Fable III video game preview at X10

By Tom Hoggins Published: 2:48PM GMT 18 Feb 2010

Previous of Images Next Down in Albion: Players are set to return to the Dickensian age of Peter Molyneux"s compelling fantasy game Good will towards men? Players will still have the choice to be good or evil and their decisions will impact on the world around them You"ve got the touch, you"ve got the power: Fable III hopes to convey strong emotional resonance with its "dynamic touch" mechanic I just can"t wait to be King: halfway through Fable III you will overthrow an evil King to take your throne itself. Don"t expect ruling to be easy though...

Format: Xbox 360Developer: Lionhead StudiosPublisher: Microsoft Games StudiosReleased: Q4 2010

"Its all about the power, man."

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The first time we see Fable III, Lionhead founder Peter Molyneux wastes little time in revealing his motivations. "Its about making you feel powerful. Because thats what you want from games."

Power? Weve got power in spades in video games. Weve slayed the giant, saved the world and saved the girl a million times over. But where Fable III strives to be different is in the nature and scale of its power; vast power that stretches out across the entire continent of Albion, and focused, emotional power between just two people. Molyneux wants both to feel just as significant.

Its been 50 years since the events of Fable II and the industrial revolution has come to Albion. The town of Bowerstone is no longer a quaint cobbled labyrinth, but a smoggy, sprawling scrum of red-bricked buildings. We begin our presentation at Bowerstone docks, a great crane swooping out over the rippling water, street lamps spilling a yellow glow onto the graveled paths.

It seems bigger, yet altogether more claustrophobic. And in the background looms Castle Fairfax, home to the tyrannical King Logan. As Molyneuxs colleague guides his character along the dock, homeless children line the streets, telling tales of their friends dying in smoke-stacked factories across town.

As the hero you will, of course, have the opportunity to vanquish Logan. But this faceoff only represents a turning point in the game. With Logan defeated you will become King, and thats the vast power mentioned earlier. What you do with that power, is up to you. But more on that later.

For now, your hero is just beginning to form his resistance. You play the son or daughter of the hero from Fable II, Molyneux says you can import your save for some minor (not major, he is at pains to stress) changes. As you walk the streets you notice these terrible things happening and can pledge to people you will help them when you are King; abolish slavery or open more schools. The heros more immediate concern is his missing daughter. Your trusty dog (yep, hes back) sniffs out the missing whelp and that familiar golden breadcrumb trail fizzles into view.

Once you find your daughter, Molyneux gets the chance to demonstrate that emotional power through dynamic touch. With a pull of the right trigger, the hero scolds the little girl with a wagging finger. On come the waterworks, the child blubbing and apologizing to daddy. As easily manipulated as most fathers by their daughters, another press of the trigger makes the hero heft the girl into his arms for a hug, before playfully throwing her into the air.

Its a wonderfully cute moment, with smart animation conveying the love between the two. Its time to take little miss back to mummy, so by holding the trigger the hero takes her by the hand and leads the girl through the streets. Molyneux says that while the player is guiding another character, the AI is fully at work, demonstrated by the hero trying to take his daughter into the pub and receiving a prissy telling off.

Molyneux is not shy of revealing the inspiration behind Touch and the hand-holding in particular. "Ever since I played Ico, it was lodged in my mind," he says. "It was such an important game for me; an emotional game. I think part of that was because I lead Yorda by the hand. I"ve always thought about that. And it was only when we began talking about Fable III, that I realised how broken the expression system was in Fable II. After you used it three or four times you didn"t use it any more. Now we"ve got touch, it"s a wonderful mechanic."

Molyneux is adamant that Touch is a fully formed game feature, as opposed to a gimmick, something he readily admits the expression system in Fable II was, labeling it "only really any good for fart jokes".

Touch, on the other hand, informs nearly everything in Fable III, from combat to courtship. "I think that the touch system is a much bigger emotional engine than anything we"ve ever had in Fable before," says Molyneux. "It really does, fundamentally, make you feel more powerful. You really feel like you"re punishing people or chastising people or kissing people."

We are promised that touch will feature in combat, but Molyneux isnt ready to reveal how. A darker use of touch is shown, however. A beggar approaches our hero asking for charity, at first it would appear the hero agrees, taking the beggar by the hand. Relishing the idea of a slap-up meal, the beggar is happily guided through the streets, until he realizes that hes actually being taken to a factory to be sold into slavery.

The beggar begins to kick and scream; yanking at the heros (villains?) sleeve, terrified after his friend was killed in one of the infernal machines. Molyneux says that the action of actually throwing the beggar into slavery is going to play on your emotions, particularly with that tactile press of a trigger. "I want to pull on your heart strings a little bit and thats why its so different from pressing A and B because youre physically doing that stuff. If that was a choice outside the factory you would never get that opportunity. If it was done it a cutscene it would be just meaningless."

Molyneux says touch is "very context-sensitive" but remains deliberately hazy on the specifics, aside from to say that forms of touch are a natural evolution tying into familiarity. "If you meet someone for the first time, you"re going to shake their hand," he explains. "The next few times I meet them, that shake of the hand may turn into a hug. If it"s two male characters then it will be more of a man hug. If its someone youre attracted to you keep on going with it then that can turn into a kiss, which can turn into a date and that could turn, finally, into marriage."

Marriage and relationships will be as integral to the development of your character in Fable III just as much as fighting and questing. Lionhead have done away with the traditional notion of RPG experience points for Fable III, instead using a follower system. The more good deeds you perform -or the more infamous you become- the more followers you receive, which is then tied in to the leveling-up of your character. Molyneux cites the example of marrying the daughter of the mayor as a way of garnering more followers in your quest against Logan.

Combat also ties into your actions rather than spending points on different skills. Molyneux reveals that a huge number of Fable II players didnt understand the menu-based character development, meaning that many players were not getting the most out of their game. This is something Lionhead are keen to address with followers and also in the morphing of your character. Fable IIs one-button combat remains (with melee, magic and guns each attached to their own face button) but how you perform in battle will dictate the appearance of your character rather than experience points. A character that uses a lot of heavy melee attacks will turn into a rippling beefcake, a gunslinger will remain lithe and slim and wizards will crackle with magical energy.

Combat appears a lot more visceral this time around, although just how much crimson will splatter the screen depends on how evil your orientation. In our demonstration, the character spilling blood had clearly chosen the dark side, a tattooed monolith with a giant cragged hammer. He sweeps between enemies, crushing them with spectacular finishing moves. All the while, mysterious red magical wings sprouting from his back. Molyneux also points out here that the HUD has vanished, with low health displayed in that FPS staple of blurred red edges and colour saturation.

Weapons morph around your actions too. The giant hammer on screen bristles with spikes, and from this Molyneux can tell this weapon has killed a lot of Hobbes. If your character goes around slaughtering innocents, the sword will drip blood; if youre the more holy type, your weapon will take on an ethereal glow. Molyneux said that his designers were bored of creating hundreds of weapons, so gave the power to the player to create their own unique weapon through action, even taking into account things like your Xbox Live GamerScore. These weapons can be traded online, bearing your gamertag.

Online integration promises to be a more important aspect of Fable III. Online co-op players can bring their own character and weapons to anothers Albion, and will not be tethered to the host as in Fable II. Molyneux warns you to be cautious of who you let into your world, however, as they have the power to run amok in your Kingdom.

Once you have amassed enough followers to lead the revolution and taken the throne, its time to live up to those promises you made on your campaign. As you patrol the streets of Bowerstone and the sprawling mass of Albion, you are going to notice the terrible things that Logan has done to the continent. You will pledge to the people to clean up their town and deliver them from servitude, replace industrial mass with fresh forest, and generally promise to make their life better.

Molyneux is not coy about the allegory. "The story of Fable is relevant today because youre going to be idealistic by the time you get on that throne. Youll want to close those workhouses and turn them all into schools, youll want to get the beggars off the street, youll want to empty the coffers of your treasury and put it out there with the people, but its not going to be that simple."

Other details hold intrigue, Molyneux reveals there will be a very cute game outside of Fable III to tie into the world, much like Pub Games did with Fable II. There will apparently be continents beyond Albions borders. And online integration seems a major goal beyond even what has already been revealed.

One thing that Molyneux most definitely will not talk about is Project Natal. "I am absolutely forbidden to talk about Natal," he says, with visible restraint, the piercing glares of the amassed PR troupe almost palpable. "Only that I"d say it"s a great device for a designer that makes you think in a very, very different way. And that there are unique things in Fable and it would be lovely to marry those two things together, would it not?"

With denials like that, who needs confirmations? But however Natal is involved, Molyneux is also keen to stress that the primary form of control will most definitely be the traditional controller.

This first look at Fable III was rich with ideas. The core action-adventure experience of the series appears to remain, but its ambitions reach even higher than its already lofty predeccessors. As the months pass between now and its scheduled Christmas release, the details will begin to emerge, and a clearer idea of the games promise will form. Lionheads main goal is building at game that is more vast and complex, yet more streamlined and accessible; something of a holy grail of video game design.

Speaking to Molyneux, it feels as if he and his team have some unfinished business with the series, despite Fable IIs critical and commercial success. That enthusiasm and determination is enough to have us extremely excited, even at this early stage. The return of the king cant come soon enough.