Fable III — no HUD, touch NPCs, all hail the king

It’s Fable III‘s time to shine at X10 tonight. Peter Molyneux is on board showing off his third in the role-playing game series and he’s boasting some impressive stuff for the player’s third take on Albion.

“Look at the screen! It’s completely clean,” Molyneux told Wired, continuing, “Why do we need the fucking health bar?”

As you may have guessed, Fable III has no heads-up display. The RPG will instead follow the action-game path of and reflect health changes on screen using environmental effects rather than giving players a set life bar.

There’s more than just that, however. Let’s talk actual gameplay.

Touch is Fable III‘s next important factor. Molyneux explains that inspiration of using touch as a big thing came from Fumito Ueda’s PS2 hit Ico. Players will be able to interact with NPCs, shake hands if you’re just meeting, pick them up if it’s your son or daughter playing on the road, etc. What’s more is that the NPC reacts to what you do. If you’re holding your daughters hand, leading her home, and try to walk into a bar/pub, she will pull back; “Mommy doesn’t want you to go here.”

You’ll still be able to use the D-Pad to make positive or negative decisions like in Fable II, but not in all situations. You’ll have to rely on your sense of touch and how you act this time around.

Fable III takes the player and makes them a king. Naturally, as a king you’ll be able to create your own laws and run your country the way you desire. It’s pretty deep if what Molyneux describes is to be believed.

You could come into power with a promise to abolish child labor, even signing a legal document stating you’ll do so. Then after coming into power, you don’t abolish because you fear the lack of work will mean less money thus less food for the people of Bowerstone. It’s that detailed.

Cooperative play also makes a return. However, this time whoever you invite will be their own hero. In Fable II, the player you invite into your game was stuck to you like glue, but this time around they bring their own dog and can do whatever they want in your world.

Finally is Fable III‘s leveling system. There’s no experience, it seems. The game’s taking the weapon approach and basing your level upon your weapon. The more you put your weapon to use, the more it changes in appearance. It may get longer when you grown in strenght or change color if you commit dirty crimes.

A developer diary for Fable III should hit the Xbox LIVE Marketplace within the next 24 hours. Hopefully, it’ll include some gameplay.

Thanks, GamePro.