Fable 2

Review by I BlckJck I

Lionhead release their much anticipated Action RPG, can it compete with the competition this winter.

Story

The game opens with you playing a young street urchin living in the Bowerstone slums and after you have completed the cunningly crafted tutorial and watched a few cut scenes time moves on 10 years and your adult self is ready to begin their adventure.

The main quest will take you across the land of Albion, to various towns and villages and with classic RPG elements of mines, crypts and dungeons. The story is very fulfilling with bright, vibrant characters and the choice cuts of quests such as infiltrating enemy bases, taking part in vicious tournaments and exploring forgotten areas of Albion. All of which lead you to the inevitable confrontation with your nemesis.

There are also plenty of side quests to keep you entertained throughout. Even though the objectives are usually the same, involving either treasure hunting or clearing out some enemies for a local village, they each have there own recorded dialogue and story often complete with a twist to keep you entertained.

Town Life

While the main story provides the best quests and a deep storyline the true jewel of Fable II's crown is the places you will visit. You can spend hours wandering around a town, which offer shops and stalls where you can stock up on the necessaries for any hero. You can also pick up a job to start earning some gold and then go blow it all gambling at the local pub.

However, if you do get that lucky roll and walk away richer your going to want to spend that cash. Shops and traders offer an assortment of weapons, clothes, potions, food and even gifts. However these items are relatively cheap and a short stint pulling pints will buy you that nice new sword. The real bank-breaker is the ability to own virtually any property you come across in the game, from shacks and stalls to manors and castles. Then rent it out for a steady income or use it as your family home. Some of the more expensive ones will even open up quests as you explore their secrets.

Gameplay

When you eventually decide to venture outside the beautifully crafted towns into the darker areas of Albion it won't be long until you find yourself surrounded by a set of nasty looking enemies. The combat system is both a blessing and curse to the game. It's wonderfully easy to get into, allowing for quick switching between your three methods of attack, melee, ranged and will (magic). However it soon becomes easy to master and only on a few rare occasions will combat present a challenge.

On your travels you meet many people some with their own agendas other just wanting some help, each one of these characters is beautifully created with their own accents and eccentricities such as the hapless two-some Max and Sam or the budding adventurer Charles the detail put into these minor characters adds much depth to the world and makes it worthwhile to take your time when playing and not rush to the end.

What really sets Fable II apart from the competition are the choices you make. Expanding the usual good/evil scale it adds a characters purity/corruption into the equation. This enables you to go out and save Albion but still be despised by the people you charge double to a rent a house off you. The choices not only affect yourself but the entire world. You can, inadvertently change a village's future by taking part in what seems a simple side quest.

Also very few of your actions carry any weight, after all what do we care if John the Farmer looses his house, it has no effect on us and most people will choose the good or evil choice on how they want their character to progress. Yet some of them require a sacrifice to the do the right thing such as loosing XP for the chance to save a life, these offer players an actual choice of how far would they go. How much would you be willing to sacrifice to save the innocent?

Graphics and Sound

Albion is wonderfully created with superb graphics for both its population and the landscape and it shows it off as often as possible, from dark caves to lush fields or running through the misty remains of a long extinct village it is a beautiful looking game, but what truly brings the world to life is the sound. While the music often adds to the game it is nothing compared to the dialogue. With some truly astounding voice acting and appearances from Stephen Fry and Zoë Wanamaker. It not only brings gravity to the story but allows for some comic relief during the lighter moments of the game.

Multiplayer

The game comes with a 2 player Co-Op mode available offline and online. However it is seriously flawed. The camera is fixed and shared between both players, even online. If this wasn't limiting enough invisible walls have been added, obviously to prevent one player from running off out of the screen but this takes away any feeling exploring a huge world that is so prevalent in the single player.

Conclusion

An excellent Action RPG that any gamer could pick up and enjoy. The game offers much on many levels, if you want you can just run through the story which would take 15-20 hours. However the game gets better the more you put into it. The ability to buy up property, start a family, and find various items and collectibles puts longevity into the game and for those who really want to immerse themselves in the world of Albion it could potentially give over 50 hours. Nevertheless the game could have been so much more. Why not have more choices that push what we would sacrifice to its limits and while many casual gamers will appreciate the combat style it rarely challenges those with more experience.