FABLE 2 review

Fable 2 is an action RPG developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was designed by one of the most known game designers, Peter Molyneux. While he might be famous for his overenthusiastic description of the first Fable game, he is still one of a kind game designer. There aren't many designers that were honored by the English government with a title of officer in the Order of the British Empire and Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. But the question is, how does it affect Fable 2? While not revolutionary, Fable 2, like its designer, is one of a kind game.

Story
Like every other RPG, the bottom line of the story of Fable 2 is good versus evil. You start as a child in the fantasy world of Albion and witness a tragic event that will change your life forever (I mean the life of your character, not your real life of course). To achieve your goal you can be good or you can be evil. I don't want to say more about the story as I feel this would ruin the game. I will simply say that the story itself is good but not amazing.

What makes this game really shine is the attention to details. As I said earlier, you can be good or evil. How you handle quests will have an impact on your environment and the story. For example, at some point in the game, you will have an quest to help a farmer get rid of bandits and you will have another quest to help the bandit organisation recruit more members. Obviously you can't do both. If you help the farmer, when you come back later in the game (the story takes place over the lifespan of your character, this is not a continuous one event time line) you will see and interact (including doing quests) with the farmer that now has an industrial farm. On the other hand, if you didn't help him get rid of the bandits, you will see the ruins of his small farm as the bandits took over the region.

The choices you make in the game usually have a permanent impact so make sure you chose wisely.

Gameplay
You have to accomplish quests to progress through the story. You can do the available quests in the order that you want but some quests need to be completed before others unlock. There are quests that are part of the main story and there are side-quests. Some side-quests are available only after you have completed the main story so keep playing if you want to see everything. On the other hand, some side-quests won't be available anymore after you have completed some main quests. If you don't want to miss any quest, make sure you do the side-quests once they get available before doing the main quests. Usually when you are doing a quest, a line will guide you to get you where you need to go. You can turn it off if you want more challenge instead of being told exactly where to go.

The combat system in Fable 2 is interesting. It is not a button mashing system but it isn't a complex one either. You use the X button to do melee attacks. Pressing X the first time will draw your weapon and each subsequent press will make your character swing his weapon. Holding X will block any frontal melee attack and charge your next melee hit. You can also use the left analog stick to execute some specific directional melee hits. Pure button mashing won't work because enemies will block most of the basic hits. The ranged combat system is similar. You will get your gun or crossbow out the first time you press Y and each subsequent press will fire a shot. When doing this you are in auto aim mode. If you hold Y you will get in free aim mode and shoot exactly where you want. You can also target specific body parts like hands to make your enemies drop their weapons or head to go for single shot kill. The other possible attack is done using magic. You hold B to charge your magical attack and it will be executed once you release the button. The longer you charge, the more devastating your attack will be. If you don't use the left analog stick, your magical attack will do damage to all the enemies around you. If you use the stick to target a specific enemy, it will do massive damage to a single enemy. You don't start with all these combat abilities, you need to earn experience to unlock them. When you kill enemies, you get global experience as well as specific experience based on the attack type that you used. You get more experience if you deliver your fatal blows with style.

You also have a dog to help you on your journey. This pet is quite useful as it can find treasures and dig spots as well as help you fight. You can watch it to see if it detects upcoming danger. Many activities are available when you visit towns. You can buy houses to rent and stores to earn money. Furthermore special attention was given to the interactions with the people you meet in towns. Depending on how you interact with them, how you completed your quests and how they perceive you, they worship you or fear you. Lionhead definitely spent a lot of time to implement this part of the game because there are lots of details. Since the game was published by Microsoft and Lionhead is owned by Microsoft, I was surprised to see how far they went with the "not politically correct" attitude. You can truly be evil (or be a saint, it is your choice). If this was a Rockstar game I would not have been surprised but this is coming from one of the console makers. Holier-than-thou Nintendo would never have green lighted this game without censorship (you can't forget that this is the company that censored games such as Mortal Kombat back in the SNES days even if they were *not* the publisher...) and I am not sure about Sony after the more than politically correct Little Big Planet delay. Furthermore these "features" (while very minor parts of the game), are not hidden and some are even given achievements recognition. There are also multiple interactions with items. I don't want to spoil the fun by listing them but to give you an example, if you eat chocolate and drink beer, you character will recover life points but he will also get fat. All these minor details add a nice touch to the game.

The time required to complete the game is average. If you use the guiding line and only do the main quests it won't be very long. On the other hand if you do all the quests, it will take quite some time before you complete it. Unfortunately the game is on the easy side. I completed all the quests and I didn't die a single time. Furthermore when you die you simply lose experience and get a permanent scar on your face. You get up and continue your fight were you where.

Sounds and graphics
The graphics are nice. They have a cartoony style that fits well with the theme of the game. I didn't notice slowdowns, even with multiple enemies on screen. The music and the sound effects also fit the game perfectly. The entire dialogue is spoken and the actors that voiced the main characters did a great job. Some of the less important characters might sound a bit cheesy but I think it was often on purpose as it makes them funny.

Multiplayer
The multiplayer mode of this game is really good and it almost feels like a MMORPG without the monthly fee. If you turn it on (you can turn it on for everybody on Xbox Live, only the people on your friend list or no one) you will see orbs. They represent other players in their own Fable world so you will see them moving and hear them if they use their mic. When you get close to one, you can send them an invitation to join their Fable world. If they accept, you will follow them as they do their quests. You have to remember that you are in their world, not in yours so the environment will reflect the choices that they made. The only annoying part of the multiplayer mode is that you cannot control the camera position. The camera is positioned so that you can see both player on screen.

Conclusion
Fable 2 is an excellent action RPG. The attention given to details make this game quite interesting. Furthermore, this is one of the few games were your choices really have an impact. While I don't think that it is as good as Gears of War 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV, it still makes it into my personal top 3 of 2008.

Score: 8.75/10