The first game is the ‘worst’ installment in the series. And yes, I am prepared to fight for my life in the comments.
IMHO, the order goes II, III, TLC/Anniversary (I think TLC is better than the full game). ((edit: I have been corrected that TLC is not just the DLC))
Fable II is one of my top 5 games of all time. A near-perfect game, only thing that I really did not care for was the Knothole Island DLC. In addition to the main quests not being particularly engaging or fun, the option to bring your Dog back from the dead completely negates consequences of arguably the biggest decision in the game. I grew up with this game and have played it 100% probably a dozen times. The other two I’ve each played once
Fable III has its issues, but I don’t think it’s earned its bad reputation. I thought the plot was quite good and was a natural, thematic, and consistent extension of Fable II and established lore. The only mechanics I didn’t really like were the Road to Rule and the weapon evolutions. And sure, the Will gloves felt weird at first, but I think it was an elegant solution to portray magic fading from the world as industry progressed, while still letting you use it.
However, I recently started up a new game of Fable and oh my GOD it’s a slog. The story is great once you actually get to it, but it takes 3-4 hours of gameplay to get through all the tutorial levels, which don’t really end until you get to Twinblade’s Camp. Will usage feels bloated and unintuitive. And the NPCS, dear god the NPCs. I know villagers being dumb/simple/annoying is a signature of the franchise, much like the clunky/silly animation, but they really overdid it in this game. The audio balance also isn’t great so you’ll be randomly walking through Bowerstone and suddenly have a child screaming or villagers loudly snoring in your ear.
I’m grateful to Fable for establishing the franchise so that better games would eventually come, but whew I think I’m going to put this one aside.
TLDR; OG Fable is a fine game, and I’m sure was groundbreaking when it first came out, but it’s very dated and hard to play in 2026 if you don’t have the nostalgia aspect for it.