Playground Games’ devs were so confident in Fable, they made me play the Gamescom demo twice

Eurogamer was given a rare, hour-long hands-on preview of Playground Games' upcoming Fable reboot at Gamescom, playing the same dungeon demo twice with different character loadouts. The developers were confident enough in the experience to let the writer replay it, and the preview suggests the game's combat, which blends melee, ranged and magic attacks, offers depth and flexibility that rewards players who think tactically rather than button-mash.

In the first playthrough, the writer used a hammer alongside chain lightning and a spell that turns enemies into chickens, which could then be roasted with a follow-up fireball. The second run swapped in an overpowered, late-game character with a recoil-heavy repeater crossbow and crowd-control spells that lifted enemies into the air before slamming them down, while the difficulty was also raised to its hardest setting. Associate game directors Will Kennedy and Craig Little oversaw the session but declined to confirm whether features such as enemy-specific injury effects would extend across the wider game.