Fable II

"Is it good or is it evil?"

Fable II is the second instalment of RPG action from developer Lionhead. You play the game as a Hero seeking vengeance against an evil tyrant in the world of Albion. The game is set 500 years after the first Fable.

The game was preceded by Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters for the first Xbox, as well as Fable II: Pub Games, a downloadable game, which allows you to earn money to spend in the main game by playing pub games. I think that kind of intuitive approach to developing a game should be applauded, but it's a shame the pub games weren't that good themselves. On the bright side, at least Lionhead didn't hype this beyond belief then release a game missing half the features it was promised to contain (yes, you, Peter Molyneux) like the first Fable.

Story:
I enjoyed the story to a degree because of the authenticity of the characters. They had personality and were really brought to life by the voice acting. I was pleased to see that there was conflict between the Heroes, and that there was a range of behaviours instead of a group of friendly, boring adventurers. The main quests are long and solid chapters, if slightly stereotypical and seen before. The sidequests are enjoyable “off the beaten track” objectives, which break up the main quests well and provide some appreciated comic relief. You are led to objectives by a trail of bright yellow orbs, which you can opt to turn off or keep. In one instance, the yellow path took me to a place I needed to be for a quest, but nothing was there, therefore I could not complete the quest. The next time I visited the location, the trail took me to a box with nothing in it, but in the same area. This is unacceptable because I cannot continue the quest further. It took me an approximate 15 hours to finish the game at my own pace.

Gameplay:
There is a broad spectrum of gameplay, so I have broken it down:

Controls:
Overall, the controls are usable, though very awkward at times. For instance, it is often difficult to navigate though buildings without getting stuck. Perhaps this is more of a level design issue, however. Combat controls are fine, however, with the X button for melee attacks, Y for ranged attacks and B for Will spells. The combat controls are quite satisfying and pleasing to use. Apart from that, there isn't really much to say about the controls.

Combat:
Combat in Fable II works handsomely! There are three main fighting styles, Strength, Skill and Will. Strength uses brute force to combat foes, employing weapons such as swords, maces and hammers, whereas Skill uses guns (specifically pistols, crossbows, a huge blunderbuss and rifles) to attack enemies. Finally, Will uses magic spells to causes a range of effects, from simple attack spells such as lightning and fireballs (which can be upgraded to titanic balls of energy) to time alteration and, strangely, the ability to make your enemies scrub the floor clean! Spells can be directed towards specific targets or smashed down into the ground, causing a blast radius around you, which increases as you charge up the spell.

All this whupass unleashing nets you experience orbs. Annoyingly, every time you want the orbs the enemies drop, you have to hold in the R trigger until they are absorbed into you, which leaves you vulnerable to attack. It would make life easier if they were just absorbed automatically, or if you only had to tap the R trigger once and they'd be absorbed without having to hold in the trigger. You get experience in the style (Strength, Skill or Will) you used to kill the enemy to spend in that particular style, as well as general experience, which can be spent in all of the styles. If you die, you simply get back up with a small exp loss (which isn't anything to worry about) and you also gain an irremovable scar. You can heal with potions or food, but to be honest, I don't think there's much point. There are virtually no consequences of being careless with death. Notably, there is no armour, only clothes. This is quite strange for an RPG (even if it is an action one), but perhaps Lionhead did this is to simplify the gameplay and focus on accessibility. The clothes give properties such as attractiveness, aggressiveness and poshness.

Menu:
A large part of Fable II is the pause menu. Unfortunately, things are made annoying and difficult because of the snail's pace lag the menu constantly has, as well as the fact that every time you enter a sub menu and go back, you aren't taken to the option you selected out of the list, but instead back to the top of the menu. This is very troublesome if you have to keep going into the same menu repeatedly. Aside from this annoyance, the menu is a rather useful tool because it lets you save, view your quests, travel to regions, spend experience points, equip different clothes and weapons, and consume food and potions as well as other things. One thing I found particularly enjoyable was the logbook. The logbook holds information about almost everything you have done, including the player's good/evil and pure/corrupt status bars, quests complete and even how many seconds you have played the game. It's just a real shame that the menu is constantly crawling when it should be sprinting.

Content:
Fable II has a surprisingly vast amount of things to do. You can get a job to earn money, buy properties and stalls, clothes, weapons and, err, condoms and prostitutes. The economy of Fable II is always alive, whether you're there to see it or not. If you buy some stalls or rent out some houses, every 5 minutes you will earn some money. This happens whether your Xbox is on or not (although the process is faster if you are playing the game).

The economy is quite a cool concept that I haven't really seen explored in this much detail in any other game. Doing jobs, earning money and spending it in the town will raise the economy, but going on crime sprees and stealing etc will lower it. One glitch I noticed was that when Bowerstone Market was highlighted, it didn't show the economy star 5/5 as it was, but either 1/5 stars as the region above it was, or 3/5 stars as the region below it was. For instance, if I was scrolling down, it would appear 1/5 stars, but if I was scrolling up it would appear 3/5, when in fact it was 5/5 stars. A minor problem, but it was annoying.

In each town you visit, there are villagers. You may also start a relationship with any male or female you desire, providing they are attracted to your Heroes' sex, then marry and have children (obviously in straight marriages only). After marriage, you can get divorced, commit adultery or even become widowed. To interact with villagers and citizens of Albion, you can use expressions, which range from Fun and Flirty to Scary and Rude. You can also play with your dog and show off trophies you have earned, gaining renown from nearby people. Renown is basically how famous you are and how many people know who you are, and isn't that important in my opinion.

The world of Albion has many flaws, but one of the most annoying I found whilst playing the game was the lack of response when you press A on the property document (there's one outside of every building you are able to in the game). On one instance I stood directly in front of one of these documents and had to press A to examine it 5 times before it responded. This happened regularly, and I am not impressed that something as big in the game is left slightly awkward to use because Lionhead couldn't be bothered to fix it.

You can decide to be good or evil and pure or corrupt. Yes, the paragon concept is interesting- you may be good and corrupt, or evil and pure. It's your choice whether you want to be a caring chap or a venomous villain. The good path gives you a halo, whereas the darker side gives you horns, and you are followed by flies. Your choices also have an effect on the your dog, which is acquired near the beginning of the game, turning a lighter colour if you opt to be good, but darker if you opt to be evil. The dog helps you to dig up treasure, locate chests and you can play fetch with it.

Graphics:
The graphics in Fable II are simply wonderful. The only flaws I can think of are that during fight scenes or sprinting, the frame rate drops quite noticeably and things can get a bit wobbly. Other than that, the game has superb graphics, notably the Will spells, sometimes insane lighting (particularly near the end of the game) and crescents, which are incredibly realistic (if unfortunately seldom). Concerning the Hero you play as, there is an immense amount of customisation on offer. You can play as a porky angel with a particular fondness of apple pies, or a skinny devil with dyed hair and a badass outfit. Similarly, levelling up in Strength makes the player more muscular, whereas Skill experience makes the player taller and Will experience causes blue veins to appear all over the player. You play as different ages of the hero as the game progresses, you age. Additionally, the clothes the character wears frequently glitch into other people (or more often, his or herself). The dog also has these types of issues. Another issue I have is that the villager character models are very limited, say ten different models, so this means that you often see several of the exact same person walking about. There isn't enough variety in that aspect. Hilariously (and a bit off the point), I loaded up my save once and when I moved my character, his legs didn't move, he just floated about. It fixed itself after five minutes or so but I can imagine people getting frustrated with this kind of thing, especially when trying to do a difficult quest or whatnot (I was just wandering Albion).

Sound:
Fable II has an appropriate soundtrack, with noticeable voice talent from Zoe Wanamaker and Stephen Fry. To be honest, the music and sound effects are almost flawless, but especially in the jobs and when running around towns, there are only a limited amount of voices, so by the end of the game you will probably be tired of hearing the same voices over and over again. You can also buy and play a Lute, which is fun.

Multiplayer/Online:
I have not personally played multiplayer or online, so I cannot comment about these parts of the game.

Replayability/Rent or Buy/Conclusion:
Fable II is a great game, but not a brilliant one. There could have been so much more solidity and substance had Lionhead had an extra year to tweak and perfect what could have been such a mind-blowing game. The potential was huge, and hopefully Fable III can bring a more rounded game. This certainly improves upon the first game, but I just can't recommend this to buy. Sure, rent it by all means because it is an awesome game, but the flaws are impossible to ignore. Die-hard Fable fans go ahead, but if you want a similar but better experience, I definitely recommend Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Oh, and Yahtzee was right, the male hero does start off with a hilarious mullet.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/08, Updated 12/18/09

Game Release: Fable II (EU, 10/24/08)