MyD's Impressions on Fable 3 PC
Intro
So far, it's hard to say what I really think of the game. Some of it is bloody brilliant. Some of it, not-so-much.
I obviously need more time w/ it - having only 5 hours w/ it, so far.
The game really was an excellent and hilarious intro video. Right after that, it also does a great job in the opening moments of setting up the upcoming war b/t you [you can be either a Prince or Princess - take your pick] and your brother Logan, which eventually will start the world rebelling against Logan.
LONG-WINDED Tutorial
The game really does TOO much of a job of holding your hand in the Tutorial. Seriously, the Tutorial feels VERY LONG-winded - and is the first few hours of the game, making Tutorials like The Witcher and Two Worlds 2 offered up looking SHORT! As in the first few hours, it spends TOO much teaching you things that are...well, obviously easy to learn. The game feels like it doesn't throw very much for emotes and other things, veryearly on - it just feels like the game is getting going, in the last hour or so that I spent with it. Must give it more time to see how much more this game has to offer on the emotes.
Traditional UI = Pretty Much GONE
There's a traditional menu for other under-the-hood stuff, if you hit P key on the KB/mouse - for switching out Game Setting [technical graphics settings; sound settings; control settings; game settings; etc], Game Management, and all of that stuff. But, really - that's about it!
There's some different things going on here for UI. Don't expect typical game menus and UI for Inventory management, Skill management, and all of that jazz. Throw that stuff completely out the window. Everything is put on a in-game "map" of some kind. You hit the ESC key to access your Sanctuary. That's right - your UI for switching your weapons, armor, inventory, looking at Achievement, Room w/ all your Saved Games, Room w/ All your DLC and extra content, Wall w/ Options, etc - is an actual in-game map of a house, which is your Sanctuary.
For skill-upgrading and learning new skills, that's the Road of Rule. It's a big corridor that unlocks more and more of this linear road littered w/ more chests, after each main quest you finish. Finish a major main quest plot-line, you unlock the next Level of upgrades. The chests are filled w/ your next level of upgrades for skills and new skill abilities. You need a certain amount of points from doing quests, side quests, and things in-game - to be able to spend these points on upgrades.
For a map, you get a 3D map of the game area, all zoomed-out, showing what's happening in the gameworld w/ important NPC's. You can literally Fast Travel through the map, as well. To make a quest active [side or main], you do it through here - as the quests are shown what area you select to do a quest in. You can Fast Travel through here, if you do choose to.
All this UI removal stuff w/ in-game maps = brilliant. WAY better than I expected.
Combat
Now, I've been using the KB/mouse. And the combat and controls are MUCH improved over the original Fable. Combat feels REALLY good - even w/ the KB/mouse. Switching b/t melee, magic, and ranged is seamless, as each has their own keystroke. You can literally combo b/t different attacks w/ different weapons VERY easily - and this is a lot of the fun of the combat.
Questing
Seemed like early on, there were a lot of fetch Action-RPG quests - b/c the game was not tossing at you unique side quests. Pretty much, seems like any NPC might be able to give you one of these kinds of quests - i.e. go see someone in another city; give a package to a friend in another area; do certain emote w/ so-and-so; etc etc.
Now, further on, it seems like there's also some tailor-made unique side-quests w/ more to them then a simple fetch-quest that can be done - i.e. the guy w/ all the dwarfs, his quest is hilarious...especially the end-result. Main quest stuff has been unique and been pretty good, when I've been actually doing them...
Performance
1920x1080 w/ everything maxed-out, the game look good technically, great artistically [I love the art direction], and it runs great on my rig w/ no slow-downs or anything [i7 950, GF 560 Ti, 8 GB RAM, Win 7 Home]. No problems or anything here. (shrug)
So, that's it for now - my first few hours w/ this game. Must keep playing...
