Fable II Pub Games

"I'd suggest simply buying Fable II, unless you really want some achievements and some uninteresting items."

The original Fable on Xbox was an influential game, which has gotten some mixed reviews. Some believed it couldn't live up to the hype it had created, some said it was the best game of the year and others simply had fun with it. You could be good, evil, your actions influenced your appearance, you could buy houses, in short, the world was yours. However, players overall still believed the game had more potential than was delivered to them. Now, with Fable II coming out shortly, the hype is back. Improvements, better graphics, more items, more details: gamers around the world are practically drooling over this game. Now, just like movies have (teaser) trailers, Lionhead Studios has released a small part of the actual Fable II game on Xbox Live Arcade. Don't expect to fight monsters or do quests though: as the name already suggests, Fable II Pub Games is all about earning gold (and a few items while we're at it) in simple bar games.

Fable II Pub Games (PB for short) has three different games: Spinnerbox, Keystone and Fortune's Tower. By betting in those games you can earn points: every gold piece you bet nets you one point. By gaining points you can unlock different tables of the three games: you can usually bet more on those tables, or the rules are slightly different on them.

Spinnerbox is a medieval version of a slot machine. You have 3, 4, 5 or 6 switches (depending on which table you play) that spin, and show a symbol (a house, a shield, anything). It's your goal to make the same symbols line up (2 is sometimes enough to win, but the more the better). The problem is, you have absolutely no say over the outcome of the switches. The game is all luck, which gets boring. You will find yourself pressing “A” a lot, probably without even looking at the screen after a while. Some tables add some variance, by having an extra rule. An example is the Cow and Corset table, which let you have a free spin which always wins, if you get 3 bonus symbols on your switches. Other than that, this game is quite boring.

Keystone requires more skill, albeit not much more. Keystone is sort of like a roulette table. Three dices are rolled, and you can bet on the outcome. All sorts of bets are possible, from picking “8” or “even”, to “12-18” or “triple 1”. The lower the odds of it happening, the more gold you will win by betting on it. The keystone is “10-11”, which is were the name of the game came from. Something this game has that no roulette table has, are the Arch Bets. Above all the numbers 3-18 are so-called arches, which are blocks you can only bet on before the actual game begins. When a number gets rolled in the game, its arch will disappear, and the person who has bet on it will win gold. If a number gets rolled and its arch is already gone from previous rolls, the arch next to it (left if 10 or lower, right if 11 or higher) will disappear. The numbers 3, 10, 11 and 18 have special arches. When the number 3 or 18 is reached either directly by rolling it, or indirectly by having no arches left between it and the thrown number, the game ends. The game also ends when both 10 and 11 (the keystone) is gone. A variation of this game you can unlock is called Bloodstone, in which all bets are always 50, but you bet against the dice here. If your bet isn't rolled, you win gold. This game is quite fun, and a bit more complicated than the Spinnerbox.

The final game, and also my favorite one, is called Fortune's Tower. The deck you play with in this card game is different than normal decks: the deck contains 8, 9 or 10 of each card ranked 1 through 7. There are also 4 hero cards. After your bet, which is always 15 or a multiple of 15, you start with 1 card facedown (the Gate card), and 2 cards face up (the second row). Those 2 cards' values are added to each other (for instance, a 3 and 6 will have 9) and will be the offer of that row, which you can cash. You can always take the offer, but remember your bet: try not to take an offer lower than it or you'll lose gold. If you decide not to take the offer, you can get another row, which will have 1 card more than the previous one, and thus more chance of a better offer. However, whenever you catch a “vertical pair” (a card on one row touches a card of the same rank on the previous row), the game is over and your bet is lost. The more rows, the more gold, but also more chance of a game over. The heroes (there are 4) can protect you against these vertical pairs. When you have a hero in your row, that row is safe from vertical pairs (but only that row…). When you do catch a vertical pair, the dealer will replace the card on the lower row with the Gate card, but he'll do this only once. The Gate card gives you another chance at winning the game. If you manage to get 8 rows without using your Gate card, you win the Jackpot and you get the values of all the cards on the table. As you can see, this game requires a bit of strategy to win. It's exciting to try to win as much as possible, but it's really easy to lose.

Those are the three games you can play in PB. Three games you can play for free in Fable II, which almost everyone who has purchased this will buy! I'd say it's a shame they charge us 800 MS points for this. They should have made it free, or perhaps 400 MS points, or they should've at least added more games. There's no online play either, so you can't prolong the game by challenging some friends. The 3 games are simply not entertaining enough to make this game last more a few hours. Sure, you can choose between 6 characters (and you can merge those for 6 more), but this has absolutely no influence on the game. It would be nice to have them have some sort of impact on the games you play, given the premise of the Fable games, but alas, it isn't included. This brings us to the main reason at least 90% of the players will have bought this: the Fable II items. Not only can you use the gold you earn in this game with your Fable II character, but you are able to unlock 15 exclusive Fable II items by playing the same 3 games in tournaments, which is basically the same as the single player, only now you have to beat the opponents' scores to win. Luckily, they're not really intelligent (betting the lowest amount possible in the last hand, when your only chance at winning is a maximum bet? Really, that's brilliant…), so it's easy to win those items. The items themselves aren't even really special. A few body modifications, some power-ups and some weapons. Sure, the weapons look pretty fun, but I sincerely doubt this game's items will even remotely affect my Fable II game. Add to this the fact that after unlocking the items, you probably will have grown bored of this game and stop playing it entirely. You can also unlock some pieces of concept art, which, admittedly, look really nice, but it's basically nothing more than some extras. I can't help but to be disappointed by this game. The only things to enjoy are Fortune's Tower and the comforting sound the game has (it actually sounds like a medieval pub, nice job there). The graphics do their job, but aren't important in a casino game like this. They look good enough not to distract though.

Summary: this anticipated game is disappointing, and not worth the MS points. Two out of the three games are too simple, and get boring fast. Besides, all three games are in Fable II. The 15 exclusive Fable II items are nothing special, and will hardly affect your Fable II game. The concept art is nice to look out, but it's no reason to buy this game. The sound is nice and comforting, the graphics are decent and the lay-out of the game is clear. I'd suggest only buying this if you want some easy achievements (you can get most of them by blindly pressing “A” a couple of thousand times), or if you're a collector freak (the 15 Fable II items are in this game only). If this game didn't have the Fable name, or the items, it would've hardly sold. The only thing that saves this game from a 4 is Fortune's Tower, which is actually quite fun, and the exclusive items (I admit it, I love collecting useless stuff). They could've, and should've done better with this.

5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/18/08, Updated 08/21/08

Game Release: Fable II Pub Games (EU, 08/13/08)