Can you believe it’s been over a decade and a half since the last proper Fable? That’s a long wait for anything, but in the world of video games, it’s a lifetime – from technological advancements to audience expectations, things have changed a lot since 2010! Which, following this week’s big Fable 2026 reveal, has led to some enthused discussion here at Eurogamer about whether the classic series should really look quite so familiar some 16 years on. Yup, it’s the return of The Big Question, in which we dive into a topical thing generating some chatter here in the figurative EG office and then throw it over to you…
Fable’s long-awaited reboot marks Forza Horizon studio Playground Games’ first foray into the action-RPG genre. And while it’s officially a “new beginning” for original developer Lionhead’s beloved series, it still centred on Albion – a whimsical fantasy world of brave adventurers, exotic British accents, and the kinds of magical creatures who’d rather kill you than spend any time getting to know you at all. But unlike earlier games in the series, Albion is this time a proper, seamless open-world.
Beyond that, it’s all very familiar, promising a mix of humour, action, drama, moral dilemmas, and – of course – chickens. And the series’ famed reactivity is back too, with player choices (as they dance merrily across the good-evil morality spectrum) impacting everything from the landscape to the way the population responds. But as lovely as the whole thing unquestionably looks, and as reassuring as it is to see the bulk of Fable’s ‘be the hero you want to be’ essence survive the passing of time (minus, it seems, the old mechanic of your actions altering your appearance), our Bertie – troublemaker that he is – has found himself wishing for a little bit more.
“I’m excited to see Fable again – and a Fable with possibly the best thatched roofs I’ve ever seen! – but I’m not as excited as I thought I’d be, “he explains. “Fable, to me, was always a series accompanied by eccentric ambition. Each instalment wasn’t only about presenting a fairytale world full of ‘oi!’s, ‘wanker!’s, and other Britishisms, but about re-evaluating role-playing games – questioning them and asking them what more they could do. That’s what Fable represented to me. Some of the ways it did this are laughable now – that acorn promise is infamous – but it was still indicative of how Lionhead approached the series.”
“But Fable, the reboot, seems more like an homage to the series rather than a progressive instalment in it,” Bertie reckons. “It’s a game that screams trepidation to me. It’s assurance after assurance that the series is in good hands, that Playground understands Fable. And credit where credit’s due: all the bullet-point features of Fable were there in the showcase, all the eccentric trimmings, and very handsome it looked too. But watching that presentation also felt like looking back in time and seeing a game from the past. Yes, that was Fable I saw, but it was Fable from 15 or 20 years ago. In which ways was it boldly pushing RPGs on?”
Victoria, though, thinks new-Fable’s adherence to the past is absolutely the right call. “I flirted with the originals at a friends’ house,” she explains, “and though I’ve never completed any of them myself, I’m still looking forward to Playground Games’ reboot. Leaning into the nostalgia and matching what everyone loved about the series the first time around, rather than trying to come out with something totally leftfield, is a smart move because – and please don’t hate me for saying this – I just don’t think the Fable brand is a strong enough pull without it.”
As for me (as much as I’m permitted to have an opinion here in my vague role as disembodied ringmaster), it’s not the stuff that’s the same I’ve been thinking about, but everything else – I’m just hopeful we’ll finally get an overarching Fable adventure that feels like it’s had as much attention lavished on it as its simmy, reactive core.
Fable 1 felt awash with conspicuous dead-ends, awkwardly truncated quest lines, undercooked mechanics, and even explicit teases toward an entire dragon-slaying additional act that never showed up. Until, that is, Fable: The Lost Chapters arrived a few years later with all the missing bits restored. And Fable 3, I seem to recall, with its grand promise of royal assent and ultimate power, fizzled out in deeply unsatisfactory fashion, rushing through its third act in a series of playable bullet points before lunging to a credit roll. Give me all the fun, familiar bits of Fable we saw in this week’s showcase – the choice-and-consequence, the simmy stuff, the silly humour – but pair it with a fully fleshed out adventure with room to breathe and I’ll be thrilled. And, given the reboot’s now near-decade of development, my hopes are high. But what do I know? As those charming Albionions loved to remind, I’m just a chicken-chaser.
Which just leaves Tom, Eurogamer’s self-styled ‘biggest Xbox fan’ – and he’s more than happy with what he saw. “I don’t know what this lot are on about – worriers, the lot of them!” he exclaims (before quietly acknowledging this particular Big Question was his idea). “I watched the Fable showcase and immediately just wanted to play it. I’m having a bit of a gaming lull at the moment, unable to really find the enthusiasm for anything in my massive backlog, and I felt something lift as I took in what Playground Games has created. I appreciate this new Fable isn’t going to be all things to everyone, but it’s jumped to the top of my most anticipated list – which is saying a lot given I love Forza Horizon, and number 6 is looking splendid.”
So that’s us all Fabled out for the time being, and now it’s over to you. Based on this week’s first proper look at Playground Games’ long-awaited Fable reboot, are you delighted to see so much of the old series back, or, like Bertie, were you hoping for something more radical a decade and a half on? Or perhaps this is your very first Fable and, unbound by nostalgia, you’re just excited to experience it all. Let’s have a chin-wag below!
