There’s a lot of content to be had in Fable 3, so much so, that you’ll never get through it all on one play through. But while there’s a lot of content, there’s very little challenge along the way. You never actually “die” - you just get knocked out - and if you do you only lose progress of the current seal you are on, which in the grand scheme of things, is very minor.
On the co-op side of things, Lionhead has delivered on what they promised. Players will bring their own character, items, gold, and dog into a friends game and vice versa. This works both online and offline. You’ll also be able to enter into business partnerships with another player or if you prefer, full on marry them. Doing so shares the costs of purchases as well as the revenue gained. Offline you are still restricted to a single screen, though the camera is a bit more forgiving now - you won’t find yourself getting stuck against the environment too much.
Co-Op does make the combat even easier, not that it is difficult, but dispensing enemies is cake in co-op. There doesn’t appear to be any extra bad guys to kill either. One nice touch is that when one person picks up an item, both players get that item. I guess if I had to say if something was missing from co-op, it would be the ability to carry over completed quests back into your world. That means you may be doing quests twice, once for single player and once for co-op. The orb system from Fable 2 also makes a return, allowing you to see friends floating through your world and easily join their game. You can also trade items and chat directly with the orbs.
While the 360 version of the game looks decent enough the PC version ups the graphical fidelity quite a bit. Draw distance is significantly larger, the character models are smoother and the textures are a higher quality. Performance obviously depends on your system but the game ran decent enough with everything on high in our mid-to-upper range PC. That said the PC version does have this odd motion blur effect, its also prevelant on the 360, but its more pronounced. We found it a bit distracting. Sadly the PC and 360 version of the game do not work in co-op across platforms.
Despite the changes in game, I still feel Fable 3 is the best Fable game to date. There’s an excellent pace to the game. The game builds and build until you hit the revolution to overthrow your brother, and you almost think it’s over...but then you begin rule as the King or Queen. This is where the game truly makes you think for yourself, make decisions that no matter what the direct result, the outcome may be bad. You truly feel powerless despite being the most powerful ruler in land. I’ve never been so torn to make a decision in a video game and I think it’s moments like that, that make Fable 3 a must own game despite its flaws.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Fable 3 will offer full co-op support both locally and online for two players. Player experience, gold, items, character and dog carry between games. Players are even able to get married and have kids in co-op.There's also the option for business relationships to share the costs of purchasing properties.Quest completion status stays with the host player.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.