Fable III Announced

19 Aug 2009 at 10:51:45 by Andy Alderson

Lionhead has announced the next game in its acclaimed Fable series.

Fable III was announced by Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux at this year’s GamesCom event in Cologne, who revealed that the new game is all about leadership.

In Fable III, the player character is the son or daughter of the Hero from Fable II and for the first half of the game must lead a revolution against a tyrannical monarch who is destroying Albion with poverty and injustice.  However, it’s once the tyrant is removed that things get really interesting.

“You are going to become the ruler of the whole of Albion,” said Molyneux during the GamesCom presentation.

“You've played in this land in Fable 1, in Fable 2 you became a hero; this time, why not rule Albion? Why not be a king or a queen?"

Now those Lionhead teasers with Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Aristotle and Robespierre are starting to make sense, huh?

As in the other Fable games, choice and consequence look to be the central pillars of Fable III. As ruler, you must decide how to make the land better, if indeed that is what you want to do. You could be as tyrannical as your predecessor but that’s unlikely to win you much popular support.

Molyneux also revealed that he had been inspired by the election of Barack Obama when designing the game. In the first part of the game, known as the Journey to Rule, you will need to make promises to gain support for your revolution but the big issue arises when you ascend to power and must decide whether to keep those promises.

He also stressed that story exposition would happen a little differently in Fable III.

“Our story isn't just one thread,” he said. 

“[I]t branches and merges and there are lots of choices and consequences, and we have to get to the centre of that as quickly as possible."

“We’ve spent a lot of time at Lionhead thinking about how we can innovate the gameplay and progress the world of the Fable games for its third chapter, and we’re confident that players won’t second-guess what we have planned for Fable III," said Molyneux.

“Though I can’t give too much away right now, players should expect to have to make much tougher choices with far wider consequences than ever before in Albion — and with many more interactive adventure elements.”

The game is due for release exclusively on Xbox 360 in the 2010 holiday season.

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