Peter Molyneux has revealed what the revolutionary feature in Fable 2 is going to be…. A Dog..
No it’s not some super gun or amazing graphical engine it is a dog. A plain simple dog.. Seems a bit silly doesn’t it?
Well Peter wants to bring emotions into games and along with the dog in Fable 2 you have an entire family which is proud of you and your kids, who look like you , will copy what you do as they grow. However the most difficult emotion to bring into a game is love and that is why the dog is there.
The dog loves you, he will do anything for you and he will protect you. The nice part is that you don’t really need to look after the dog that much. He is autonomous and will fend for himself. He is also smart, if you are using a sword in battle the dog will attack the gun slingers first as they are the most dangerous enemies at the time…
You can treat the dog any way you want and he will always eventually come back to you, if he is wounded in battle you can either help him or ignore him. If you ignore him and leave him to suffer he will eentually find his way back to you because he loves you.
As Molyneux puts it, you may find yourself talking up a floozy in a pub, only to hear a scratch at the door. Someone opens the door to reveal your bloody, battered dog. Characters will respond to this, saying things like “who would do something like this to a dog.” Molyneux hopes something like that will make players feel bad. He also hopes that growing and playing with the dog will produce a bond with the player. “If I can get you to care about something just a little bit,” says Molyneux, “then I’ve got you.”
So it sounds interesting, I would never have thought that a dog would be a major part of any game but this sounds really good. Peter does seem to have a knack of coming up with original ideas doesn’t he?
Last Updated: March 9, 2007
