If Fable 3's monarchical ambitions struck you as a bridge too far, you may not be amused by early reports of Fable Legends - an online-centric (if not always-online) party RPG in which four, pre-determined heroes battle one, possibly player-controlled villain. The game can be played solo, with AI filling in for absent human beings, but it's a dramatic departure nonetheless.
At Gamescom this year, we had the opportunity to chinwag with game director David Eckelberry about Lionhead's provocative next gen debut. Here are the highlights - you might also want to inspect our Fable Legends first look.
1. On the overall objective
Our goal for Fable Legends is very simple: just to make the best Fable game, the Fable game we've wanted to make since forever. And what that means for you, is that it's the best-looking and best-playing Fable that we could ever make. We're going to a time in Albion's history that is earlier than any Fable story we've tried before, and that means the world is dangerous and scary.
2. On Brightlodge, your base of operations
This is our urban centre, our social hub, where our characters can interact with other characters, you can play mini-games. You can seduce the barmaid, or barman - we don't judge in Fable, we never have. And so this city of Albion will be your new home where you can experience lots of things, meet new friends, discover new quests.
3. On how the story and world interrelate
We're emphasizing story, whether you're playing single-player or not. The story's really important to us. It's really a part of Fable. It's going to be pretty seamless for users - they get a quest, they run out [of] the city gates and they find that quest. But it's not like a giant, World of Warcraft-style open world [where] you would leap from quest to quest and that kind of thing... You're going to have to unlock missions kind of as part of the narrative, so the narrative is still really important.
4. On side-stories in Fable Legends
There are stories that are part of the main quest, there are side stories you can go on, that are part of that main story arch, and there are stories that matter more to your individual character, so your character can grow and develop as time goes on. You'll see your character's interaction with other heroes. They'll get better at it. They can develop relationships.
5. On how morality works in Legends
Different characters have their own different moralities, and there will be options you have along the way in your quest of doing something that's good or not so good, but most of your character's personality is established when you choose which character you want to play. Some of our characters are dashing and brave and they're practically superman - they're trying to do everything right all the time. Some of our characters are in it for the money.
Some of our characters are a little bit too violent, but they can kill these creatures and the world doesn't really appear to mind - nobody wants to arrest them. So they like violence, but because they're on the side of good, they can get away with it. And we have another character who's just doing this because he's run up a really big bar tab, and if he doesn't pay it off he's in trouble.
6. On how much you can customise each character
Customisation is a big part of the hero experience, so you can level up and advance your characters in different ways, customise using the loot they get to make them different from other people's versions of that character. You'll also be able to customise things like eye colour and hair - traditional RPG things, traditional Fable things - to make your hero more your own.
7. On incorporating fan feedback
As time goes on and we reveal more and more about the game, we're going to show you things like: which hero do you want to make next? And we'll show you concepts, and get the fans involved with that project.
8. On how much post-release support we can expect
We want to commit to this franchise for a long time... We're going to add DLC, monthly updates - I don't have the answers to those questions yet, but we're going to support it for a long time.
9. Is the game always-online?
I don't know the answer to that. The fact that we want to do a lot of things, a lot of systems on a servers, characters on a server... If it's online we can monitor you and make sure you don't edit your character file, or do something nasty there.
Because if you're playing single player, all your accomplishments in the game are going to eventually matter if you're playing against a villain player, or alongside other heroes. If you've somehow cheated your way to victory... so that's a concern for us. If you're somehow cheating, online is way for us to track it, because your performance can be measured in the Xbox Live cloud.
http://www.oxm.co.uk/68698/features/fable-legends-nine-things-you-need-to-know/
