I appreciate what the Fable Legends developers at Lionhead are trying to do. Really, I do. If they simply make the same game again with each new sequel, they get criticized. And if they change it too much, they get criticized as well.

“ When I managed to get the Heroes' collective health down to 1% and then defeat them with my ogre, I felt triumphant.

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“ With the Fable name comes certain expectations.

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“ Core tenets of Fable seem to have been forgotten in Legends.

The fact is, I have not been excited about Fable Legends and its new direction since its reveal at Gamescom last August, and after playing it as both the Villain and a Hero at E3, I am still apathetic towards it. I'm not sure if this is the new direction for the entire franchise, or if Lionhead intends to ever make a proper Fable 4. Regardless, as a longtime Fable fan, I came away disappointed from my first hands-on session with the game.I began as the Villain, coached by a Lionhead developer. Controls are gamepad-friendly; unit types are color-coded, so the grunts are blue (X button), the ranged fighters are yellow (Y button), the artillery unit is red (B button), and Puck, the special invisible-turning stealth unit, is green (A button). All you have to do to order one of them to a spot or to attack is press the corresponding button on the spot you want; there's no need to click and select them first. It's a nice control scheme, and works quite well.Once I got the hang of it, I did enjoy setting traps, raining artillery bombs on Heroes trying to revive their fallen teammates, and slamming gates shut on them to split up their group. And when I managed to get the Heroes' collective health down to 1% and then defeat them with my ogre at the end of the "dungeon," I felt triumphant.To be fair, if this game weren't called Fable, I might not be quite as hard on it. But with the Fable name comes certain expectations. For me, Fable's strengths are many, and Legends fails to accentuate many of them. First, the world of Albion itself. Yes, Legends' Unreal Engine 4-powered visuals are gorgeous, but they're wasted on these compartmentalized dungeons. Lionhead promises a hub town called Brightlodge where you can go between instances to play mini-games, but where's the vast, sprawling next-gen Albion I can explore and adventure in?And what about the Heroes? I've always loved forging my own destiny in Albion, with the game supporting me whether I wanted to be good or evil. Heck, the old Fables even went so far as to change your character's physical appearance if you leaned one way or the other. In Legends, you can only choose from a roster of turnkey heroes, each with their own pre-determined names and personalities.Lionhead explained that Fable Legends will ship in seasons. When I asked whether that meant the shipping version will be free-to-play (a la Killer Instinct), $20, or $60, they claimed nothing had been finalized and so they had no concrete answers.It's these core tenets of Fable that Lionhead's first full post-Molyneux Fable seems to have forgotten. Legends is hardly a bad game by any stretch of the imagination – let me make that abundantly clear; the Villain role is particularly intriguing – but I was hoping to see the series build on what it's done best (read: Fable II) in a true next-generation way. What I've seen and played so far is instead an interesting asymmetric multiplayer game that trumpets very few of Fable's long-established strengths. It's not clear if Legends is representative of the franchise's long-term future or if it's a Fable Heroes- or Fable: The Journey-esque experiment, with a full and proper Fable 4 still planned. In the meantime, as a longtime Fable fan, it's difficult for me to get excited about Legends. And that saddens me.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews and Xbox Guru-in-Chief. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan , on IGN , catch him on Podcast Unlocked , and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.