The whole Fable series is loaded with great ideas paired with "this could have been better" execution. I love them dearly but I always feel they're missing just that little bit more.
Many moons ago I got a free copy of one of the Fable games for my Xbox 360. My memory is hazy, but I'm thinking it was F3. I tried playing it but found myself feeling it a bit... Dry. I think your comment sums it up perfectly. The world was beautiful, but also very static. The story was okay but very shallow. The characters were very one dimensional. It felt polished, but lacking in character.
I found myself mindlessly wandering through meaningless side quests with little to no interest in getting lost in the lore. Maybe this is my fault for jumping into the the middle of some plot by only playing F3, and maybe I lost out on some major development by never finishing the game, but I just felt like it was okay at best.
It's a great game, I 100%'d the remaster and had fun. Though I wouldn't recommend playing on the harder difficulty, it's a grind enemies do a lot of damage and are damage sponges. There isn't enough depth in the mechanics for you to come out on top consistently and have fun unless you abuse mechanics.