the events of Fable II. The game starts off with a completely different feel as there's no child part to the game, and you're no longer starting from scratch as you take the role of a prince or princess. The plot of the game is fairly simple, your evil brother Logan is in power of Albion and is causing hardship to its people so it's your job, a hero, to overthrow him by gaining followers and effectively invading Bowerstone Castle.

Fable III comes across as a much more unique experience than the first two games as you always seem to be aiming towards something big. Fable II in particular was slated for its poor ending, well you will get no disappointments in Fable III, as in essence you'll get two endings. On your 'Road to Rule' you'll gain followers and then eventually take over and become king, the game could have ended there, but you'll then get to spend a certain amount of time as king either helping the people you made promises too or turning your back on them to gain money for your treasury. These choices will be extremely influential on what happens at the end of your reign as king.

Your time as King is very short and could be sweet or bitter either way you look at it. Without going into too much detail, because it's best experienced for yourself, you'll spawn on a random day of the year and be given an agenda to attend to on that day, most of them being hearings in the throne room. You decide whether you will do a good loving thing or a greedy evil thing and this will then influence how people see you; this sounds simple enough but you'll have a target of how much money you need by the end of the king period, and the good deeds always seem to lose you money, whereas the evil seem to gain you money, so you'll have some fairly tough choices ahead of you.

Before you take rule of Albion you're traveling just like a normal folk would be. While on your travels you and your loyal friend, Walter, go on a search to find people to join the revolution. This part of the game is the main portion as you meet a leader of a faction, ask him to join, then he'll give you a certain amount of tasks to do and when they are to be done. They will then agree to join your cause on a condition of a promise, these promises will be logged and be later influential while you're king. Doing these tasks and quests will gain you followers which is sort of like an EXP system of some sorts, when you gain followers you can then buy certain things, like a higher level melee attack for example.

Road to Rule is a very important part of the game, this starts off far away and is leading to the castle and eventually your rule on the throne. This isn't an actual part of Albion it's like a dream where your progress is logged. This is also where you can see who is now part of your revolution. You can also open chests at a cost of followers to improve your skills like stated previously.

The combat system of the game is extremely similar to Fable II's. One button to melee, one button to shoot and one button for magic. Holding these buttons down will cause a strong attack, for example a flourish if it is a melee. These stronger attacks are visually appealing and you can use them from the start in Fable III, but nothing is too in-depth for an RPG. Despite it being very simple there's been an interesting addition with the magic. You wear gauntlets to be able to cast magic, allowing you to mix and match spell combinations which leads to some pretty cool possibilities, for example if you mix the wind and fire spell you will produce a whirlwind of fire and so on.

Fable II saw the appearance of your character change in alignment with the good or evil acts you did. In Fable III no such changes take place on your character but instead they have an effect on your weapons. If you perform good deeds your sword will become glowing blue with a heroic handle and curve, if you do bad deeds it will become red and dark. This gives you real good feel that you actions are actually having an affect in the game. The Legendary weapons act differently to normal weapons as they'll only change when certain criteria are met, these criteria can be found in the Sanctuary and when performed the weapon will then morph into its new shape or size.

The Sanctuary was a risky move on the part of Lionhead as it could have seemed all too extravagant in what is effectively replacing the game's menu system. Luckily it seems to work extremely well and ties well with the game. At the very start you're introduced to the Sanctuary and are told this'll be the base for your team. There's a map in the main room then there are sub rooms which hold your weapons, clothes etc. The use of the Sanctuary could become vital if your wanting to focus on the business side of the game, as on the map you can check out all your houses and shops,along with their condition, and repair them straight from the map! This saves having to run around trying to remember what you've bought and where you bought it. The map also allows you check up on your wife (or wives if you so wish) and see what they're up to. You can witness some interesting things from this map. When you press the start button the game blacks out and takes you to the Sanctuary, this can seem a little confusing at first when you could've sworn you paused the game, but it soon becomes clear that this is the pause menu. It is the first ever interactive start menu I've seen and I do believe it works well.

Fable III's world and quests seem to be larger and of greater quantity than it's predecessor, but this causes some issues, especially with the NPC's. First of all the interaction system on Fable II used a wheel where you could choose from a range of options; on Fable III you are limited to 'click A for something good, X for something evil or Y for something neutral,' this gives the player much less freedom of interaction and at times makes it feel extremely repetitive. Also the NPC's tend to glitch a lot whether it be talking during a cut-scene or falling into the ground, there certainly seems to be some imperfections on them at times. Another issue I found was with the dog - previously this was a main feature in Fable II, and is back again however  I can't help but wonder why. You'll hardly even notice him. It seems like the dog has a mind of its own and is there more to annoy you and slow you down rather then help you in Albion.

Fable III has proved that RPG's do not have to be repetitive all of the time through delivering some unique and sometimes bonkers quests. Even though they're mostly the collect this, kill this types of quests the scenarios, cutscenes and backstories make them all seem slightly different and interesting. Also being able to travel across seas to Aurora gives a different dimension to the game where you'll be in a completely different land, doing very different things. 

You cannot have a Fable game without having to mention its British roots. The British charm of this game is even better than the first two. The voice acting is brilliant with the appearance of Stephen Fry being extremely funny to listen to under the circumstances you're in.

Fable III also expands on the extremely limited co-op play that Fable II implemented. Now you're able to import all your data, including your hero, into someone else's game and explore freely without running into an invisible wall because your partner isn't within 10metres of you. Despite the vast improvements it's apparent that they still haven't got it quite right, if you complete a quest only the host is able to save their progress, however items and money does carry across for both players. At the time of writing I also found that the co-op seems to regularly kick you out for no reason - I was trying to play over live and the game said the host had quit 7 times in a few hours, when it was quite apparent he hadn't. Whether this is a widespread issue or an isolated one it's too early to tell.  

Fable III is ultimately what we were expecting from the title. All of Fable II with improvements in almost every department. The game looks fantastic, the story is compelling and gripping and the gameplay is solid. Lionhead made some gambles in Fable III, with some paying off and some not so much - but the game reaps the rewards because of it. There is no other game you can play which will merge a grabbing story line with such a British themed world and charm, that being said it is British and many people may not understand some of the cultural jokes. Fable III is a must play game for any fan of the series.

Fable III gets an official Game-Pad: 8.5/10

Average Press Score According To TestFreaks: 8.9/10