Playground Games gave fantasy RPG fans a new look at its Fable reboot last Sunday at the Xbox Games Showcase. While that was a short cinematic trailer revealing the main villain of the storyline, played by Hayley Atwell, today, the development team released an entire gameplay demo to show off the game in action. There is some combat and action near the end of it, but most of the demo is focused on the game"s NPC simulation, relationships, choices players can make, and the complex reputation system.
The studio is touting over 1,000 hand-crafted NPCs who have jobs, homes, routines they follow in their villages and outskirts, and a memory of what is going on in the world and what actions the player has done. All of these are voiced by real people too.
The demo begins with a short interaction with a butcher who wants to kill a talking pig named Colin. The protagonist chooses to save Colin by paying the butcher a bunch of gold for his troubles, giving the hero a rise in reputation for being shrewd, merciful, and virtuous. There were also options to simply let Colin get killed or even fight the butcher for the pig instead of paying him. How NPCs judge the player depends on how they interact with the world.
Later, the demo shows off how purchasing and managing businesses work, where players can hire employees, change their wages, tweak the price of the shop items, and reap profits if they do well. Different NPCs react differently to each type of reputation the player is touting. One shop owner jacks up prices by 80% just because the player is rich and owns businesses.
The demo even shows the player deciding to attack random villagers and causing a ruckus in the streets, turning the hero into a criminal. This is where the magic combat systems are shown off, where the player can teleport, turn enemies into chickens, sword-fight, and more.
"This is how you’ll build an extraordinary life in Fable. It’s all about shades of grey – it’s not us or the game telling you what is good and what is bad," says Dan Greer, Lead Game Designer. "With the Living Population, it’s the NPCs themselves judging your actions."
Fable is releasing across PC and Xbox Series X|S on February 23, 2027. Premium Edition owners will be able to play starting on February 18 instead. Xbox Game Pass subscribers will also be able to jump in at launch for no extra cost.