Fable Legends E3 Trailer and Previews
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Lionhead Studios' Fable Legends enjoyed some additional exposure at this week's E3 event by way of a new nearly-two-minute trailer that leaves us with more questions than answers about what, exactly, to expect from the action RPG follow-up. But, hey, Lena Headey appears to be voicing the antagonist:
In addition, we get to stop by GamesRadar for a preview:
At first blush, Legends looks pretty similar to what you might expect from the Fable series, at least in visual design. The forest I traverse throughout the demo has that olde England fantasy vibe synonymous with the franchise, and the characters on my team - including an elaborately dressed sorceress and a sentient suit of armor able to steal the souls of nearby monsters - play well to the semi-sinister fairy tale tropes that Fable is known for. However, the gameplay has a wholly different aim, focusing on tasks your team of four must accomplish together. That means traditional RPG elements like talking with strangers and completing story-based quests have been sidelined (at least during my demo) in favor of killing waves of enemies as a team.
Specific character roles are fairly obvious from the start, based on the weapon each character is holding, but while a clear bit of ambient tutorial, that almost makes it too easy to charge in headfirst without checking with your team. That can result in disaster, because once you're dead there's no way to respawn without being revived by another team member. If they don't see you or don't want to stop and perform the revive spell, that's one less person on the field, and more for the remaining players to deal with. A team that doesn't coordinate properly will be easily picked off one by one, as their already incapacitated comrades look bitterly on.
And then we can take in a second preview, thanks to IGN:
Once things get going, you can issue move and attack orders to all your units within the current arena, as well as trigger traps and pre-built terrain features like retractable wooden gates. Activating one as the Heroes go through to split the party, and then flanking them with my minions was a devious good time. Every monster type has a powerful special ability too, which can be devastating when properly timed. Area of effect mortar shots hit tightly clumped heroes hard, smoke screens disorient them - you can really wreak havoc if you time it all properly. The rush of a plan perfectly executed made the Villain my role of choice for sure.
So where's the loot? Adventures? Quests? It's not here - plain and simple. It doesn't need to be, unless you need this to be the next Fable. Fable Legends simply isn't that, though; it's something more interesting. The same stage could play out any number of ways depending who the Heroes choose, and how the Villain sets up. In that sense, it isn't unlike a compact tabletop role-playing module where the Dungeon Master tries to come up with a scenario that will test his players. That may not be the Fable you know and love, but it may just be an experience worth having anyway.
