Fable III PC Review
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What about the PC version? Of course, Fable III originally released months ago on the Xbox 360, and it's only now that I've gotten around to playing it on the PC. Many of the problems with Fable III have already been well documented by others, but what of the PC version of the game? Is it improved? Is it a better experience? Are there new features that make playing through it worthwhile, or worth buying over the Xbox 360 version? The answer to those questions is (kind of.) The bar was set fairly high years ago by Fable: The Lost Chapters on PC, which was a great improvement over the original Xbox version of the game, featuring some excellent visuals that still hold up well today, a configurable interface with plenty of hotkeys and other convenience-saving features, and a good amount of new content which helped to expand the woefully brief original campaign. While it didn't receive any updates after its release, for the most part it was a stable, bug-free port that didn't feel cheap or rushed.
Fable III doesn't reach the same quality level of The Lost Chapters on PC, but it comes fairly close. According to Lionhead, the control system has been completely revamped, and I believe it. The game moves fluidly, features highly customisable keys, and barring some mouse smoothing, has few blemishes in that respect. The interface has also received a few changes to make it more palatable to the mouse and keyboard, such as a new weapon selection system (on the Xbox the three main face buttons map to each weapon type), although most of the menus are still laid out identically to the Xbox 360 version, and some of the conventions, like holding buttons down to confirm selections, unfortunately remain. You can also plug in an Xbox 360 or similar controller and it controls just like the console version, which is a nice touch, especially as the game is very well suited to it (unlike The Lost Chapters, which had no gamepad support). Likewise, there are a fairly large number of options to be found for customising visuals, more so than your typical console port, but unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to toggle anisotropic filtering or anti-aliasing just yet. One would find it hard to confuse Fable III for a native PC game, but I have seen both better and worse, and Fable III definitely tends towards the (better) side of things.
Unfortunately, there are some things that bog Fable III on PC down. The most obvious red flag for some players is Games for Windows LIVE, which many players dislike. I don't share this sentiment, but it's not my preferred DRM/distribution platform either; your mileage will vary here, so whether achievements and in-game DLC shopping are worth it is up to you. For the record, I had no problems stemming from the Games for Windows integration whatsoever. Rounding out the new features, improved visuals aside, is the new "challenging" difficulty mode, but as mentioned earlier, it's still not up to par with the curve other games can provide - it's what Fable III's normal mode should have been from the start. Additionally, there were a few bugs I ran into, including very occasional audio skipping, and what seemed like a memory leak, which caused performance to drop until I Alt+Tabbed or restarted the game, but I'm not sure blame for the latter lies on Lionhead or NVIDIA and AMD for their video drivers. Some users have also reported save corruption, but this never happened to me. While the PC version does have some additions made exclusively for it, it's also the same as the Xbox 360 version in terms of content, as well, so as far as I can tell no bugs have been fixed in the transition to PC, but these are fairly minor and mostly come down to occasional issues in level geometry like flickering textures. Whether or not Lionhead and Microsoft are committed to fixing up the few remaining problems for the PC remains to be seen, but those issues that do exist are documented fairly extensively by players. In my opinion they are not game-killing, but they do tarnish what could be one of the better PC ports I've seen lately.
As mentioned, The Lost Chapters came with a whole lot of extra content, effectively serving as an expansion pack on top of the base Fable campaign. This, however, is 2011, and we are in the age of DLC. As such, Fable III has not received any such expansion pack, but rather a collection of add-ons, some more worthwhile than others (anything from new outfits and hairstyles to additional quests). While the Xbox 360 Collector's Edition DLC is included with the PC version, and several free DLC packs have been released for download, unfortunately PC players will have to shell out money for the two more substantial updates, the Understone Quest Pack and Traitor's Keep. I downloaded and played both of these for this review, but I'll keep things short and to the point. The first DLC, Understone, despite its lower price, is underwhelming in the extreme, and does not feature sufficient new content to warrant purchase by most players, taking only about an hour to blaze through, including its mini-games, one of which is recycled from the main story. Traitor's Keep, meanwhile, takes place after the main story has been completed, and is of far higher quality. Dealing with a revolt at Albion's top-secret compound for the most dangerous and insane criminals in the land, it features several new full-sized areas to explore, is a decent length, and feels every bit as well-made as the rest of the main game. Microsoft really missed an opportunity to sweeten the pot by including the bigger DLC packs with the PC version of the game, but as it stands Fable III is still very much a complete game even without them, and for players who enjoy the game, I can recommend that Traitor's Keep is a very solid addition.
Closing thoughts
It's very clear right off the bat that Fable III is a game designed with accessibility in mind, but its accessibility has come at an obvious cost. Almost every feature of the game has been made to be easier to use, depth has been stripped down to the bare essentials, and even the story seems to take a back seat, with the plot being linear, underwhelming, predictable and anti-climactic. Despite all of those problems, Fable III manages to be a lot of fun at times, and I did not regret my time playing it, even after a good 40 or so hours play through most of it. Maybe it's Fable III's enthralling, beautiful world, or the well-written dialogue, or simply the feeling of rising up from the gutters (less literally in Fable III's case) in order to become a living legend, but Fable III is, in spite of its flaws, still an enjoyable game, which is why it's so frustrating to see fall flat on its face in more than a few places. For every good idea there is a bad one, and there are so many places where it fails to utilise its full potential. While this is par for the course for the Fable franchise, and admittedly the franchise has always been pretty ambitious, these failings have been consistent for years now, with few signs of improvement, and I don't think Lionhead can get away with making yet another Fable game with all the same flaws, even if those flaws are the result of a genuine intent to improve.
I can recommend Fable III, but with a very big (but) attached to it, and with the advisement that you may want to wait for a lower price if you're still on the fence. While there's more than your money's worth in Fable III, the numerous design issues and over-simplified mechanics simply can't be ignored by even the most forgiving fans. It's the worst Fable game, no question, but that doesn't mean it's an outright bad one, just underwhelming, and maybe a little out of steam after all these years. It's fairly inevitable that there will be a Fable IV at this point, so hopefully when it does come, it will finally remedy so many of these problems that have come to a head in Fable III, while preserving those very same things that make the franchise iconic and enjoyable.
