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FABLE II

Developed by Lionhead. Published by Microsoft.

Controller1.com presents a review of Fable II, the highly hyped sequel to one of the most hyped games ever to not suck.

Yes, Fable part 1 had a lot of hype, a lot of promises that didn’t make the final game and a lot of people annoyed at Peter Molyneux. Fable 1 (if you avoided the hyperbole before its release) was actually a pretty good game. My only criticism was that by the end you were overpowered by the time you reached the final battle. Fable II fixes a lot of minor irritations with the first game.

You start off as a young boy or a girl (you choose), who eventually grows up to be a hero in the world of Albion, the same world as the first game but hundreds of years later- a place where belief in magic has disappeared. Your family has been shattered by a villain up to no good for reasons best understood by himself and the people at Lionhead. So, just like any RPG, you play a character and level them up the Lionhead way. You have a main story whereby you become a hero and have to search for a number of other heroes to help you defeat the Big Bad at the heart of the main quest. Along the way you have many, many side quests and have all of the distractions Fable was so good at. I.e- trading, buying property and becoming a landlord, having relationships and families. Most of which doesn’t impact too much on the main quest. Its really a game where the Main Quest can be a very small part of your play experience. Just like going to school. You don’t have to study, you just get through it faster if you do.

There’s never any sense that you aren’t levelled up enough to face any challenge, though the more money you earn, the better weapons you will be able to afford. For an RPG, armour is strangely absent so you can have your character run around in their underwear and not incur any extra damage. You can hold a lot of stuff in your inventory but can only have one ranged and one melee weapon assigned at anyone time. Melee is on one button, ranged is on another, Magic (called Will) on another. So while you have flourishes and can charge up your Will attacks, its not overly complex. Its not bad, its just not that deep. Combat is button mashing but generally enjoyable because when you die you just get knocked out for a but and if you don’t have a revive potion, you just lose XP when you run out of health. You are instantly revived with a lower XP rating but otherwise you can just continue.

The main quest itself is interesting but what sets Fable apart from most RPG’s is the depth of is normally the other bullshit RPG makers throw in to make it longer. You can do odd jobs which are mostly repetitive timing-based minigames such as pulling pints or chopping wood, you can go looking for the various methods to opening demon doors, hunt gargoyles, go on bounty hunter missions, save slave, etc. Mostly for gold (and of course gathering XP along the way), but also for Reknown.

Reknown is Fable’s currency for making sure you do side missions before continuing on the main quest. Which means side quests are partly integrated into the main quest, which is nice. And of course, you have choices whether you behave or act like an asshole (as in Mass Effect and KotOR). Your character’s body will evolve as you play the game. If you get stronger, your character gets bigger. If you eat junk food and drink beer, your character gets fat. If you are pure and eat well, you can lose weight. I chose to eat celery and my character still ended yo looking like a candidate for the Biggest Loser.

You can make people like you by expressions that you find and earn throughout the game. You can scowl, fart, flirt, seduce, scare, offer gifts, dance etc in order to intimidate people, make them like you, etc. A far more evolved version of that in GTA IV, though really in the end they don’t influence the main quest all that much. I got married in Fable I just to see what it was like. I have since gotten married in real life so the attraction to do it in game just wasn’t there but I did manage to have lesbian sex with Carol the Whore and then when I wouldn’t marry her, she started shooting a gun at me and following me wherever I went. I killed her because she was annoying me and felt utterly horrible. So I reloaded my last save. She may have been a Whore (She was Carol the Whore), but she was a human whore.

And then there’s the dog. The Dog is your companion and you can have specific expressions for your dog such as heal, play with, punish, etc. Your dog will bark when treasure is nearby or growl when enemies are around. If you’re a cat person, then you’re shit out of luck.

So how about those more technical aspects of the game. There are some basic online co-op options but I didn’t test any of them since they didn’t add much. If any one from your friends list is playing the same location as you, you will see their avatar and you can join the other’s game (but not as your character). Overall, the game’s presentation is mostly good with a few rough edges at transitions (ie when you beat a mission and the next bit loads or saves, people you were talking with will suddenly disappear).

Graphics are nice and the game manages to keep a decent frame rate though particle effects tend to make the game chug somewhat. Sounds is vbery good and while many American players find the rural English accents forced, they are better than every village hag sounding like Dame Judi Wench. Sound Effects are nice, and musically the game hits the right notes.

Fable II is a very good game and its initial sales success are definitely well deserved. This is a good Zelda style adventure for those not into the grit of Oblivion, Fallout or Mass Effect (or MMO’s). Its got so much that if you didn’t want to play the main quest you’d easily get your money’s worth with the reast of the package. The story is definitely worth playing. It goes into some very dark places later in the game, much darker than the rest of the package and you have to do some heartbreaking things in order to progress.

Controller1.com rating 3/3. This game does so much right, and unique that you really should find the 15 or so hours you need to play through it. The only downside is I now have to go into Fallout 3 having just played a longish game.