Developer: Lionhead Studios
Publisher: Microsoft
Genre: Action RPG
Players: 1-2
Platform: Xbox 360
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)
Hours Played: 25
Once again we are thrown into the fantasy world of Albion that Peter Molyneux has created. This time around the game is larger, prettier and supposedly better than before. With the other big titles out there, can Fable 2 hold its own and live up to the hype? That’s what we are going to find out.
Story
The story is very straight-forward, so if you have ever read a fantasy book or played a fantasy game before you should not be too surprised about what is happening in Albion. A once fair and extremely rich man has turned evil and is creating a fortress of unimaginable power and it is up to you (the last of the heroic bloodline) to stop him and his recruited gang of ruffians with your powers and friends. Now you may be saying, “Oh boy, here we go again with another lame story for an RPG.” I’m going to say you are right, the story it self is nothing new, nor does it try to be dangerous or over the top, that is exactly why it is so good. The first half of the story may leave you yawning and predicting what comes next, but the story picks up and begins to get more interesting the closer you are to the end. The longer you play, the more interested in the game you will be. Sadly that is not always a good thing, as once you meet up with all the characters and really start to enjoy the company the game ends shortly after. Hmm, I wonder if they planned on having another sequel.
Graphics
Breathtaking. There is nothing like coming out of a cave full of monsters to the sunrise with birds flying across and the sky and the trees flowing in the wind. They may not be Crysis or Gears of War graphics, but they are impressive none-the-less. Spell effects are what you would expect and later on the higher level spells look really impressive. The first time I saw a level 5 lightning spell I realized my jaw was hanging down. People look kind of funny, but that’s just how they look in the Fable universe. Towns, weapons and all the good stuff look very well done. Even the houses further in the distance in Bowerstone look good. The only drag is the game engine will slow down at times. If there is too much happening on screen the game will go into a almost slow motion mode to hide the fact the console isn’t powerful enough to cope with all of the stuff (Ed. note: Or that the code is not optimized well enough). I can only dream how good it would look and how well it would run on a powerful PC.
Sound
Sound effects are spot on here. The key thing about the sound in this game is the chatter from the characters throughout Albion. The reason why this is special to note is because there is no formal dialogue. You simply walk up to people and they will say things relating depending on how good or moral you are. The only downside is, well, no dialogue. The music is very well done; it really helps draw you into the experience. Music will shift from lovely melodies while looking out in the distance at a waterfall to more intense sound when danger is approaching. Everything sounds as it should; Lionhead did a great job making sure sounds were top notch.
Gameplay
One could say the combat has improved, but I’d like to say the combat has taken a side-step. Combat has taken on a new shape, the shape of a single button. Melee attacks (Strength) are assigned to X, Skill (Ranged) attacks to Y and Will (Magic) attacks to B. The simplest way to describe the attacks is that the longer you hold down the button, the stronger your attack will be. Sounds simple, and it is for the most part. A lot of people will miss the old mechanic of assigning attacks to a certain direction, and the rest of the people will really enjoy this new one. The only real problem with the new fighting scheme is with the spell selector which assigns your spells to different levels. To reach higher levels of a spell you will need to hold the will button down longer. The problem is you can only have one spell for each level, which there are five of. So say you want a level 2 Fireball and level 2 Chaos to be quickly pulled off, it’s not going to happen. If you enjoy having most of your spells quickly accessible you may not enjoy this a great deal, but will eventually come to agreeable terms with it.
There is no possible way to talk about gameplay without mentioning the dog . Your furry best friend will help you find treasure, dig spots, help take out knocked down enemies, alert you of nearby danger and even help you score with the townsfolk. What’s not to love? Hopefully like myself, people will become attached to the little guy and spend some time playing fetch and making sure he is at full health to help take out those ruffians. Speaking of health, you get a health meter at the top left corner of the screen which will decrease if you take damage. To restore lost life you can either eat food or take a potion which can grant experience points later on. Depending on the food you choose you will gain certain bonuses or penalties, such as fatness from eating too much pie. The real problem is you never know how much health points you have. Food and potions restore a certain number of health but the only way to tell how much health you have is by the bar in the top left-hand corner of the screen.
You have three main stats, Strength which affects things such as your physical damage and how much life you have, Skill which affects your ranged damage and how fast you can reload, and lastly Will which lets you choose new spells and how fast you can charge them. To increase your stats you will need to gain experience orbs that magically appear before fallen enemies. The type of experience orbs that drop will depend on what type of combat skills you are using. If you choose to use mainly Will attacks, you gain more will experience, this applies to both Strength and Skill abilities as well. This type of experience gaining really gives you control of what type of character you want to create without the class restriction of many other RPGs out there. If you want to be a ghoul summoning archer with a flaming sword, then by all means go for it!
What makes Fable such a great game are the choices you get to make. The game at its core is very simple, but what makes it unique is that you choose pretty well everything you do along the way to create your version of this epic tale. You can choose to get married and have children or be a total bad-ass and sleep with as many women as you can and kill everyone else being the only male left alive. Finally you can be the last man alive! It’s all up to you and how you want to play the game, which gives the game almost unlimited replay value. The choices are almost limitless, though the choice of multiplayer should probably have been left out. If you want you can bring a buddy into the game world, but your friend will not be able to play as their own character, instead they will have to choose a pre-made avatar. The only thing your friend will keep will be their stats, all clothes and items don’t make the trip. Another thing I should mention is the character movement. Movement is not as tight as it was in the previous Fable and feels less responsive, which can lead to problems in small or tight areas.
Though the game is larger, the world of Albion is broken into small areas just as in the first game. By now we have games such as Farcry 2, Oblivion and Fallout 3 where the entire game is laid out before you and are free to explore to your liking, it’s a shame that Fable has not taken to this idea yet. The separated areas take away from the idea of a huge world to explore, though doesn’t make Fable a bad game, hopefully a future Fable will be more like a giant sandbox to play in. Also, where is the mini-map? Having to revert to a map in the start menu isn’t exactly convenient, though the map will first appear when you press the start button. In a game where you are able to explore a large world it’s usually handy to have some sort of on screen map.
The impression I get from Lionhead is that they tried to make a game that caters to both casual and the hardcore players. There is a logbook that keeps track of pretty well everything you do, there are lots of treasure chests and gargoyles to find throughout Albion. Things like an actual number representing your health, dialogue between characters instead of an Emote Wheel and an armour system are all missing from the game, and it makes me wonder for whom exactly they were trying to make this game. Also, there is only one save slot, so people who like to try out new characters will have to save over their previous game.
Pros
+ Graphics can make you say, “Whoa”
+ Choices impact pretty well everything in the game
+ The dog really is your best friend
Cons
– No dialogue, have to use the Emote system to communicate with people
– Game seems unsure whether it wants to be hardcore or casual
– Co-op needs a lot of work
– Only one save file
8.0