After half a decade of waiting, Microsoft finally gave an extended preview of its long-awaited reboot of the beloved fable RPG franchise on Thursday. During the latest Developer Direct show, Arena Games, best known for its work on the Forza Horizon series, shared about 11 minutes of gameplay footage and comments related to the upcoming title. The new game will feature a fully open world for players to explore, with locations from previous Fable games such as Bowerstone making a return.
The platform didn’t say where the new game takes place in the Fable timeline. If you played in 2010 Myth 3you may recall that there was a time gap between each of the original games, with the final installment of Lionhead giving players the chance to explore a version of Albion thrown into the chaos of the industrial revolution. This new game seems to offer a traditional medieval fantasy setting.
From what Little Playground shared about the story, the player character is the first Albion-born hero in a generation. Like previous Fairy Tail games, their story will begin when they are children. They will leave their home in Briar Hill after a “mysterious alien” turns all the residents to stone. Before you start your adventure, you’ll be able to decide what your hero looks like, with customization options including options for different skin tones, head shapes, tattoos and scars.
All the usual good stuff, and the combat doesn’t look weird. Your character can use a combination of melee and ranged weapons, as well as magic, to defeat his enemies. Besides the health bar, enemies appear to have a standing meter players can break through with both light and heavy attacks, before performing “stylish” finishers. Judging by the footage shared by GamesRadar, the combat doesn’t have the netizen feel of a FromSoftware title.
Thankfully, there’s more to the game than just fighting monsters. Like previous fantasy games, players can ask villagers out on dates, before they get married and have children, and you’re not limited to monogamous relationships. It looks like Playground is designed for a modern polycule simulator. Besides, you can also buy whole house and business in Albion. The NPCs of the game will enhance the perception of your hero and his actions. Say you are evicting a musician who lived in one of the houses you bought, if you meet him again on the street they will tell you to his face that he is corrupt. Amazing stuff.
From a technical point of view, the Playground video shown looked on the heavy side. The game’s frame rate and frame rate weren’t smooth, and I’m pretty sure I saw ghosting in some of the animations. Hopefully the studio has enough time between now and the game’s release sometime this fall to polish up the presentation. When the game arrives, it will be available on Xbox Series X/S, PC via Xbox and Steam, PlayStation 5 and Game Pass Ultimate.
Microsoft first announced a new Fable game that was in development back in 2020. It then took three years before sharing a preview of the title, which was scheduled to arrive in 2025 before being delayed this year last February.
