I was completely shielded from the hype that surrounded the first game. I never heard about how real the world would feel or the depth or anything so I just got the game as it was, so hence there was no dissapointment.
As it stands, I loved the first game immensly as a result. It was fun, had great combat (from my standards) a nice degree of customization, it was easy to get into and pick up and play and the quests felt deep and involving enough that I enjoyed playing them over and over again.
I never actually got to play The Lost Chapters but if I ever get a chance, I will. Because more of the original Fable I would like to see.
The others though... the ball kind of dropped. It played differently and it felt different and while the aesthetic was nice and original the gameplay and story aspect kept getting simplified and less involving the more I played it. To the point where eventually it got kind of silly.
I still enjoyed playing them and Fable 3 in particular I still quite like for all its considerable faults but still, the original remains the best. It's still the most solid game out of all of them and frankly, I'd like any future Fable game to go back and look at the design of the first game, not just copy paste how the mechanics, combat, menus and story modes worked for the sequels.