There was a huge controversy with Fable 1, one half of players were disappointed it didn’t live up to the hype and promises of Molyneux and the other half saw it as a pretty good action RPG. Critics ultimately sided with the latter giving the game an average of 85%. With Fable 2 the games designer stayed surprisingly silent and fans remained skeptical, does the dichotomy still exist or has Lionhead Studios finally delivered the series to its fabled promise?

At the beginning of the Fable 2 you are a poor little boy or girl living in the town of Bowerstone starving and cold with your older sister. A magic box from a traveling merchant catches your eye and you both set off to earn enough gold to buy it and make a wish to living in the warmth of the nearby castle. Then you’ll have to play to see what comes next but basically the literary story of Fable 2 is not going to win any awards. But it does get high marks in two aspects, emotion and choice. At its surface, the story merely serves to push you along to its inevitable conclusion but whereas books and most games are a linear experience, this is not. This game allows you to be good or bad, corrupt or pure and it is presented in such a way that it feels natural and is part of the overarching story. This is not Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic where you are playing a system between the light and dark side, you are role playing. And these decisions affect the world around you and even how you look. Along the way you are presented with choices that challenge your preconceived notions that have an emotional weight behind them. You might set out to be the good selfless hero but at times you’ll question if you’re giving up too much or after doing a great deed where you should be on cloud nine, you have mixed emotions. Even the outstanding side quests play into who you are and how the world evolves. And the entire game has been sprinkled with charm and wit that will bring a smile to your face at the most unexpected times. So while the story at its surface may not be the greatest, it’s a story that will bring emotion and true choice and quite a bit of humor which combines to make an awesome experience.

Fable 2 is an action RPG as heart and leveling up is controlled through the collection of colored orbs which constitute your experience points; blue for strength (melee), yellow for skill (ranged), red for will (magic) and green for general experience. These colors, except for green, matches up quite nicely with the button on the controller that wields that type of attack therefore X is for melee attack, Y is for ranged, and B is for magic. You may be weary of one button combat but do not fret, there is an amazing amount of depth in that little round button. For example for melee, taping X will swing your sword. If you hold it down without a direction will block and if you have a direction, it will power up your attack. On the other hand magic is handled quite uniquely in the game. There is no mana whatsoever. It is all controlled by how long you hold down B, the longer you do, the higher the level spell which will be unleashed. The combat is extremely satisfying and while the game is generally pretty easy, it doesn’t inhibit your fun. Another large aspect of RPGs is making your character and Fable has its own unique twist on the tradition. Instead of sitting for several minutes designing your character at the beginning, how you play decides how your character turns out. In addition to your play style affecting your look, it also affects your dogs look. Yes, you get man’s best friend to accompany you on your journey and it works really well. She will run around and show you places to dig for goodies and even help in combat. You can even upgrade her with books from the bookstore. And this game is much bigger than just accumulating your experience points, smashing through quests, and making difficult choices. You can also get married, work, gamble, become a real estate mogul, and explore for hidden treasure. To get married to obviously have to woo over a potential mate in the game, both straight and gay relationships are supported. There is an extensive expression system implemented into the game which you can use to influence people on three categories, how much they like you, playfulness, and attractiveness. To make enough money for the engagement ring to can work in three different minigames; blacksmithing, wood chopping, and bar tending. And for how simple they are, they are surprisingly addictive. For those who have their eyes on the big money, you can take up your luck in the three gambling games but they are not that great. What is great though is they were released as an Xbox Live Arcade game so you can make money and unlock items without playing the game. Another cool innovation is that there are two online games at Fable2.com which give you unlockables in the game. These two features have been talked about in gaming for a while; it’s really nice to see them to arrive. Now this sounds like gaming bliss and it truly is but the game suffers from tons of bugs, none of which are game-breaking thankfully. For example the early furniture store sometimes won’t sell you anything, your children getting frozen in place, or people disappearing in front of you. Overall though it does not mare the experience but you will notice them but you’ll see past the imperfections because the gameplay more than makes up for them. The amount of things you can do combined with the immense accessibility and depth in the game makes for one great ride from start to finish.

The pub games and website games are very innovative but they all pale in comparison to a small little online feature, the friend orb. Everyone on your friends list playing the game will be in your world as an orb floating around. It’s extremely cool to run past a friend in the game, you can also interact with them by gifting them anything you have, checking their stats to see how many STDs they have, and also to jump into their game. Every game of Fable 2 is joinable, unless you turn it off. You can fully coop the entire game with a friend, not only online but also offline. It must be noted that the second person will not be your hero but afterwards you will transfer the wealth and experience you have accumulated to your character. While this is partially disappointing it is understandable why they did not, first because you’re not the same level and it is their world not yours. It doesn’t even track which quests you have done because there is so much choice in the game, you’d never be able to play with someone on the opposite side of the morality and purity scales. Now don’t get too excited, on the local box, cooperative play may be okay but online it is a different story because they are the exact same. When the second character enters the game, you lose control of the camera and it desperately tries to fit both of you into the same screen. And the camera sometimes does not know what to do for example if you jump off a bridge one of the characters may not be able to be seen. You’re also attached to each other by a short tether which inhibits ranged fighters from playing effectively with melee fighters. This once again, all makes sense for local box play but forcing it for online play basically kills the mode. You’ll jump into a person’s game, check out their character, play for a couple minutes, but ultimately leave and be done with it once you realize the limitations. It’s much more effective to just coop with a friend orb than have them in the game with you.

The world of Albion is simply beautiful. Most games you talk about the technical achievements in graphics and while this game might not get much, it has an amazing artistic style. Think PS2 games later in its life, they couldn’t compete with the Xbox technically but artistically they could blow a lot of games out of the water. This is that type of game. It has a Victorian style with copious amounts of color sprinkled everywhere. The animations are excellent as well, especially the dog which is realistically rendered. Your character changing works really well too, strength will make your muscles bigger, skill will make you taller, and will will cause you to get blue veins all over you. Being good and pure will cause you to have a halo and nice complexion whereas bad and corrupt you horns and horrible complexion. And while this is going on, you will age and get wrinkles. If you fall in combat, you don’t die but you will get permanently scarred. Unfortunately when pulling off your high level spells or is there is just a lot of action on screen will cause the frame rate to take a noticeable dive. While this is disappointing the artistic package that Lionhead Studios has assembled here is absolutely beautiful which trumps fancy graphical tricks every time.

The sound design has also been given much love, especially in the voiceover department. There are so much voiceovers in this game it’s amazing. Characters will tell you if you’re ugly or if they want to get married. You can even pay a bard to sing a song of your triumphs around the world and it actually sounds pretty good. But the crowning voice is of your mentor who was an absolute perfect choice. In addition to this, the music is fully orchestrated and while not movie caliber, it is in the upper echelons on gaming music, a real treat to hear. The ambience and sound effects are equally good. Overall the sound design is held up to the same standards that you expect from this caliber of game.

The original vision has not only been realized, but improved. Sure there are some bugs but it never distracts from the outstanding experience. The story isn’t the greatest but its infusion with choice and emotion gives it legs. Depending on how you play the world will change which lends itself greatly to playing through for a second time so this game will keep you busy for a great while. And unlike other games, this keeps you coming back. The combat never feels stale, the world never feels old, there is always something new to do, always an unfinished quest to tackle. The graphics, while not technically outstanding are artistically amazing and have a very refreshing look. The sound design is also quite good with the voiceovers being exceptional. Basically Fable 2 is a diamond in the rough, absolutely stunning with a few blemishes but you still have to have it because it’s amazing. Well worth full price, no doubt about it.

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