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Knock on wood, but this one seems like it might deliver on its promises.

While Legends is set in the established Fable universe, it's an entirely different experience.

While Fable Legends is still set in the established Fable universe—meaning it's chock full of lush soft-focus greenery, charmingly animated characters, and subtle use of depth-of-field effects—it's otherwise an entirely different gameplay experience from the core series. In Fable Legends, the focus is split between heroic teamwork and villainous second-screen tomfoolery.

Much like 2K's new title Evolve, Fable Legends pits four human heroes against a single human villain. Heroes a drawn from various classes like Mage, Sniper, Healer, and Brawler (or "Punch Guy" as I like to call him). Each class brings various strengths and weaknesses to the battlefield—other than the distinctly Fable-y flavor of the characters, this is nothing new.

Gameplay from Fable Legends
Credit: Reviewed.com / Lee Neikirk

Hero characters include a Sniper, Mage, Healer, etc.—this is all standard class-based multiplayer fare.

Where Fable Legends gets interesting is in the role of the villain. Rather than an over-the-shoulder style view, the Villain player takes a top-down, bird's eye perspective on the battlefield, effectively controlling the action. The villain can set traps, send in henchmen, and see all the players—and how much health they have left—at a glance.

The best part about this setup is that the villain can get a jump on battlefield elements with an enhanced and highly accurate control screen. Using any tablet that can access the Xbox One SmartGlass app, villains can delegate their actions to the second screen. You can even play while you watch TV through the Xbox One's HDMI in port.

Gameplay from Fable Legends
Credit: Reviewed.com / Lee Neikirk

The solo villain player can control all the mayhem of the battlefield on their tablet screen via the Xbox One SmartGlass app.

Like many future Xbox One games, Fable Legends will also take advantage of Microsoft's new Windows 10 initiative, which allows for multiplayer compatibility between any number of Windows 10 devices—Xbox Ones, PCs, tablets, and smartphones. Best of all, the game will be free-to-play when it arrives later this year.

If there's one dubious aspect to the game, it's that Lionhead has promised a 5–10 year lifespan. To achieve that kind of longevity the studio will almost definitely need to rely on micro-transactions and/or aggressively priced DLC.

Hopefully, the studio isn't promising anything it can't deliver.

{{brightcove '4097991615001'}}

Meet the tester

Lee Neikirk

Lee Neikirk

Former Editor, Home Theater

@Koanshark

Lee was Reviewed's point person for most television and home theater products from 2012 until early 2022. Lee received Level II certification in TV calibration from the Imaging Science Foundation in 2013. As Editor of the Home Theater vertical, Lee oversaw reviews of TVs, monitors, soundbars, and Bluetooth speakers. He also reviewed headphones, and has a background in music performance.

See all of Lee Neikirk's reviews

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