Fable Legends beta planned for 2014

Lionhead’s newly announced Xbox One game Fable Legends doesn’t have a release date, but it’s safe to say it won’t be coming out this year. In a Q&A on its website, Lionhead Studios said that it’s unable to announce when the game will be available, but that it expects there to be opportunities for beta testing in 2014.

Lionhead revealed Fable Legends on Tuesday, when it said that the game will offer players the chance to explore Albion in a group of four adventurers, whether as one player with computer allies, a team of four humans co-operating via Xbox Live, or a mixture of players and AI-controlled characters.

During quests, players can elect to battle human or AI villains. Playing as a villain “combines elements of strategic decision making and tactical control”, according to Lionhead. Villains will be able to place enemies for the hero to defeat and issue orders for them to execute, while also triggering traps and environmental hazards.

Lionhead also said Fable Legends takes place in a time when Albion was “younger and magic was still rife”, meaning it’s not a direct continuation of previous games in the series. “It’s a brand new series of adventures at the dawn of an age of Heroes,” the studio explained, adding: “Fable Legends is the only Fable core game in development, and we have no plans to make a sequel to Fable III.”