Xbox Shares New Fable Trailer that Divides the Fanbase

The new Fable trailer looks surprisingly dark

On Nov. 12, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma shared a new gameplay trailer for Fable, the long-anticipated fourth installment in the Fable series, developed by Playground Games. While excitement for the game remains high, many fans shared their negative reactions online, confirming that this will be another controversial release.

Fable is scheduled for release on Feb. 23, 2027. The game has been in development for almost a decade, with first reports emerging in 2018. It's the first game in the series not developed by Lionhead Studios, after the studio was closed by Microsoft in April 2016. Fable is an attempt to revive the beloved franchise created by Peter Molyneux and his team at Lionhead, which released the first three critically acclaimed games between 2004 and 2010.

In Fable, players will return once again to the land of Albion and take the role of the Hero, but the game will not follow the established timeline of its predecessors in the series. Judging by the latest trailer, that won't be the only difference.

New Fable gameplay trailer shows a bleak world

The Fable trailer released on Nov. 12 shows a female Hero following the trail of a woman named Isabel, who allegedly attacked her village, turning the inhabitants to stone. The protagonist is accompanied by another Hero, a woman called Arden (voiced by Susan Wokoma), who rejected her heroic calling and now works as a cobbler. Together, they explore a bit of the forest, fight some undead enemies, and then find a mysterious cavern with supernatural phenomena. There is a lot of walking, and a lot of talking. And everything looks bleak.

The first three Fable games had their dark moments (do you remember the Tattered Spire in Fable 2?), but the world of Albion almost always looked bright and colorful, even when it was trying to kill you. The series took inspiration from fairy tales, which often mix whimsy with the unsettling, giving the games their unique tone and feel. This latest trailer for the new Fable shows a world that has discarded whimsy and retained only the darkest parts of the fairy tale (literally, there are very few colors).

Many fans have expressed their dissatisfaction with the footage. Some complained that the "gameplay" trailer consists mostly of cutscenes and characters walking and talking, with Arden acting as a source of excessive exposition. Other comments highlight how the game looks too much like any run-of-the-mill action-RPG.

The trailer does have a combat sequence, which showcases the three combat styles (melee, ranged, and magic) that players can freely switch between. Some users praised the combat seen in the trailer, while others complained that the movement looked stiff. Many fans are simply excited about a new Fable game, and have high expectations for the title.

Overall, the biggest source of disagreement among fans is that the new Fable has a very different aesthetic from previous chapters in the series. While this is fully understandable after a decade, it's also true that the colorful and bombastic nature of Albion was one of the reasons the franchise was so successful. It must be said that the sequence shown in the trailer takes place in a forest twisted by dark forces, and the previous trailer looked a bit brighter.

Fable is scheduled for release on Feb. 23, 2027. It will be available on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox.