Fable Legends: Xbox One

Right now, there is a secret council of gamers meeting up in the shadowy sectors of Xbox Live playing the Fable Legends closed beta. They are bound by silence, an NDA hangs from their necks like an albatross. This isn't some inconsequential playtest to appease diehard fans either. It’s the first time gamers across the world have had the opportunity to get hands on with Fable Legends in the comfort of their bedrooms, away from sweaty convention halls and bustling crowds those sorts of experiences can tamper with impressions, after all.

This beta is a big moment for Lionhead. It’s where the studio will get a solid indication as to whether three years of hard work has been all for nothing, or the kick up the arse Fable has been in desperate need of since Peter Molyneux careered the series horse drawn into a Kinect shaped ravine. That’s what gamers are figuring out and feeding back to Lionhead as you read this.

Fable Legend's four versus one asymmetrical multiplayer focus is going to split fans. There’s little doubt some will look upon Fable's hasty shift away from RPG convention as a betrayal of years of good faith. But Lionhead will need to cut through the whining and find the core of the problems should any exist if the beta is going to have any real affect on development.

We’ve been impressed (or should we say surprised?) with how much fun the Fable Legends experience is, it feels resolutely un-Fable. Our biggest problems with it are still related to the lack of definition, freedom and customisation we will have with the Heroes certainly a staple of the franchise by now not to mention the lack of an open world Albion to explore. Fable Legends looks amazing running in Unreal Engine 4, but it hurts our hearts to learn that we’ll be waiting a little longer to see the next-gen Albion we've always dreamed of.

Feedback will be critical at this stage. Lionhead has been wise to avoid setting a solid release date for Fable Legends. It’s impossible for the game to be delayed, technically, so if players do take umbrage with some of the absent series staples there’s always a chance they could still be included. That said,
if all goes well we could  have Fable Legends in our hands by summer 2015.