I went hands‑on with Fable at Gamescom, and this reboot finally feels like it has a clear identity — but it'll also be a true test of the 'Xbox Tax'

Getting to attend Gamescom and play upcoming blockbusters can be a double-edged sword, at least for someone multitask-challenged like me.

Moving from station to station at a breakneck pace, trying to memorize control schemes while a developer watches over your shoulder, always breaks me out in a sweat. I’ve never really been someone who can juggle multiple games at once. I tend to pick a title, lock in, make it my personality, and obsess over it until completion. Simply because my brain can't easily process competing control systems. So, doing that fifteen times over at Gamescom... you can imagine my anxiety.

That being said, the moment I sat down with Fable, any lingering panic was quashed with the first swing of my oversized hammer.

Playground has absolutely nailed the combat

Fable - Official Combat Gameplay | gamescom 2026 - YouTube

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The combat system could not have been more intuitive or frictionless; I don’t think I glanced at the controller guide once. I simply followed the sardonic Humphrey (played by Matt King) through a series of abandoned caves, wildly weaving my hammer, calling lightning bolts from above, and firing a rapid-fire crossbow with abandon against the hordes of skeletal enemies.

Transitioning on the fly between melee, ranged, and spellcasting was a piece of cake to navigate, and I felt the impact with each ABXY input. And the utterly ridiculous Befoul spell, which turns foes into chickens, was abused on every cooldown. I made sure to kick each and every chicken I created, though I later found out you could also cook them in a flame bath.

The combat was so much fun that I genuinely didn’t want the session to end, despite it being the last appointment of my day and knowing a cold beer was waiting for me on the other side.

We played through the same demo twice with two very different character builds, and on two different difficulties. I would have happily gone for 3 more rounds. The ultimate test, of course, will be whether that loop holds the same novelty and feel across an entire campaign. But the foundation is absolutely rock-solid.

Playgrounds vision and staying true to a classic

Following my hands-on session, I sat down with the developers at Playground Games to discuss how they are steering the franchise during their tenure, specifically regarding their combat philosophy and approach to player progression.

One of the core design pillars of the reboot is to give players “total freedom of expression.” While your active combat loadout must consist of the set triple combo, a melee weapon, a ranged weapon, and a set of spells, you are completely free to mix, match, and swap components to craft a playstyle that feels entirely personal to you.

The action flows organically, allowing you to string disparate moves together in any order you want (cooldowns aside). Whether you prefer a sluggish, heavy-hitting warhammer or a swift, sharp sword, momentum remains smooth, responsive, and deeply satisfying.

The devs were emphatic about their approach to progression. It shouldn’t be about passive stat increases where "numbers simply go up." Upgrades need to feel transformative during gameplay.

Players earn experience through combat and exploration, spending skill points on a dedicated tree to upgrade spells and abilities multiple times. Weapons also get their own upgrade paths; in my second playthrough of the demo on a harder difficulty, I shot at enemies with a crossbow that fired so fast it might as well have been a machine gun.

An example we played was the Lift spell. Initially, it would levitate a single enemy, but a later upgrade would let you slam down that enemy into a violent, crowd-clearing area-of-effect style blast.

The team leaned hard into clever interactions between the spells and weapons too. Turn an enemy into a chicken, clip them with a fireball, and watch them transform into a temporary ghost chicken. If an enemy recovers from a suspension or chicken state, they will briefly stagger and flap their arms, leaving them completely wide open for a punishing counterattack.

Honoring the dark and gritty wit of the original Albion

Rebooting a beloved, legendary franchise is no small feat, and the team is acutely aware of the delicate tightrope they are walking. Balancing modern designs with the unique British charm and underlying darkness that defined the original Lionhead games is a massive task, but it’s one they clearly understand, and that fuels much of their decision-making.

The physical comedy so integral to the series' DNA extends directly into the mechanics. Shoot a skeleton's head off, and it will flail around blindly; shoot a leg off, and it will still desperately crawl toward you.

The dynamic reactions aren't just reserved for your enemies, either. The whole world of Albion responds directly to your actions. If you decide to test out your gravity-suspension spells or chicken cooking magic on innocent townsfolk in the capital of Bowerstone, you will be judged accordingly by the locals. Yet, the system's nuance shines through its reputation mechanics: NPCs form varied opinions based on their individual moral compasses, meaning a ruthless display of power might disgust some citizens while quietly impressing or intimidating others.

Under the shadow of the "Xbox Tax"

If you are just as excited for Fable as I am, this will be one of many previews you read (and thanks for reading mine too!). No doubt, many of them will sound remarkably similar, given we all played the exact same vertical slice of the game. But what has struck me since arriving home and looking at reactions is a familiar sense of foreboding about Playground’s release.

It’s hard not to notice the toxic undercurrent surrounding the game already. Long before anyone even touched a controller, the internet was already dissecting trailers frame-by-frame just to complain that the female protagonist wasn’t attractive enough…now I’m seeing an eye-roll-inducing wave of bad-faith takes cropping up online regarding Fable’s gameplay, based on a tiny boss fight clip. Unfortunately, I’m not surprised, given the current trend of spicy takes getting attention, but I also firmly believe these criticisms are a direct consequence of the game being developed under the stewardship of Microsoft.

The "Xbox Tax" has become a bit of a meme in recent years, but whether you believe it’s a real thing or not, it does represent a widespread frustration with Microsoft's recent corporate missteps. Missteps that lead people to put its first-party output under a hyper-critical microscope that is undeserved for the individual teams. There’s a worrying number of people who seem eager to sharpen their pitchforks for Fable right now. Not enough stagger animations? Campaign length too short for a long development cycle? I’ve seen it all already, and it's mainly from people with no intention of ever playing the game.

I worry that when the game finally launches, players won't judge Playground Games on their own merits. I’ve seen this exact thing play out before with major releases like Starfield and Avowed. I'm not here to argue those games are amazing by any means; they certainly had many faults, but the rabid appetite from internet fanbases to tear them down was completely out of proportion to their actual flaws. Genuine, constructive critique gets completely drowned out in a sea of toxic internet point-scoring.

Even with Fable launching on PlayStation 5 alongside Xbox and PC, I don’t think it will be entirely safe from the bad-faith warriors out for blood. I genuinely worry for the incredible team at Playground Games, who have poured their hearts into crafting something special and completely outside their usual Forza fare. But sitting here fresh off a tiny 30-minute slice of the game, I am rooting for it harder than ever. Fable deserves to be a hit, and it’s exactly what Xbox needs to shine as a flagship franchise. I just hope the Xbox tax collectors don’t bang too hard on the doors while we are all having fun.

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