man, what a mess. this game has been drained of any fairy tale atmosphere in favor of being a fantasy novel about kings and politics, but not one that is good, and one that seems to have many scenes missing.

the world is less colorful, and there are far fewer interesting sightlines. the zones have gotten a little too big, to the point that it's a pain to walk across them, so you relate to much of the game through the map, devaluing the spaces further.

every weapon being unique is cool at first until you realize that they all have boring augments and augment objectives. it ends up ultimately feeling like less weapon variety than previous games, especially since they all handle the same.

every combat encounter is just an enormous swarm of guys that you spend forever cutting through. there's not even a little pressure to any of the choices because you are drowning in real estate money. they really wanted to make "ben finn" happen but he's just an annoying guy.

occasionally that fable charm still shines through. fashion is fun. there are some really creative quests. good demon door zones. the aurora section really works. i remember liking this a lot more in 2010, but now i very much understand why this is the worst fable