Fable III

[Admin]

he crux of Fable III is this: as the man in charge, can you keep your overblown and somewhat ambitious promises to the people, or do you risk playing it safe, delivering nothing and disappointing the masses? We can practically hear Peter Molyneux chuckling over the irony from here.

Fifty years on from the events in Fable II, Albion is in the steely grip of the industrial revolution. Its once green hills and rustic villages sag under the weight of progress and Albion's happy denizens now slave to tyrannical King Logan, consigned to sweat shops in the murky, gaslit streets of barely recognisable Bowerstone.

From the outset it's a dirtier, more downtrodden world than before, with your first few hours in the role of sibling to the King full of corruption, betrayal and the occasional murder. Unlike previous Fable games, where your ill-defined hero slowly matured from anonymous childhood, here you're given a voice, a role and a very real purpose. Albion is on the brink of collapse and, as heir to the throne, it's down to you to start the revolution and save the people from a life of toil and tyranny.

It's a tighter-plotted, more richly-focussed game than what's gone before, with a superbly defined cast of characters and some genuinely gripping set-pieces. From your first tough choice and subsequent escape from Bowerstone Castle to a breathtaking and wholly unexpected shift around the midpoint, it's clear that Lionhead has finally found its footing in story terms. That leaves far less room for detractors to bemoan the series' previously anaemic progression yet, sadly, forces concessions that seriously diminish the game's chaotic sense of personal progression and development.

You see, the game is split almost exactly in two and, for the first half at least, it's business as usual in the world of Albion. Even though the main story arc sends you from desolate mountain top to secret underground bunker in search of compatriots to help you lead the revolution, mission structure is barely changed. Each task you undertake - from more substantial main quests to optional, though no less entertaining side-missions - earns you followers, whether that be respect in the eyes of Albion's ringleaders or the general populace at large.

They're a diverse bunch of undertakings and, as has always been the case with the Fable series, deftly combine humorous whimsy with that greater sense of urgency inherent to sprawling RPG tales. Whether you're holding off an army of Hollow Men or scrambling through a frankly hilarious nondescript tabletop RPG - replete with a knowing glance toward stat-crunching fantasy clichés - it all boils down to pretty much the same thing: a light-smattering of traditional lever-pulling puzzles and lots and lots of hitting enemies in the face.