Fable 2 – Reviewed – XBox 360

I was totally amped when I found out that I had to review Fable 2. I loved the first game and could seriously not wait to get my grubby little paws on the new game. I had to literally force myself to stop playing the game and start writing the review… yes, it’s that good. This is one of those games, where you play… and play… and play, without realizing how many hours you’ve spend playing. “Just a quick game” can easily turn into “O sh^t… I need to go to work in 3 hours”. It is however not just sunshine and fairy-farts… the game does have some bugs and small problems. To find out more, follow the jump.

And so our story begins…

The game is set in Albion, 500 years after the original game. The Heroes’ Guild (where all the Heroes/Villains of the land were trained) was destroyed hundreds of years ago by the citizen’s of Albion. Thus no more Heroes walked the land and all the knowledge of advanced fighting and magic has been all but forgotten. In strolls our main character, a “penniless urchin” but also seemingly a descendant of one of the Heroes’ of the past. It’s up to you to set right a wrong… whether it’s for justice or revenge is wholly up to you.

This is exactly why this game rocks as much as it does… the freedom… the choice… hell, the freedom of choice. Just like in the real world your choices have consequences. For instance, you are running along minding your own business, killing some monsters here and there when suddenly a ghost appears. Said ghost tells you his sad story, how he was left standing at the alter by his love. He then asks you if you would help him get even. “Make her fall in love with you and then give her this letter”. When you meet her at last and she has fallen for you, it’s up to you to decide whether you are going to “do the right thing” and marry her or rather give her the letter and break her heart. In other words, having her happy or having her commit suicide.

You came here to make a choice

All choices have to do with morality. Will you become the Hero, adored by all or the Villain, hated a feared by all. Both paths have their perks, I took the evil path of course… a set of horns looks so much nicer than a halo, right?

I can not stress how huge this game is. You can buy properties to live in or rent out, buy businesses for some extra income, you can even take jobs. There are quite a variety of jobs to pick from, blacksmith, woodcutter, assassination, bounty hunter etc. etc. The “mundane” jobs like blacksmith, woodcutter & bartender are basically just a mini game where every successful sword/wood/drink that you make earns you money. The more you make in a chain, the more money you make (kinda like real life). Then there are also pub-games, where you can gamble all your hard-earned cash away.

Judge a book by it’s cover

Appearances also have quite and impact on the people in the game. Dress up or dress down, the people react to the way you look. Eat to much unhealthy food and you become fat (even chopping a crap load of wood doesn’t take a paunch away). The more evil you look the more afraid the people are.

You can also have a family (or more) but just like in real life you have to look after them, handing over an allowance to keep them happy. This does have some perks (don’t think they are just a bunch of succubus), for instance sleeping in your house with a family means you get a healing bonus. They can also grace you with a gift or two from time to time. It’s a wonder that there has been no noticeable out cry of the “sex” in the game. You can have sex before marriage, after marriage, with prostitutes… hell, you can even contract STD’s in the game.

The leveling system in Fable 2 is the same as the original. The system works with 4 categories, Strength, Skill, Will & General. Strength is more important for someone that is interested in a melee attacks, Skill for ranged attacks and Will for magic. As you become stronger in a specific “discipline” your character’s appearance also changes to reflect your choice. Melee characters are more buff, ranged characters are taller and magic characters have these funky glowing lines all over the body. To get experience in a specific field you fight using that field’s weapon i.e. to get more experience to upgrade you Strength, use more melee attacks.

The graphics are quite outstanding. The effects of the magic spells are mesmerizing to say the least. The sound also is damn good; with voice acting that is very realistic.

Henchman everywhere

The multiplayer co-op has caused quite an uproar. I honestly don’t understand why. When you run around in the world, you will see floating orbs moving around. These orbs are other players busy playing the game. You can then run up to an orb and invite the player to you’re your game… quite an ingenious way of working around the “lobby room” scenario. Where the whole uproar comes from is when you join another player’s game, you can only play as a henchman. A henchman, I might add, that has all your skills and experience. Any gold, experience and abilities that you unlock while playing as a henchman, you keep. Items however you can not take over to your game.

There has also been some commotion about the bugs in the game. Sometimes quests can’t be completed because a NPC doesn’t want to react. I’ll admit this happened to me once, but leaving the area and coming back fixed this for me. Hopefully Lionhead will release an update to fix this. My personal pet peeve is the loading time between the menu & in-game. After closing the menu, it usually takes about 3 seconds before you can actually start moving your character. Definitely not a showstopper but still quite irritating.

All in all this is a very, very enjoyable game. A game that will keep you busy for hours and even will keep you busy after you have finished your main quest. I’m also sure that Lionhead will release some DLC at a later stage to keep you busy with new quests. In a nutshell, I highly recommend this game.

Scoring:

Gameplay: 9.5/10 [There is just so much to do] Presentation: 9/10 [Graphics well done, not glitchy at all] Sound: 8.5/10 [Voice acting done well] Value: 9/10 [The freedom of choice allows for great replay value] Overall: 9/10 [Will keep you busy for hours]

Last Updated: October 31, 2008