Fable II

"Albion Needs A Hero Once More"

Fable 2

Fable 2 is a Role Playing Game with a lot of potential. Fable 2 was a highly anticipated game from Lionhead Studios and the sequel to the very popular Xbox original exclusive Fable. Fable 2 is set 200 years after the events of the original Fable and follows the story of Little Sparrow. Like it's predecessor, Fable 2 is exclusive to the Xbox 360.

Story - 8/10

At the very start, the player is given a choice to play as a boy or a girl. Fable 2 starts off with the Hero dubbed Litte Sparra' (Sparrow) as poor homeless boy/girl with his/her bigger sister Rose. Rose and Sparrow dream about living in Fairfax Castle and soon a magical travel merchant offers to sell a music box that can make any one wish come true. The siblings then manage to scrounge together 5 coins and make some decision that will affect the future and even met a faithful dog, but yet to their dismay the music box never seemed to work. Lord Lucien, the owner of Fairfax Castle is interested in the magic music box and soon discovers that one of them is a hero foretold to bring about his downfall so he kills Rose and shoots Sparrow who then falls to his death but the hero blood inside him keeps him alive and is comforted by his dog and gypsy seer.

When Sparrow reaches his/her teens, this is when the game really begins and awakens the hero blood that has been dormant inside his body. Sparrow is now on a quest to avenge his sister's death and to do so must bring together the three heroes of strength, skill and will.

Gameplay - 7/10

Fable 2 battle system is very easy to understand, with using only 3 buttons for battles. Although abilities can be upgraded and allow Sparrow to become a better hero which include, blocking, rolling and manual aiming and even learn new magic or upgrade existing magic for better effect. In order to upgrade and buy new abilities, experience orbs must be collected that fall from enemies. There are four different types, strength, skill, will and general. Upgraded characters also change appearance of the character like strength makes you more muscular, skill makes you taller and will makes blue will lines appear all over your body.

In towns and villages the character is able to do a range of things including getting a job as a bartender, blacksmith, wood-chopper and even a contract killer. This is the primary way the player can make money. The player can also buy from any of the shops or stalls around towns as long as their open. In Fable 2 the player can also buy almost any of the property they see in the game including house and shops. Buying a house and renting it out is a poplar way of making money as the rent is given ever 5 minutes and is still given when the Xbox console is turned off. This makes earning money too easy as players can easily manipulate the system clock.

Fable 2 has a set of alinement's, including good/evil, pure/corrupt, slim/fat and attractive/ugly. All of them affect the character's appearance and the dog that follows you too. In general being a good person is a better looking person and an evil person is ugly. Good/evil is general to do with your action in Albion like, stealing or murdering is evil but rescuing slaves and killing criminals is good. Pure/corrupt is more how you act as a person, high rents, long lie-ins are corrupting things but low rents and eating fruit is an act or pureness. Slim/fat and attractive/ugly are pretty much common sense so I won't bother explaining.

The player is able to get married and have children but a problem that I have with this is the children never seem to grow up past 9 which is quite annoying, I would have been quite cool if he/she got to be a teenager and went exploring with his dad. Having a relationship with people, love interest or just friends, must be done by using the expression wheel. It's quite empty at first but a quick trip to the book store will help fill it up.

Graphics - 7/10

The graphics in Fable 2 are good but they are nothing special. The animation of the different expressions are well done and some can be quite be funny at times even when you mess up an extended expression (The fart expression comes to mind). The clothes that your character can buy are nicely designed and customizable with the use of different dyes.

The foliage isn't anything special and doesn't really interact with the character too much but that doesn't affect the gameplay in anyway. Another thing I do not like is when the character digs for something, the animation is terrible and shows no signs that something has been dug up but again this is a minor nit-pick that doesn't affect the game whatsoever.

The towns and villages are really nice to look at and have beautiful designed from the detail in the building interiors and details of the walkways. My favourite is the Wraithmarsh. The Wraithmarsh is a abandoned village that has been cursed with a foggy swamp. It is a really spooky place and graphically one of the best examples in Fable 2.

Sound/Voice Acting - 6/10

My first major problem with the voice acting is the lack of dialogue for the main character, Sparrow doesn't even get any silent dialogue at all. In facts he/she makes decision by using expressions. The only time you hear your character ever make a noise is when he/she is mumbling during an expression or if he successfully digs something up and shouts “yeh”. The characters that do have voice acting are actually pretty good, it's just a shame that the delays in the dialogue can be a little sluggish at times like it sometimes takes a second or two after you've accepted the quest before they start talking.

The music and sound effects in Fable 2 are nicely done, and quite a pleasure to listen to. The shots of the rifles and pistols sound somewhat realistic. The clash of steel or the thud of a hammer are also well done. The only small nit-pick is the battle music that sometimes comes on can be pretty annoying at times but other than that the audio in Fable 2 is alight.

Overall - 7/10

Fable 2 is a really good and additive games and is a fun little adventure that can experiment with having several characters with different good/evil personality's. Although the Fable 2 story line is quite short there are plenty of things that can be done after the main story has finished. If your a fan of Role Playing Games then buy this game and give it a try.

Summary
Story: 8
Gameplay: 7
Graphics: 7
Sound/Voice Acting: 6
Overall: 7

Fable 2 DLC coming soon

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/09

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