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After half a decade of waiting, Microsoft finally offered an extended preview of its long-awaited reboot of the beloved Fable RPG franchise on Thursday. During the company\u2019s recent Developer Direct showcase, Playground Games, best known for its works on the Forza Horizon series, shared nearly 11 minutes of gameplay footage and commentary related to the upcoming title. The new game will feature a fully open world for players to explore, with locations from previous Fable games like Bowerstone making a return.<\/p>\n
Playground didn\u2019t say exactly where the new game takes place in the Fable timeline. If you played 2010\u2019s Fable 3<\/em>, you may recall there was a time gap between each of the original games, with the final Lionhead entry giving players the chance to explore a version of Albion that\u2019s been thrown into the tumult of an industrial revolution. This new game appears to offer a more traditional Medieval fantasy setting.<\/p>\n From what little Playground shared of the story, the player character is the first hero born in Albion in a generation. Like previous Fable games, their story will begin when they\u2019re a child. They\u2019ll leave their home of Briar Hill after a \u201cmysterious stranger\u201d turns all the inhabitants into stone. Before you set off on your adventure, you\u2019ll be able to decide what your hero looks like, with customization including options for different skin tones, head shapes, tattoos and scars.<\/p>\n All pretty standard stuff, and combat doesn\u2019t look groundbreaking. Your character can use a combination of melee and ranged weapons, alongside magic, to defeat their foes. In addition to a health bar, enemies appear to have a posture meter players can break through both light and heavy attacks, before carrying out \u201cstylish\u201d finishers. Judging from the footage Playground shared, combat doesn\u2019t quite have the kinetic feel of say a FromSoftware title.<\/p>\n Thankfully, there\u2019s more to the game than just fighting monsters. Like past Fable games, players can ask villagers out on dates, before eventually marrying them and having children, and you\u2019re not limited to a monogamous relationship. It looks like Playground built a modern polycule simulator. Beyond that, you can also purchase every house and business in Albion. The game\u2019s NPCs will develop an opinion of your hero and their actions. Say you evict an artist that lived in one of the houses you bought, you can later meet them on the street and they\u2019ll tell you to your face that you\u2019re awful. Wonderful stuff.<\/p>\n From a technical perspective, the footage Playground showed off looked on the rough side. The game\u2019s frame rate and frame pacing wasn\u2019t smooth, and I\u2019m pretty sure I saw ghosting in some of the animations. Hopefully the studio has enough time between now and when the game is finally released sometime this autumn to polish the presentation. When the game does arrive, it will be available on Xbox Series X\/S, PC via Xbox and Steam, PlayStation 5 and Game Pass Ultimate.<\/p>\n Microsoft first announced a new Fable game was in development back in 2020. It then went three years before sharing a preview of the title, which was originally slated to arrive in 2025 before it was delayed to this year last February.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n