Better than II, you bet it is.
People criticize this title already, saying it is bad, short and linier. I've played for only 6 hours, and there is so so much to do. Be it side-missions in the style of the original Fable and performing jobs/tasks for money in the style of Fable II (these have been improved, more interesting). Even the law enforcing jobs, they are more developed. The new designs of stalls and shops are good, i do like how the items are displayed to view instead of visiting a menu and scrolling.
Combat is similar to that of Fable II, which fair enough can get tedious. But with the XP levelling up now gone, you can mix and match the combat between Range, Melee and Magic to suit your own needs. Weapons do evolve as you use them, no joke that. And i do like how weapons are used, being able to flip a rifle upon your shoulder and shoot a hobbe without looking. Magic is improved, loving the mixing magic.
Enemies do seem to be able to take more of a beating this time, especially the bosses. Who seem to be near immortal at some parts.
I've read the Gamespot review, i'm part agreeing with it and part disagreeing. They say the game with side-quests takes 25 hours to beat. I'm 6 hours into the game, and i've not scratched the surface of quests to do. Each person you meet can be your friend and you can do quests for them, but they can get repetitive. The side quests themselves, all well in that department. Each one could take 20 minutes to complete, and i've seen 8 or so quests in one area. That is about 2 ½ hours of quests in one town. Then the story, which i reckon could be 15 – 20 hours long. We are talking about 30-40 hours here on quests, with probably a few more hours thrown on top for finding all chests, keys, demon doors and weapons. I'm not going over-the-top here.
Yes, there are flaws with the game. There are glitches and bugs, but no game is perfect. All games have bugs and glitches, they are inevitable.
I'll give this a 9/10, being better than Fable II in many ways