Windows Central editor Jez Corden shared his impressions of the gameplay he saw in the fantasy role-playing action game Fable, developed by Playground Games (Forza Horizon series).
Image source: Playground Games
As part of the Xbox Two podcast, the journalist mentioned that he recently had a chance to look at the alpha version of Fable. Corden doesn’t know how relevant this build was, but he reports that it looked “pretty damn cool.”
Corden thinks the version he saw looks “very polished” and is likely a vertical cut. Whether the game will be shown soon or not, the editor of Windows Central does not know, but hopes so.
Image source: Playground Games
As for the game itself, according to Corden, the DNA of the Polish studio CD Projekt Red can be traced in it:
- Fable’s combat system is reminiscent (not one-to-one) of that from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – with pirouettes, dodges, melee combat, a seamless transition from sword strikes to finishing moves, and so on;
- Like Geralt, the heroine of Fable can combine different types of weapons and abilities (including magical ones) – for example, lift a group of enemies into the air and hit them on the ground;
- Among the opponents there are huge chickens (menacing looking) and werewolves – one of them was lured out of the lair with the help of delicious scrambled eggs and bacon;
- Overall combat feels “very tight” and features a wide variety of weapons. Corden mentioned a large mallet (carpenter’s hammer) that can hit multiple enemies at once.
It is worth noting that from 2021 to 2023, Paweł Kapała, a former senior gameplay designer for CD Projekt Red and Cyberpunk 2077, worked on Fable’s combat system, which may partly explain this continuity.
The combat system was one of the few controversial elements of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Image source: CD Projekt Red)
According to Corden, he heard at Summer Game Fest 2024 that Fable would have a choice between a male or female protagonist, which is sure to please some viewers of the June trailer.
Fable is expected to release sometime in 2025 (rumored to be in the fourth quarter) in versions for PC, Xbox Series X and S, and Game Pass. To create the game, Playground opened a third unit in the British city of Leamington Spa.