With Fable coming down the road from Playground Games, we are eagerly anticipating our return to Albion. Lionhead Studios and Peter Molyneux may no longer be driving the ship on the series, but after waiting more than a decade for these games to return, we would say it’s a good opportunity for the Forza Horizon developers to show they can do more than racing games.
Just about anyone who is looking forward to the new Fable will have an ideal scenario for what they want from the game. Looking at the older games, there is a lot people can point to that they hope the game will feature, but it’s been a long time. Past games were largely built on big promises made by Peter Molyneux that ended up disappointing people, so let’s spend some time getting our own hopes up with a wishlist. Here is a list of things that we want to see from the new Fable.
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9
A Filled, Lively Open World
In the original Fable games, Albion is open world, but it’s not as open as you would think a big RPG would be. There is plenty of room to run around, but for the most part, those games were designed with pretty linear hallways to run down.
With Playground Games’ success on the Forza Horizon games, we’re expecting something a little more expansive. However, there’s a fine line that needs to be followed here.
We don’t want the world to feel so large that it feels like you’re doing nothing when you walk through it. Things need to be happening, or at the very least, there need to be interesting landmarks to pull the player in. Similar, in a sense, to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Early footage and screenshots of Fable show that the game looks very beautiful. From a graphical standpoint, the game is nailing it. The question is, can Playground give us a world that is fun to move through when you’re not driving a vehicle 100 MPH through it.
8
A Fun Way to Traverse the Land
Piggybacking off of the previous entry, we want the new Fable to include better ways of getting around. Previously, every mainline game in the series has required you to get around everywhere on foot. While that is fine with how those games were built, if the new Fable is turned into a larger RPG with more exploration, we would really hope for some mounts or some kind of magic item to get around quicker. There’s only so much fun you can have when running from one end of a field to another.
Of course, we already know that horses will be available to ride, but we want more. Albion is a fantasy setting, so we would hope for a little more interesting mounts than that. In fact, we expect Playground Games to greatly expand on the known creatures in this world.
Maybe dragons could be more prevalent, and we wouldn’t turn down the chance to tame one and fly them around the place. What’s currently available in the Fable bestiary is nice, but it’s rather limited. Hopefully, we will see some interesting ideas introduced.
7
Give NPCs More to Do
NPCs in the Fable games in the past aren’t quite as boring as other games from the 2000s, but we would hope in the time since those games that we get villagers that leave a bigger impact on us.
In the old games, you could interact with anyone you came across in town with an emote. Depending on your choices, your clothes, or how you treat them, the way they react to you would be positive or negative. You could also marry and start a family. We want to see those kinds of functions taken to another level.
In the Lionhead games, a big method of getting wealth was from buying businesses and houses, and earning rent from them. This was a guaranteed way to make yourself as rich as they come by just letting time pass. In the new game, we would like to see rival businesses be introduced.
Make it so NPCs want to compete with you for money and make you adapt to make sure your business can thrive. More personality and things for villagers to do will only help this version of Albion be accepted by players.
6
Deeper Morality System
One of the core foundations of the Fable series is your hero going down the good or evil path as they get through the story. We already mentioned above that villagers will react to you depending on your choices, but in those games, it’s rather basic.
In the Xbox 360 days, morality in these games was handled on a simple scale. The more objectively good things you did, the more likely it was you would get angel wings. Evil players, on the other hand, would get horns. Looking at that today looks very bland.
To start, missions can have a little more ambiguity to them. Not every situation needs to be black and white. We are all for morality having an effect on your hero’s appearance, but go further with it. If a player likes to handle their problems with a fight, how would they be shown in public differently from a hero that talks out their differences? Maybe we can show the difference between someone who is meek and quiet versus a boisterous show-off?
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5
Let Players Feel Consequences
Again, this section kind of piggybacks off of the previous entry, but we want the new Fable to go deeper into giving players consequences. Fable 3 had a bit of this, with many of your decisions made in the throne room drastically changing how the regions of your Albion operated. Additionally, being defeated in combat will leave your hero with scars. There are quite a few more tough choices from the series’ past, but we think there is more you can do with this, though.
One of the best ways to make players feel the consequences of their actions is to permanently affect their play. In some ways, yes, this goes back to the scars of the old games. What if your character could have their arm cut off in combat, and you had to then get a mechanical arm? What if the injuries you sustained on your adventure had an adverse affect on your character’s stats, similar to what happens in The Outer Worlds?
Instead of villagers simply yelling at you for being evil, have them become more aggressive and try to run you out of town. A lot of consequences can come from the results of how you finish a quest, but we hope more thought is put into the rest of your gameplay as well.
4
Dog Companion
One of the biggest absences we have noticed from our very brief looks at Fable is that there is no canine companion. At least so far, it doesn’t look like your hero will have a dog who follows them on a journey by default. As big dog fans, we hope this isn’t the case in the final game. The dog companion in past games could be customized, dig up treasure, and fight enemies alongside you.
Nowadays, we would only expect those features to be taken further and give players more things they can do alongside a dog, especially in terms of fighting larger enemies. If Playground does introduce a bunch of new creatures, we would be totally fine with a selection of animal companions as well.
3
Spells that Work Outside of Combat
Using magic in combat in the old Fables was great fun, but it was rather limiting. Pretty much the only real uses for your spells were to take out enemies by either charging up a super blast or combining two different kinds of spells into one attack.
We like those ideas and hope they come back, but we also want spells to have a purpose outside of fighting. If you set a wooden house on fire, we want to see that house actually get burned down. A little more interactivity with the world around you can help your will usage feel better.
2
Full Character Creator
Source: Playground Games
In the new Fable, we want to be able to make our hero from scratch and design them to be ourselves if we choose. In past games, the only choice for customization at the start of a story was whether your hero was male or female.
While we absolutely love the way your actions mold that character into something unique to your playthrough, we think it’s time to just give us the ability to make who we want. Regardless, we expect there to be big changes to how your character looks at the beginning of the game versus the end.
1
A New Sage (Not Theresa)
This will likely be a controversial opinion among fans of the Fable games considering Theresa’s importance throughout the series. However much we appreciate Theresa, we think it is time for Playground Games to show that they aren’t Lionhead.
There are many aspects of Fable that need to be here from the British humor, action, consequences, etc., but going forward with a completely unique story with brand-new characters would help them stand out more from what came before. This game can strive to be a reboot of the series. It doesn’t need to be a full sequel to what came before.
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