“It’s the best, most complete game I’ve ever worked on.” – Peter Molyneux, Fable Mastermind

God I love Peter Molyneux. A month and a half before the game was released, Peter had a chance to play and review his own game. He said, “I’d rate it a 9 out of 10.” But we all know that Peter likes to hype his games up. Now that I have finished playing Fable II, I’d have to disagree with him.

The world of Albion has changed since you last visit it, well actually, not so much. Five hundred years have passed since the first Fable. You start off as a young boy/girl with an older sister who takes care of you. With you and your sis out and about, mysterious cloaked lady comes to you, telling you that magic exist. You hesitate to believe her, but since you’re curious, you listen to what she has to say. She tells you that your answers will be revealed in a special musical box. That’s when everything changes. The musical box that you retrieved disappears, and a bunch of soldiers come to your home. Your sister believes that they’ll be taken to the castle to live happily there, but you meet Lucien, the antagonist of the game, and he kills your sister because he believes you guys are the fourth heroes that came to thwart his evil plans. You’re saved by the mysterious lady when Lucien shoots you, making you fall out the window in the highest part of the castle.

You’re now older and on a mission to find and kill Lucien. You must find three heroes to help you forge the ultimate weapon. Let’s just say the ending is very anticlimactic. Part of what makes a good RPG is the story, and with a story that’s bare bones, it’s already a huge minus for the game. Complete game my ass, Peter!

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to the first, but somehow I feel as if my character reaction is slower this time around. For example, when you’re running, it’s hard for him or her to make a quick turn. Combat is simple where X does all your different melee attacks, Y does all your long-range attacks, and B does all your magic spells. When I’m fighting, I opted for the powerful flourishes where you hold X, then let it go. I was able to beat the game using mostly flourishes. The game does not encourage you to try other moves because the flourish melee is very strong and practical, while using magic spells was useless to me since it takes a while for your character to power up for the stronger spells, and when you do use it, it’s still not as powerful as the flourishes. Since no enemy was able to block my attacks most of the time, countering isn’t necessary, and I’m a guy who loves counter moves.

For a game that has a lot of fighting, I wish the camera controls were faster. There’s no way to change the sensitivity, only an option to invert the camera angle.

The people of Albion reacts to your expressions, just like the first, but feels like it’s been tacked on just for fun. Expressions are just ways for you to communicate with people, like farting, dancing, flirting, kissing and more. Let’s just say the people of Albion are easily amused and have serious ADD.

The menu system is slow and every time you use an item, it goes back to the main menu. It doesn’t break the game but it is a little annoying because if you want to use many items or equip them, you have to go back to the list every time use one.

Graphics

The graphics for the game is very nice, but could be a lot better when compared to the first Fable. The style is still very cartoony for a more serious tone. The colors are less vibrant this time around and overall have an earthy tone.

Sound

The sound makes good use of surround sound. When you’re in the woods or open fields, you’ll hear nature all around you. When you’re in a town, you’ll hear people all around you, making the town a busy place. But it does get old because the people of Albion say the same things over and that can get annoying when you’re just walking around town exploring. I do like the addition of the gargoyle hunts, because the best way to find this is audio cues. You’ll hear a little squeaky man’s voice taunting you that you can’t find him, and when you find where the voice is coming from, it’s a statue. Pretty creepy if you ask me. And for the music, it has a nice somber feel but doesn’t have any memorable tunes like it did in the first Fable.

Conclusion

I did expect a lot out of this game because it’s a sequel to a game that I really enjoyed for its interactive living world and choices for good and evil. Now years later, after playing the first and other games with moral choices like Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect, this game feels very ordinary. It just doesn’t have a lot of new features for it to feel like an entirely new experience, but for those of you who haven’t played the first, you’ll probably enjoy it more. It’s a game that can be enjoyable but don’t go in hoping for something really groundbreaking. The main story is short, and after finishing some quests, the replayability is low.

Grade: C

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