Fable III Previews, Molyneux’s Big Gameplay Changes Revealed

During Microsoft’s X10 event today in San Francisco, Peter Molyneux finally revealed the gameplay changes they’re making to Fable III that will ultimately “piss some fans off” – experience points and health bars are being removed. Supposedly that secures the game into the action/adventure genre, but I’m not so sure that’s entirely accurate (and is probably more of a marketing tactic). For example, some of the mechanic changes discussed on GameSpot sound pretty interesting:

Based on what little combat we saw in Fable III today, it seems that it’ll play out in much the same way as it did in Fable II, with buttons devoted to magic use, projectile weapons, and melee weapons. Molyneux hinted that there will be some improvements, but what he was most excited to talk about was the way that weapons will work. Molyneux’s hope is that no two weapons in Fable III will be the same because–like your character–they’ll morph based on your actions. The most obvious way that weapons will transform is that they’ll grow bigger and more powerful the more you use them, but there’s much more to it than that. The visual style of your weapon will change quite radically according to how it was used. So to give you the examples that we got to see for ourselves today, the head of a large axe that has presumably been used to kill a lot of skeletons or beasts appears to be made of bones, while a sword that has been used to commit evil acts, such as killing innocents, will forever appear to be covered in blood. And if you’re still not excited, perhaps hearing that you’ll be able to trade your unique (or at the very least, uniquely named) weapons with other players online might do the trick.

And here’s a little more from IGN:

“Fable II to Fable III is as big a step as Fable’s ever made,” claims Molyneux, “My point is about the power you wield and the responsibility when you talk about choices and consequences, I don’t want it to just be about me, I want it to be about all these other people. It’s so easy in life to make all these promises, but when you’re a king you’ve got to be able to deliver on them; that’s the really big thing.”

Fable has long championed choice, but for the third game it’s going to play a bigger part than ever before. Followers are Fable III’s chief currency, with the player acquiring them throughout the stories progression, making promises to bring change that they won’t necessarily be able to keep.

The Fable series has always been more about adventure than role-playing anyway (and slapping the word “action” onto every genre is a requirement these days), so I guess I don’t see what all the fuss is about.