First, I will concede that this game
does look innovative. It is first and foremost a multi-player game; you fight alongside three other heroes, and there will be a villain to construct the heroes' demise - all of whom can be controlled by other players. Thus, you have a dungeon crawler-type Fable. It's actually a nice sounding concept, but the fact that it's a
Fable game just makes it plain wrong. And this is such a shame, because Lionhead actually seem to be doing some things right... For one, they are going back in time. 400 years before the events of the first game, to be precise. This was a much needed move; they were going too far with the whole industrialisation theme. It did work up to a point, but they were in danger of going too futuristic, so I'm relieved at this decision. Secondly, even though it's just a teaser, we can tell from the trailer that the world is going to be beautiful. This has always been a strong point of Lionhead, and with the power of Unreal Engine 4 coupled with the fact that this game will be on the Xbox One means that their capabilities will be maximised. It would have been great to go on a solo, raw fantasy adventure through such a world - but no, that ain't gonna happen. Lionhead have also said that they intend the game to "last five to ten years". This is quite a typically ambitious notion from the studio, so I'm not going to let myself get excited at that prospect. It's early days yet, and I'm sure that there are a lot of developments still to come concerning this project. With that in mind, it may be too pre-judgemental to denounce this game; it could turn out to be something really special. But I guess that the fact of the matter is that Lionhead have seemed to lose site of what made the original Fables so great. Fable: The Journey, Fable Heroes, Fable Legends, all feel like projects which they just slapped the "Fable" title on for good repute. But they are tainting its name, detracting from its glory as an open world RPG. So to you Lionhead I say this: Your health is low. Do you have any potions? Or food?
Do you agree? Feel free to discuss in the comments below!