It's the little things.. could be a fable slogan. Because they keep things so little!
STORY
Fable III made me very excited. Everyone liked the idea of becoming a king. And it seemed a perfectly good follow up story. The whole idea of gathering followers is a bit shallow and I expected a bit more of it. Sure the quests are still much fun, even if you stumble on a quest that gives you a deja vu.
You start out as a fully grown prince/princess at the bowerstone castle. No more growing up! It's up to you if you like it or not. You see what state bowerstone is in and who is responsible for it. Your very own brother makes life hard for Albion and you decide to take the fight to him. First you need people to follow you and help you defeat your brother. Like I said, the follower system is a bit simplistic, in a bad way. You just do silly little quests to make sure that the people trust you. They don't feel connected to the town as you just look up the quests. And if you've played the previous Fable games, you just end up asking yourself if they ran out of ideas. Still the becoming a "King/Queen" part is fun and really makes you feel a King/Queen untill you realise it's far to short and shallow. How much I want to love the story, it's just to short and with no real suprises along the way.
MENU
The Sanctuary is a great adition to Fable and they should have done it earlier! The only downside is that there are too few weapons and costumes. I end up wearing only one suit the whole game through! John Cleese as a butler is great, no faults there!
The map is helpfull and makes buying houses/shops easier.
COMBAT
Not much has changed there. Some of the flourish moves have a great feel to it but lack variability. Beeing able to have a spell in each hand is original and fun.
CHOICE
You can still be good or evil and sitting on the throne makes it even more satisfying. As you play a good king/queen you cannot help but wonder what would happen if you'd chosen the evil way. I have yet to find out how evil feels :P. Still they give you enough choices but I wanted more as a king/queen. They should really consider making a DLC with more moral choices that affect your world.
VERDICT
8,5
Why? Because it's still a Fable game and that makes it a good game. Deja vu and a shallow storyline makes it feel like an expansion rather then a standalone game. I hope they give us more DLC to make up for it.
As I read back, I realise that I've been a little negative. No worries, it will give you a good experience! If you don't expect too much.........