It will be four players versus a villain
E3 has brought the explanation of Lionhead’s newest entry into the Fable universe. Instead of giving another single player with multi-option or an MMO as some may have hoped, we will be getting a game that sounds a little like a battle arena and a game of D&D mixed into one.
The game will be set far before the first Fable. The game will be only playable online, but they promise an evolving universe much like an MMO. The Beta is expected to open some time during the holiday season.
Four Heroes
There will be four heroes that the players can choose from off the bat. Others will be introduced later. You will then take the “team” and head down into the game. for you four, the game will be much like the original. Running up and down through the forests and dungeons hacking, slashing and using the rude emotes the game has become known for.
Sterling is the first character introduced in the video. He is seen as a classic Fable trope. He also narrates his own actions and that of the group. The other characters are Winter, a sorceress, Rook, a warrior and Archer, and Inga a straightforward soldier.
One Villain
The villain gets to modify the game level by deciding where the bad guys spawn, where the traps are set and whether or not to use other spells or powers. Expect excellent Villains to be sought out as a challenge worth beating. The bad guy also gets one more thing, a top-down view over the battlefield instead of the third-person view that is normal for the game.
Generic setups will be available for the villain to choose from at the start of the game for those that haven’t quite gotten their footing as the bad guy. Just because you set up the level and let the players burn through it, doesn’t mean you are done. As the villain, you can modify the level, in game, potentially splitting up the group and placing them in dangerous situations.
Good and Evil?
One of the major parts of the Fable story has been how your choices can turn you into a good or evil hero. Legends will remove some of that character definition, but it will allow your players to develop through the quests that they play through.
The Rest
You will be able to integrate your iPad or Surface as the villain to build the level. It won’t be likely that the game will release by the end of the year as no release date was given, but the beta near the holidays could mean an early release next year. Hopefully, we will see significant support for the game. It would be a pain to play against ho-drum villains and have to repeat the same quest multiple times just to be able to move on to the next one. Will this be a game to merge an MMO and MOBA feel?
