Over five years after it was first announced, we’ve finally learned a lot more about the next entry in the Fable series. Get ready for a big open world filled with jobs, relationships, monsters, and more. And it arrives this Fall.
This new spin on Fable, being developed by Playground Games—the same studio behind Xbox’s amazing Forza Horizon series—was first announced back in 2020 and is being built using the same tech that powered those open-world driving games. And Fable sounds and looks impressive as seen in Xbox’s new Developer Direct.
Playground Games says Fable will feature a fully seamless open world, a first for the series. You’ll be able explore every corner of Albion at your own pace without loading screens. Well, once you get through the game’s opening tutorial, where you start as a kid and have to watch your village be attacked. It is a Fable game, after all. It’s just tradition.
During the Dev Direct, Playground Games confirmed you’ll be able to customize your character’s face and clothing. And like in past games, you can interact with villagers and NPCs, even marrying them or kicking them out of houses you own. Yes, you can be a fantasy landlord in Fable. The worst villain of all! Don’t worry, there are jobs that you can do to earn gold and of course, heroic quests to go on via the Hero’s Guild.
Apparently, every NPC villager is unique and will react to your wealth, past actions, style, and more. Playground is also promising that the world will react to you in big and small ways. They list one example where a character who uses magic to get massive can be killed or reasoned with, and if you decide to end the giant’s life, his massive corpse will litter the world for the rest of the game. It will even, apparently, lower the property value of nearby homes.
You won’t just be marrying people, buying houses, and being a terrible landlord. Fable will feature combat that looks similar to other third-person action RPGs. Expect to fight familiar foes, like Balverines and Hobbes, while out exploring Albion. And yes, morality is a big feature in this new reboot of the RPG series, letting you be evil or good.
This all sounds wild, and looks nice thanks to Playground’s Forza-tech powering the fantasy open world. But I won’t really believe it works until I get my hands on the Fable this Fall when it launches on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Game Pass, and PC. Though considering how many times it’s been delayed before, I’m also not convinced this RPG arrives before next year.