Fable 2 (Xbox 360)

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Tru
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Fable 2 (Xbox 360)

Post by Tru »

I've been playing it a lot lately, so figured I could write about it :biggrin:

Fable 2

What I enjoy most about Role Playing Games is the ability to actually role play a character within a fantasy world. Western RPG’s can be more fun in this respect as many give you the choice to create and shape your own character, allowing you to scope your own imagination to whatever limit the game world imposes on you. This is why games like The Elder Scrolls and the Fable series draw me back in time and time again. Each new game is a different character, a different world.

My recent Fable 2 addiction then has lead to a few new characters and worlds. In one, I started as an evil gun-toting assassin that ended up as a woman by the end of the game. My second character was an obese holy man that was also too lazy to use a sword, but who wanted to do right by the world, despite how tiring it was. The third was a sword wielding family man that accidentally gave freshly picked flowers to the bloke standing next to his wife, leading to a quick divorce and issues relating to his own sexuality.

I am a big fan of the Fable series and they certainly continue to grow. The world is much bigger than the original Xbox classic, instead of a HUD we are guided by man’s best friend that accompanies you everywhere, able to be trained in fighting and treasure hunting. Instead of bows we now have pistols, rifles and blunderbusses and a few other changes.. But at the heart of the world of Albion is the same British humour and charm, weaved across an epic Robin Hood style aesthetic as you travel across a variety of lands, defeating bandits, balverines and hobbes and you can still woo men and women alike with a series of different expressions, ranging from flirting to farting.

The ‘good vs evil’ choices are back, which also affect the appearance of your hero as well as the reaction of NPC’s around you. However, we also have a new alignment between ‘purity’ and ‘corruption’ which is affected by the foods you eat and your general greediness. The morality options may have seemed somewhat clichéd in the first game, but they’ve been tweaked here and include choices with real consequences, some of which cause you to stop and think.

The combat is more or less the same, but has been simplified somewhat in order to attract a more casual audience. Melee, ranged and magic attacks are mapped to a button each and skills can be learnt by gathering related experience. There were some criticisms about the simplicity of the single button combat, but I honestly never felt put off with it and liked mixing up short and long range attacks. I especially enjoyed the sub-targeting option for long range weapons.

The difficulty curve has also been reduced, and this is perhaps the crucial difference between the two Fable games. In the first, all damage your character took was converted into scars and being defeated resulted in retries. In the sequel, if you are defeated, you lose experience and become scarred; however the Knothole download content offers ways to remove scarring, meaning that not even this is a punishment in itself. Players can pick up from where they left off when beaten and it is debatable whether this is a better way to handle failure over a blank game over screen or not.

Personally speaking, the only thing from the original Fable that I missed in its successor was the exp bonuses for chaining attacks and also the boast challenges which allowed you to set your own difficulty level for quests. I would love to see that return again.

The ending of the game also received some criticism. Firstly, the end itself is somewhat anti-climatic. Secondly, your dog remains an important gameplay mechanism throughout, yet at the end you are forced to make a choice which could include losing your faithful companion. Some gamers failed to recognise the ramifications of such a choice and what it meant within the game, thus the option became available within the Knothole DLC to return your dog back to you.

The DLC by the way is a welcome addition and comes in two packages: Knothole Island introduces a whole new town and three additional dungeons. Here there are new clothes, weapons and special items which can alter the physical appearance of your hero as well as the aforementioned dog replacement. The second, See the Future, is split between two quests, a preview of Albion’s future within the third Fable game, and an added coliseum where you can fight for points and glory. This also adds extra items and also achievements, both DLC are fun and add more to the Fable world.

It is credit to the Fable games that I continue to play them so much. Fable has grown, perhaps in directions that the hardcore gamers may not always appreciate, but it still remains a fun game which looks at RPG’s in a more light hearted way. The third game in the series is due out later this year and will be growing in even stranger directions, with the promise of a darker Charles Dickens inspired world and strategic elements thrown in the mix. I’m excited to see where it will go and know I’ll probably be playing that one for months to come as well.
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Post by INeedFruit »

Yup just brought Fable 2 for £6. Great review Ms Cloudchaser!
I heard that the third game is split into 2 parts. The first is travelling around and making promises to people in exchange for helping overthrowing the king and the second half is becoming ruler and keeping/breaking those promises! sounds good :)
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Tru
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Post by Tru »

Thanks!

Yeah, it sounds like it's gonna be really interesting with some intriguing political overtones as well.
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Post by Reknoc »

Ctrl+F "Buggy Mess" no results. hm.
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Tru
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Post by Tru »

I never experienced a single bug with Fable 2. Not once.

Having just started playing Fable 3 though, I've come across loads of them, including a game breaking one that has forced me to restart :\ Not happy.
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Post by Reknoc »

Then you're one of the lucky ones. Day one I had a game breaking bug and had to start a new character. Yesterday I was playing to mop up the achievements, it bugged out so I couldn't use my gun and shoot the gargoyles. Dialog, quests, AI constantly bug out and act unnaturally to how they're supposed to.

I mean it's still a great game, but a very very broken one. Fable 2 is why I didn't preorder Fable 3, give Lionhead abit of a headstart to at least make it more playable.
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Post by RWDebara »

Good review.

Also never had issues with Fable 2 but i have encountered a few bugs in Fable 3 but nothing game breaking.
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Post by Reknoc »

And that's why Fable 2 has remained unpolished and broken. Not everyone was lucky enough not for the game to totally bug and glitch out which made it hard for Lionhead to see what needed to be fixing. Other than the game getting a few more months in the oven.
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